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Capitol Weekly Podcast

Our guest today is Caitlin Vega, a longtime labor activist who got her start as a Teamsters organizer when she was still in her teens. She spent 16 years with the California Labor Federation, ultimately working her way up to Legislative Director, before striking out on her own.

As the November election approaches, Vega is focused on what she sees as an existential battle: the effort to defeat Proposition 22 – the initiative that would classify App-based drivers as independent contractors and remove labor protections for thousands of workers. She spoke with Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster about Prop. 22 and about the state of the labor movement today.

 Sac Bee 2019 Influencer

JOBS/ECONOMIC GROWTH

CAITLIN VEGA

“She oversees all areas of legislative work by the Federation, but her focus is on expanding and defending basic labor standards. She worked to enact legislation to protect temporary, contract, and contingent workers, expand the rights of low-wage and immigrant workers, and strengthen the right to organize. Before coming to the Labor Federation, she was a union representative at SEIU Local 614 in Napa and Teamsters Local 490 in Vallejo. Caitlin started as a union organizer at age 18, working for Justice for Janitors, HERE, and the AFL-CIO. Her dad was a member of the Laborers Union and taught her from a young age that unions change lives.”