Published
3 years agoon
California’s labor unions scored big wins in the just-concluded legislative session — to the surprise of precisely no one.
Democrats’ huge gains in last year’s legislative elections, coupled with the election of Gavin Newsom, who had strong union support, as governor, foretold what would happen.
Labor had the upper hand this year because of the court’s decision. If nothing was done in the Legislature, the court’s three-factor test of employment status would prevail.
Qualifying an initiative would shoot the political tennis ball into labor’s side of the net, forcing its leaders to decide whether to agree to a compromise in the Legislature or take their chances on the outcome of an election campaign that could cost them tens of millions of dollars.
Underlying AB 5 and other union-backed legislation this year is an arithmetic fact. Union membership in California has declined from a quarter of the state’s workers in the mid-1980s to 14.7% in 2018, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, and is still dropping.
Traditionally unionized industries, particularly manufacturing, have faded in economic importance, while expanding post-industrial sectors, such as technology, have been resistant to unionization.
Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision, issued last year, voids a California law requiring public employees to pay union dues even if they don’t belong to unions.
Although it didn’t achieve the notoriety of AB 5, Assembly Bill 378, signed this week, is another big win for labor.
Related Story: California to Let Child Care Workers Unionize
It’s very similar to what happened two decades ago when hundreds of thousands of home care workers under the state’s In-Home Supportive Services program were made eligible for unionization.Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He has written more than 9,000 columns about the state and its politics and is the founding editor of the “California Political Almanac.” Dan has also been a frequent guest on national television news shows, commenting on California issues and policies.
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