Labor News
The face of organized labor in California just got a lot bolder (and more Twitter-savvy)
Lorena Gonzalez will soon become the face of organized labor in California. So if you thought labor was already a powerful force in California politics, hang on, because it probably will become bolder, louder and more fearless when the 50-year-old San Diego Democrat assumes the leadership of the California Labor Federation later this year after nearly a decade in the state Assembly.
Gonzalez, who resigned from the Assembly last week, will take over the leadership of the 2.1 million-member labor federation in July from Art Pulaski, its influential, longtime leader who is stepping down. Gonzalez will be the first woman, the first person of color and, it is believed, the first former legislator to lead the fed. She is not only the face of organized labor’s future but its present: Half of the members of the federation — an umbrella group of 1,200 affiliated unions — are women, and half are people of color.
She was a labor leader before she was a legislator and insisted to me that “organized labor is not the Democratic Party.” (Roughly 30% of the federation’s members are Republican.) She envisions a future of more organizing in Starbucks, Amazon and other union-averse businesses, particularly outside of union strongholds in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, and more outreach to a younger generation that desires union protections but is unfamiliar with how to get them.
(Sac Bee, 1/11/12)
Strikes are sweeping the labor market as workers wield new leverage
The labor activism runs the gamut of American industry, powered by the same grievances about wages, benefits and quality of life driving the Great Resignation
While Americans are leaving their jobs at staggering rates — a record 4.3 million quit in August alone — hundreds of thousands of workers with similar grievances about wages, benefits and quality of life are, like Reyes, choosing to dig in and fight. Last week, 10,000 John Deere workers went on strike, while unions representing 31,000 Kaiser employees authorized walkouts. Some 60,000 Hollywood production workers reached a deal Saturday night, averting a strike hours before a negotiation deadline.
(Washington Post, 10/17/21)
Hollywood crew workers are poised to strike. What’s behind the labor unrest
For the first time in its 128-year history, the usually acquiescent union voted overwhelmingly to support a nationwide strike if no deal is reached with the studios. The last time crews staged a major strike was in 1945 in the walkout known as “Hollywood’s Bloody Friday.”
The union is seeking improved pay, especially for streaming productions; more rest periods to reduce long hours of filming; and higher contributions to the union’s health and pension plans.
“I don’t think anyone wants a strike, but everyone wants a fair contract,” said Michael Miller, IATSE vice president and director of motion picture and television production, who is on its negotiating team. “The studios have not put us in this position before. It’s surprising for us because many of our core issues that they refuse to address shouldn’t cost them a penny.”
(Los Angeles Times, 10/6/21)
‘The algorithm fired me’: California bill takes on Amazon’s notorious work culture
California lawmakers are taking aim at Amazon.
An Assembly-passed bill is expected to reach the Senate floor this week or next to crack down on the opaque, algorithm-led and harsh warehouse work conditions often attributed to the Seattle technology behemoth.
The bill, the first such legislation in the nation, would require warehouses to disclose quotas and work speed metrics to employees and government agencies. It would ban “time off task” penalties that affect health and safety, including bathroom use, and prohibit retaliation against workers who complain.
“Amazon has set the pace, creating a market for next-day delivery of consumer goods,” said Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), the bill’s author. “We see Walmart and other large warehouses following suit. We need to make sure our laws catch up with that.”
California’s workplace laws often influence other states and the federal government, experts say. The state Senate vote on the bill, AB 701, is expected to be close, amid heavy opposition from retailers and other industries.
(Los Angeles Times, 8/31/21)
California Legislation to Watch in 2021: Workers’ Rights
California workers and their allies are seeking to pass several major bills this month that would dramatically improve working conditions across the state. This effort comes on the heels of one of the most devastating years for working people, with essential workers risking their lives to earn a paycheck and millions of others facing unemployment. The 12 bills summarized below passed either the State Assembly or State Senate by the first legislative deadline of June 4, 2021. Each must now pass the other chamber by September 10, 2021, and receive approval from the Governor to become law.
