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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.
2010 Budget Revision
California is in an economic crisis. Unemployment, home foreclosures and bankruptcies have skyrocketed. Yet Governor Schwarzenegger chose to cause even more misery in the May Revision to the 2010-11 budget. Program spending reductions make up two-thirds of the solutions proposed by the Governor. This budget cuts state programs, agencies and services to the bone, yet the three corporate tax breaks from the 2008 and 2009 budget remain untouched.
Help For Jobless Workers Losing Unemployment Benefits
The State of California and partner organizations provide a wide range of services to help people who have exhausted, or may soon exhaust, their unemployment insurance. Unemployed individuals may be eligible for assistance to meet basic needs as well as other services such as health care, counseling, employment and training assistance.
Middle Class Bill of Rights
Even though we are paying out fair share in taxes, working families are getting less in return and bearing the brunt of the state’s drastic budget cuts. The Middle Class Bill of Rights clearly defines our demands as the people of this state to protect and promote responsible stewardship of our public dollars so that we can return California to a first-class place to live, work and raise a family.
Corporate Transparency and Accountability
California gives tax subsidies to corporations as an incentive for them to do business and create jobs in the state. Under existing law, it is nearly impossible to track how much of California’s budget is lost to corporate tax subsidies, what companies are getting the subsidies, and if those subsidies are creating jobs. Many of these tax expenditures are permanent and never reviewed. Companies are permitted to take taxpayer money and run – relocating jobs in other states or countries.
Repairing the Safety Net
Laid off workers stay awake at night worried about their lost income and health care. Experienced workers who are unemployed can’t put their skills to work rebuilding our economy. Families and the state suffer. By providing necessary support to the vulnerable and those most impacted by the economic crisis, we not only provide a lifeline to families and neighborhoods in need, but also create vital economic stimulus to put our state on the road to recovery.
Economic Recovery
Labor's five-point Economic Recovery Agenda focuses on creating jobs through infrastructure projects, investing in workforce training, enacting a Middle-Class Bill of Rights, repairing the state safety net and developing and implementing a sustainable economic vision.
Attracting Good Jobs to California
Now is the time for California to invest in attracting businesses in growth industries, like clean-tech and green manufacturing, that provide stable jobs with good wages and benefits. California can attract new businesses without wasting taxpayers’ dollars through innovative financing and economic development tools; creating a one-stop-shop for business; and manufacturing, rather than importing, the goods necessary to rebuild this state.