Muristek
OPINION- California unions have something to celebrate on Labor Day, including big wins in the just-concluded legislative session. Labor Day may mark the informal end of summer, but it’s also supposed to be a holiday honoring the nation’s workers, particularly those who belong to unions. California’s unions haven’t had much to celebrate in recent years. They hit their peak in 1989, when 18.9% of California employees were members of unions and saw membership decline to as low as 14.7% in 2018, before rebounding a bit to 15.9% in 2021. While they have a core membership among government workers, declines in manufacturing and other traditional sectors have stymied unions’ growth and they have been markedly unsuccessful in organizing post-industrial industries such as high technology. That said, Labor Day 2022 finds California’s unions on something of a roll. Nationally, and in California, the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and other factors are injecting new vigor into organizational efforts. Starbucks, Amazon and other previously union-free employers are facing demands for more pay and better working conditions. The just-concluded 2021-22 session of the Legislature turned up the heat on employers by passing a number of union-backed bills. Last year, then-Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, who had been unions’ fiercest and most successful advocate in the Capitol, won passage — and Gov. Gavin Newson’s approval — for a measure, Assembly Bill 701, that sets workplace standards for warehouse workers, one aimed directly at Amazon, the immense on-line retailer. This year, Gonzalez resigned from the Legislature and took the helm of the California Labor Federation, which joined individual unions in a full-court press on the Capitol. Their most important achievement — one that could reverberate in other states and in other industries — is legislation creating a state council to set industry-wide wages and working conditions for fast-food workers, essentially ignoring the franchise system and its assumption that the restaurants are individually owned businesses.
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