Corporate giants like Amazon and Walmart are increasingly pushing their warehouse workers past the breaking point, setting brutal work speeds which have resulted in soaring rates of on-the-job injuries and no time even for bathroom breaks. To drive this brutal pace, Amazon tracks each worker’s individual productivity and automatically issues warnings and terminations to workers who fail to meet the Company’s productivity quotas.
AB 701 would protect 250,000 California warehouse workers from injury, including workers at the 32 Amazon distribution centers in Southern California, by prohibiting employers from terminating or disciplining warehouse workers based on unrealistic productivity quotas, such as those that do not allow a worker to take rest periods or that violate other health and safety laws. It also directs Cal/OSHA to establish safety standards for work speeds, recovery time, and repetitive motions in order to minimize injuries in the warehouse distribution industry. The bill would require companies to disclose any work quotas to their workers as well.
(Knock LA, 7/23/21)
Teamsters’ Push to Organize Amazon: Will It Work?
In California, a Teamster-backed bill, AB 701, is moving through the Legislature and would require warehouse employers to disclose quotas for the pace of work to employees and state enforcement agencies. The bill would prohibit employers from counting time that workers spend complying with health and safety laws as “time off task.”
“A UC Merced Community and Labor Center study found that warehousing had the highest increase in pandemic-related deaths of any industry in California, with a 57% increase in deaths last year,” the bill’s advocates wrote legislators this month.
“There is something deeply wrong with allowing mega-corporations like Amazon and Walmart to push their workers to a literal breaking point, just so customers can get next-day delivery,” said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), the bill’s sponsor.
(Los Angeles Times, 6/24/21)
Amazon is violating the law by pressuring warehouse employees to work at speeds that exacerbate injuries without adequate time to recover, state safety regulators concluded earlier this month after an inspection of the commerce giant’s DuPont, Pierce County, fulfillment center.
Regulators found a “direct connection” between the incidence of injuries at the warehouse and Amazon’s expectation that warehouse employees “maintain a very high pace of work” or else face discipline.
“The employer’s current approach has resulted in hazardous exposures in the workplace,” the citation states.
(Seattle Times, 5/25/21)
Labor Secretary: Some Gig Workers Should Be Classified as 'Employees'
With prop 22 law in California, the battle to get employee protections for workers at companies like Uber and Door Dash has moved to the federal level. The nation's labor secretary is giving a big boost to that cause, KQED’s Sam Harnett explains. In his first public remarks on the subject, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says in a lot of cases, gig workers should be classified as employees, not contractors. This is a break from Trump's Labor Department. Bay Area Labor lawyer Caitlin Vega says it's a break, too from the Obama administration's cozier relationship with big tech: “These are wealthy, powerful corporations. They are pretty determined to buy their own labor laws. For a National Administration to be willing to stand up to that kind of pressure and to take the side of the workers was a very powerful statement.”
(USA Today, 4/29/21)
Terminal at Port of LA Impacted by Truck Driver Strike
“Today is a new day at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Together with working people from across Southern California, we are saying with one voice that the days when port officials and trucking companies could trample on our rights without consequence are over -- for good,” the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a statement.
“We showed today that there is power in our union and in our solidarity as working people. We are enormously grateful that our brothers and sisters from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the Mobile Workers Alliance, SEIU 721 and ILWU Local 13 joined us today to support port truck drivers on strike to demand their union and their basic rights as employees.”
(NBC Los Angeles, 4/14/21)
Trio of Bills Seeks to Prevent California Truck Drivers from Being Exploited
Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) have introduced a trio of bills that are designed to protect California’s port truck drivers and to increase accountability for trucking companies who misclassify drivers as independent contractors. The legislation is sponsored by the Blue-Green Alliance, Teamsters, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) and other workers rights groups.
