The bill that would extend three paid sick days to all California workers and has been heralded as a win-win for businesses and public health, cleared a major hurdle with its passage in the State Assembly today. AB 1522 was introduced by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez and passed handily and now moves to the Senate.
Read MoreThis blog originally appeared in Capital & Main
and Gary Cohn
A Capital & Main California Expose
A Taylor Farms security gate
Last April, when Federico Lopez and his sanitation team were ordered to clean a Taylor Farms storage area, the 23-year-old didn’t like what he saw.
Lopez remembers:
“I went into the hallway that they expected me to clean. There was pigeon feces, dead pigeons, dead bats and black mold. I’m certified for that, but the rest of my coworkers weren’t. The crew had only been given dust masks for the job by the temporary labor contractor who employed them.”
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Jerry Acosta, BlueGreen Alliance
California’s aging natural gas pipelines are leaking. Just last year, California saw close to 30,000 leaks from one utility alone—and while they may not always be hazardous, these leaks exacerbate climate change. If that weren’t enough, current California regulations set no time limit before some types of pipelines leaks are repaired. While some proactive utilities fix them in a timely manner, we need a reliable statewide system to ensure that all leaks are repaired quickly.
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In 2007, Shomari Davis, currently at International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) – Local 11, joined the African American Union Leadership School (AAULS) in 2007. This program brought together African American union leaders to strategize and build community. With his colleagues, he learned about implementing policy change and the science behind building and running an effective political campaign. The AAULS gave students an opportunity to learn more about people from different unions and community members, and built a strong brotherhood between them. The urgency of the issues really brought people together.
Read MoreBy Ken Deitz, RN, UNAC/UHCP President
The day before Thanksgiving 2013, administrators at UHS Corona Regional Medical Center in Corona, CA fired 48 Certified Nurses Aids (CNAs) and Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs) without notice. While Registered Nurses (RNs) in the facility felt CNAs and LVNs were critical members of the team, administration called them in off the floor and permanently dismissed them, leaving the RNs to do the many tasks that they had always relied on CNAs and LVNs to do, from assisting patients to the bathroom to collecting samples for testing.
Read MoreFormer U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich doesn’t mince words.
He lambasted President Obama’s recent public appearance at a Bay Area Walmart, calling whoever made the decision a “numbskull.” And at a leadership seminar this week with 56 IBEW 1245 activists and LA Labor leader Maria Elena Durazo, Reich declared that the US economy is “rigged” in favor of the rich.
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Over 200,000 California veterans live in poverty. More than a quarter of the nation’s homeless veterans are right here in our state. We see them on the street. Their injuries – both physical and emotional – are evident. Yet, far too little is being done to help the heroes who fought for our country find a roof over their heads at night. That’s simply shameful.
We can do better. We must do better.
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Watch the ad here.
Sweeping changes underway in the nation’s health care delivery system that expose hundreds of thousands of patients to severe risk of harm are the focus of a major new national campaign by the nation’s largest organization of nurses announced today.
Read More, AFL-CIO
Today, fast food workers around the world will engage in a one-day strike calling for higher wages and the right to form a union. The events are taking place on May 15 as a symbol of the $15 wage that is being asked for by workers in the U.S. Actions are planned in more than 150 cities around the United States and in 30 other countries, according to Josh Eidelson. Thousands of workers are expected to participate and many cities will be seeing their first fast food strikes.
