While California’s infrastructure was once the best in the world, now it can now barely serve our existing population, let alone sustain population growth. California’s bridges, roads, waterways and schools are crumbling around us. We used to build the products the rest of the world wanted, now we import everything from cars to steel from […]
Read MoreCalifornia Labor has endorsed the following policies as our path forward for investing in California to create good jobs now and a better life for our families in the future. Click on each policy/issue to learn more.
Rebuild the Public Sector
The public sector has traditionally offered hundreds of thousands of Californians secure union jobs with good wages, benefits and pensions. Public employees are critical to the services that we use every day and their responsibilities to the public have increased over timeAttacks on public sector unions not only threaten the Labor Movement, but they undermine […]
Read MoreJobs to Build the Middle Class
Income inequality in California is on the rise as corporate greed systematically dismantles the middle class. The gap between the rich and the poor is increasing faster in California than anywhere else in the country and the poverty rate in the state is growing three times faster than the population. This is no accident—it is […]
Read MoreConfronting the Contingent and Underground Economy
Changes in the nature of work are eroding the traditional employment relationship and replacing it with temporary, contracted-out jobs with no security. Contingent work arrangements make it even harder for workers to organize as employers abdicate all responsibility for their workforce. The rapid growth of the on-demand, app-based economy only accelerates the race to the […]
Read MoreAn Enforceable Right to Organize
Good union jobs are the best way to build the middle class, but for too many American workers, the right to join a union exists only on paper. Increasingly ruthless employer opposition to organizing efforts has contributed to slipping unionization rates and increased the challenge of organizing new workers. Immigrant workers are particularly vulnerable to […]
Read MorePolicy Statements 2014
Covered California 2015
Covered California Open Enrollment starts Nov. 15! Enroll, Renew, Change Plans Click here to download an Open Enrollment factsheet Why? You’re uninsured and want to buy coverage for 2015. You want to change the plan you’re on now. Tax penalties for being uninsured will increase in 2015. When? Open Enrollment will occur from Nov. 15 […]
Read MoreNew Protections for Workers and Families
In 2013, your Union fought to strengthen worker protections, especially for
immigrant workers and their families. Here are some of the new laws that
could protect you:
Close the “Walmart Loophole”
When large corporations like Walmart dodge their responsibilities to provide health care to their employees, taxpayers are forced to pick up the tab. That’s unfair, and it must change.
AB 880 (Gomez) demands that the state’s largest corporations pay their fair share like the rest of us. It closes the ‘Walmart Loophole” in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that encourages big, profitable companies to cut hours and wages so low that workers end up on taxpayer-funded programs like Medi-Cal. The law would assess a penalty on unscrupulous corporations that are pushing their costs onto taxpayers. And it improves access to affordable medical care for millions of low-income Californians.
Read MoreImmigration Reform
The U.S. immigration system is broken—and U.S.-born workers as well as aspiring citizens are paying a heavy price. America needs to create an immigration process that works for working people—not a system that benefits corporate employers at the expense of everyone else. Current U.S. immigration policy is a blueprint for employer manipulation and abuse, and both new American immigrants and American-born workers are suffering the consequences. We say, “¡Basta Ya!” or “Enough Already!” That’s why the AFL-CIO supports a comprehensive, worker-centered approach as part of a common-sense immigration process.
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