Cal Labor Fed Sets Leg Agenda to Protect Good Jobs and Healthcare

While the numbers show the national economy growing, California's working families continue to face tough economic times.  Job losses continue, and workers are suffering the highest long-term unemployment in over 20 years.  Corporate stocks, profits, and productivity are beginning to climb, yet jobs aren't being created.  We are facing a jobless economic recovery.Stagnating wages, increasing health care costs, and continued job losses have undermined the economic security of working families.  Employers are dealing with the health care crisis simply by shifting the costs onto workers.  Meanwhile, protections for unemployed and injured workers-the most economically vulnerable members of our society-are under threat.The California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO is supporting a legislative agenda to protect good jobs and our health care.  California's unions are ready to fight for affordable health coverage for working people, a higher minimum wage, stronger job protections, and decent assistance for unemployed and injured workers. Protect health care for working families in California.  Nearly seven million Californians have no health insurance, and hundreds more become uninsured each week.   California's unions, doctors, nurses, legislators, and allies helped enact the Health Insurance Act of 2003 (SB 2), a historic piece of legislation that will help maintain employment based health coverage and will provide health insurance to over one million uninsured residents.Now a group of wealthy corporations-including McDonald's and Macy's-have spent millions of dollars to repeal SB 2 because they want to take away health care from hardworking families.  Instead, they want taxpayers and other employers to carry their responsibilities.  California's union members are committed to protecting Senate Bill 2 by voting YES on PROPOSITION 72 and fighting for the health care that working people deserve.  We will oppose legislative efforts to repeal or dilute SB 2 coverage and will continue to work with legislator and the Administration to control health care costs.

Save jobs for California residents.  Retailers, banks, airlines, hotels, hospitals, and government agencies are all eliminating jobs in California and outsourcing them to other countries where workers earn lower wages under harsher working conditions.  A recent Los Angeles Times article uncovered the fact that our state Food Stamp program hotline is staffed by workers in India and Mexico.  A UC Berkeley Haas Business School study estimates over 14 million service sector jobs in the United States at risk of being outsourced.

California must prevent corporations from exporting good jobs overseas.  AB 1829 (Liu, pending in Senate Appropriations) would stop the use of taxpayer dollars to create jobs in other countries.  SB 1492 (Dunn, pending in Assembly Appropriations) would require companies to disclose that private medical records are sent offshore and receive the patient's consent prior to offshoring.

SB 888 (Dunn, pending in Assembly Appropriations) would guarantee that no work related to homeland security could be done offshore.  AB 3021 (Assembly Labor Committee, pending in Senate Labor) would require corporations doing business in California to report their number of jobs in the state, in the country, and in other countries.

Control the costs of pharmaceuticals.  Prescription drug costs in California are rising more quickly than any other part of our health care budget.  The drug industry maximizes its profits by targeting their marketing of drugs to consumers, providers, and insurers.  While consumers spend more, pharmaceutical companies are reaping richer and richer profits.  Drug companies have made five times the profits of other Fortune 500 companies over the past decade.  Something must be done to control the price of prescription drugs. 

AB 2326 (Corbett, pending in Senate Appropriations) would use unbiased, clinically based research to create a reliable source of consumer information about the best prescription drugs on the market.  Rather than rely on pharmaceutical companies research and marketing, California consumers and purchasers would be able to make informed choices about their prescription drugs.  AB 1960 (Pavley, pending in Senate Floor) would require middleman drug companies, known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), to keep their customers best interests in mind when selling their drug packages.

Raise the wages of our lowest-wage workers. While the cost of living increases every year, California's minimum wage stagnates.  The current minimum wage of $6.75 per hour falls far short of what workers need to support a family.  California must increase our minimum wage; AB 2832 (Lieber, pending in Senate Appropriations) would increase our minimum wage from $6.75 to $7.75 over two years.  Currently, Washington, Oregon, Connecticut, and Alaska have higher minimum wages.

Get unemployed workers back on their feet. California employers paid the lowest UI taxes in history in 2003, and the state's UI system is now near bankruptcy.  Over two decades ago, California employers fought to change our forward funded UI system to a pay as you go system so that they paid less in good times and more in tough times.  This funding structure has effectively starved our UI Trust Fund, created instability, and limited the ability of unemployed workers to get a benefit increase.

We must change and stabilize the financing structure of our UI system.  A needed first step is to raise the state's taxable wage base.  California employers pay UI taxes on only the first $7,000 of wages, the bare federal minimum.  In comparison, other West Coast states have three times the taxable wage bases, including $26,000 in Oregon and $29,700 in Washington.  Organized Labor will develop a UI refinancing proposal to achieve long-term solvency.

Take excessive profits out of the workers' comp system.  Employers asked for deregulation in the workers' comp insurance market, just like they did in the energy market, and now they are paying the price for it.  Skyrocketing medical costs and instability within the insurance market drove up workers' comp costs in California.  The 2003 Legislature passed a reform package that is estimated to save $5 billion annually, but insurance companies have now pocketed those savings rather than pass them on to employers.  Workers' comp is the only line of property/casualty insurance that allows insurance companies to charge excessive rates.  California must re-regulate workers' comp insurance companies to prevent this type of profiteering by workers' comp insurance companies.

Organized Labor has developed a workers' compensation legislative proposal to make substantial changes in the system aimed at creating incentives to get injured workers treated and back to work as soon as possible.  The proposal also regulates insurance company rates, creates a fee structure for applicant and defense attorneys, guarantees immediate medical treatment and benefits, and fosters a less litigious and more efficient system.  These changes will save billions of dollars in the system while ensuring that injured workers receive full treatment and compensation for their injuries.

Support the right to a voice at the workplace.  Workers who try to organize a union regularly face harassment and intimidation from their employers.  On November 13, 2003, workers joined with Congressional lawmakers to launch a bill to give workers who want to join unions a fair chance to do so. The proposed legislation, S. 1925 and H.R. 3619, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA), ensures that when a majority of employees in a workplace decide to form a union, they can do so without the debilitating obstacles employers now use to block their workers' free choice. California lawmakers should support AJR 87 (Goldberg, pending Senate Floor) to protect workers' rights to choose a union.

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