The misclassification of drivers creates dangerous conditions for these essential workers and costs California nearly $850 million per year.
As California continues to roll out benefits and incentives for low and zero emission truck fleets, this legislation seeks to make it harder for trucking companies to misclassify drivers as “contractors” depriving them of benefits while reaping tax incentives. Misclassifying drivers has many unfortunate side-effects for drivers, including being excluded from receiving basic benefits ranging from unemployment insurance, disability insurance, worker compensation, to health insurance. A recent story in AJOT News on a drivers’ strike details how complaints regarding COVID protections were ignored at one trucking company, and how drivers’ complaints to OSHA fell on deaf ears.
“During the COVID pandemic, this (misclassification) included a failure to provide PPE at our ports, the largest ports in the nation,” explained Gonzalez at a press event promoting the legislation earlier this month. “Sanitizing shared equipment and notifying workers about potential COVID exposure was nonexistent. This is not what California stands for.”
(Streetsblog California, 4/29/21)
California hospitality workers laid off during COVID-19 pandemic get rehire rights
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Friday requiring hotel, event center, airport hospitality and janitorial employers to first rehire workers laid off during the pandemic when jobs become available, a move that comes after the governor vetoed a more expansive labor-backed bill last year.
Senate Bill 93 takes effect immediately after quickly making its way through the Legislature this week as a budget trailer bill.
“This is the biggest win for workers during the pandemic,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, which sponsored the bill. “This is a lifeline to workers who have been out of work a long time. This gives them a guaranteed right to go back. That’s something they didn’t have yesterday.”
For Marvin Alvarenga, the new law offers hope after he said his employer at first laid him off from his job as a busser in March 2020 and then abruptly fired him in May.
“I am barely surviving day to day with what I receive on unemployment that my only hope to move forward is to go back to work,” said Alvarenga, adding that he is happy the bill has become law.
(LA Times, 4/16/21)
Terminal at Port of LA Impacted by Truck Driver Strike
Dockworkers stopped servicing trucks owned by Universal Logistics Holdings at a Port of Los Angeles terminal Wednesday in solidarity with truck drivers who went on strike Monday against the company. Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union joined the action by the Teamsters, who say some drivers were fired after voting to form a union.
“Today is a new day at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Together with working people from across Southern California, we are saying with one voice that the days when port officials and trucking companies could trample on our rights without consequence are over -- for good,” the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a statement.
According to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, ULH/Universal Intermodal Services fired drivers who were organizing to form a union in late 2019. The Teamsters also allege that ULH transferred work from a unionized ULH company to ULH's Southern Counties Express, which the Teamsters allege misclassified drivers in an effort to avoid unionization.
Following the strike Monday morning, the Teamsters said on Twitter, “Throughout the pandemic, hardworking truck drivers have delivered for our communities. Many of them got sick because (ULH) affiliated companies refused to get them the supplies they needed to stay healthy. They must stop exploiting workers.”
(NBC Los Angeles, 4/14/21)
Speaking behind photos of truck drivers who died after contracting the coronavirus, labor advocates and legislators at the north steps of the Capitol introduced a package of bills aiming to address misclassifications and labor law violations in the port trucking industry.
“Wage theft, unsafe working condition, no safety net, this is the reality for thousands of port truckers like us,” said Juan Carlos Giraldo, who has been a truck driver in Southern California for 20 years, at a press conference introducing the bills.
SB 338 would hold companies liable for health and safety violations of their port trucking contractors in some circumstances. AB 794 would require some trucking companies to follow certain workforce standards if they want to get state incentives for buying low-emission vehicles. SB 700 would stipulate that trucking companies are responsible for paying payroll taxes for unemployment insurance.
Sen. María Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles who introduced SB 700, said many drivers are misclassified as independent contractors when their work is controlled by trucking companies. The misclassification meant drivers are denied of protections such as unemployment insurance that are given to employees, she said.
(Sac Bee, 4/6/21)
The Tech Industry Is Abuzz About the PRO Act. What Is It?
