Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama handed the online retail giant a decisive victory when they voted against forming a union and cut off a path that labor activists had hoped would lead to similar efforts throughout the company and beyond. After months of aggressive campaigning from both...
Walters: High-Octane Ballot Measures Lining up for 2020
Gov. Gavin Newsom this week vetoed a perennial effort by his fellow Democrats to hamstring business and conservative groups’ use of statewide ballot measures. Assembly Bill 1451 would have prohibited qualifying ballot measures by paying professional circulators on a per-signature basis, but gave Democrats’ union allies a carveout. Paraphrasing former Gov....
Walters: Unions Win Big, to What Avail?
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. The biggest of union victories, Assembly...
The Deciders: Meet the Lawmaker Behind New Gig Economy Law
By Byrhonda Lyons and Laurel Rosenhall, CalMatters Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, is among California’s more powerful state lawmakers and an ally of labor unions. This year, she led the fight to win new protections for gig workers, and won passage of a landmark workplace bill, AB 5....
Fresno Unified Trustees Approve Pay Raise — for Themselves
Fresno Unified trustees' paychecks will get a boost for the first time since 2001. Board members unanimously approved a 5% pay raise for this year, and every year after, at Wednesday night's meeting. Fresno's trustees have long had the ability to increase their pay under state law but hesitated to...
Californians Must Shape the ‘Future of Work.’ Unions Are Essential to That Future.
Mentioning the “future of work” can conjure fears of robots stealing jobs, displacing millions of workers in a dystopian mess straight out of a science fiction movie. The truth is, we don’t know what the work world will look like in 100 years or even 10 or 20. But we...
Californians Must Shape the ‘Future of Work.’ Unions Are Essential to That Future.
Mentioning the “future of work” can conjure fears of robots stealing jobs, displacing millions of workers in a dystopian mess straight out of a science fiction movie. The truth is, we don’t know what the work world will look like in 100 years or even 10 or 20. But we...
Californians Must Shape the ‘Future of Work.’ Unions Are Essential to That Future.
Mentioning the “future of work” can conjure fears of robots stealing jobs, displacing millions of workers in a dystopian mess straight out of a science fiction movie. The truth is, we don’t know what the work world will look like in 100 years or even 10 or 20. But we...
Walters: New State Budget a Windfall for Unions
The state budget package Democratic legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom just enacted is sprinkled with billions of dollars in extra goodies for their most important political constituency, labor unions. Take, for example, Senate Bill 90, the budget’s omnibus education measure. It would allocate $3.1 billion to reduce mandatory payments that...
Infrastructure Bringing Together Trump, Democratic Leaders
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders agreed Tuesday to work together on a $2 trillion infrastructure package — but put off for later the difficult question of how to pay for it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said there was "good will in the meeting" — a marked...