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Issues and Legislation
Times are bleak for California’s working families. We’re losing 50,000 jobs a month, spiking California’s unemployment to a post-World War II record. For those who still have a job, wages have failed to keep up with the cost of living. Budget cuts, furloughs, and foreclosures have unhinged our state’s once stable middle class. Food banks and shelters now overflow with families who can no longer make ends meet. Our social safety net has shredded and no longer supports the most vulnerable among us.
The perfect storm of job loss, slashed wages, massive cuts in state spending and skyrocketing health care costs threatens to drown any chance of an economic recovery. In construction, our members are seeing unemployment rates of up to 30 percent. Tens of thousands of school employees have lost their jobs. State workers are suffering from a 15 percent wage cut due to furloughs and are working without a contract. Public and private sector workers are being paid less to do more, facing additional layoffs, wage and benefit reductions and the constant fear of losing their jobs. The only way for California to emerge from this deep, dark recession is to invest in the creation of good jobs with decent pay and benefits.
Labor's 2010 Legislative Agenda focuses on attracting good jobs to the state, putting Californians to work, repairing the state safety net, promoting corporate transparency and accountability, protecting workers rights and implementing a Middle Class Bill of Rights. Read the complete 2010 Legislative Agenda.
2011 State Budget
After years of budget gimmicks, temporary solutions and one-time fixes, California still faces a structural budget deficit estimated between $17.2 billion and $21.5 billion per year through 2014-15. Governor Brown spares Californians from an all-cuts budget and has proposed $26.4 billion in budget solutions that balances cuts and revenue.
Shutting Down Enterprise Zones
How do we know if Enterprise Zones are effective? At hearing after hearing, proponents of the Zones trot out small business owners to testify about the benefits of the program. But the state cannot afford to make decisions about multi-million dollar programs based on anecdotes. The question is not if the program is meeting the needs of business, but if it is meeting the needs of Californians.
Almost all reliable, independent research shows that the Enterprise Zone program has failed overall. A summary of the literature on the subject clearly document that the program is ineffective and flawed. Below are some of the most recent and important academic research on Enterprise Zones.
Fighting for Good Jobs
- Bringing Manufacturing Back to California
- Evaluating the Economic Impacts of Supercenters
- Corporate Tax Break Accountability
- Rewarding Companies for Worker Retention
Cracking Down on the Underground Economy
- Protecting low-wage workers from wage theft
- Fighting the misclassification of independent contractors
Maximizing Job Training Funds
- Requiring WIBs spend at least 50% of their WIA funds on job training
- Holding WIBs accountable for providing quality services
- Establishing eligibility for job-training funds
Fighting the Wall Street Banks
- No credit checks unless substantially related to job
- Authorization and regulation of payroll paycards
- Stopping preventable forecloures
Building California’s High Speed Rail
On January 28th, 2010, the Obama Administration announced that California will receive $2.25 billion in federal stimulus funds to jump-start high-speed rail construction. With work on high-speed rail shovel-ready, this project stands to serve as an immediate catalyst to good job creation and sustained economic growth.