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act—a bill aimed at making it easier for workers to unionize—passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week. If it makes it through the considerably less friendly U.S. Senate, the legislation would constitute a major shift in labor law by overriding state “right to work” laws and making some contract workers eligible to join unions. Tech companies and labor advocates are abuzz.
“We’re in one of those turning points in history,” said Caitlin Vega, labor lawyer and co-founder of union lobbying firm Union Made. “The PRO Act would give workers power on the job in a way we haven’t seen in a really long time.”
The timing is particularly meaningful for tech companies, which rely on vast contractor workforces to keep the lights on. Google, where a unionization effort is underway, famously employs more contract and temporary workers than permanent employees and relies on the former to do everything from recruiting, to content moderation, to software development.
(The Markup, 3/18/21)
California Bill Aims to Regulate Amazon’s Relentless Warehouse Worker Quotas
A California bill aims to regulate quotas for warehouse workers who labor under relentless productivity requirements from Amazon, Walmart, and other major retailers. On Tuesday, California assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, one of California's most influential legislators who has written several high-profile bills targeting tech companies' labor practices, introduced the bill. Called AB 701, it would require companies that run warehouses to provide workers with a written description of "the quantified number of tasks to be performed, or materials to be produced or handled" within a given time period.
"This bill is aimed at Amazon's business model, which is to profit off workers who continue to be pressured to fulfill orders quicker," Gonzalez told Motherboard. “They need more protections at work. The injury rate at Amazon is twice the average the industry rate."
(Vice, 2/16/21)
Albertsons is laying off employees and replacing them with gig workers, as app platforms rise
The grocery chain Albertsons is laying off delivery workers and replacing them with gig and contract workers, a change that labor advocates and union representatives say is a direct result of the new California law that companies such as Uber, Lyft and DoorDash sponsored last year.
“This is exactly what we were afraid of when app companies started pushing for a special carve-out from labor laws,” said Caitlin Vega, a labor advocate who works closely with California’s legislature. “If you create a subcategory that has fewer rights and wages, you’re going to shift from traditional employment to this new category of work. And that’s going to worsen the inequality that we already face.”
(Washington Post, 1/6/21)
'Dashers,' 'Taskers' and Other Euphemisms Obscure Real Losses for Gig Workers
“Rideshare drivers,” “dashers,” “taskers,” “driver partners,” “entrepreneurs," “earners”: There's a long list of euphemisms for low-wage service workers in the U.S. today. The "cute" monikers don't just constitute a clever strategy by the public relations departments at companies like Uber and Lyft. These firms have made billions by calling their workers contractors, thereby denying them basic employee protections and benefits.
Labor lawyer Caitlin Vega said these invented names help bolster this argument. "They [the gig companies] invented these terms to describe the work that they do that I think is meant to capture both that you should be loyal to the company, and yet we don’t owe you anything,” she said.
(KQED, 12/29/20)
Amazon Has Turned a Middle-Class Warehouse Career Into a McJob
Many Amazon warehouse employees struggle to pay the bills, and more than 4,000 employees are on food stamps in nine states studied by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Only Walmart, McDonald’s and two dollar-store chains have more workers requiring such assistance, according to the report, which said 70% of recipients work full-time. As Amazon opens U.S. warehouses at the rate of about one a day, it’s transforming the logistics industry from a career destination with the promise of middle-class wages into entry-level work that’s just a notch above being a burger flipper or convenience store cashier.
Union workers who make comfortable livelihoods driving delivery trucks and packing boxes consider Amazon an existential threat. While labor tensions have simmered for years, the stakes have risen sharply amid the pandemic, which prompted Amazon to hire more than 250,000 people to keep up with surging demand from home-bound shoppers. Risking infection while toiling in a crowded warehouse for $15 an hour has many Amazon workers asking if they’re getting shortchanged.
(Bloomberg, 12/17/20)