Overview of 2004 California Legislative Session

Labor's 2004 bills were aimed at saving jobs and protecting health care. The session ended with the passage of every major Labor bill, but was followed by the veto of each by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

His vetoes demonstrated his heavy bias toward Big Business, his loyal contributors. Hewlett Packard, a leader in offshoring, donated $584,800 to the Governor's committees. Deloitte & Touche, another offshoring company, gave $82,400 to the Governor.

Lockstep with the Chamber of Commerce, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed each of the following bills:

• AB 1829 (Liu) would stop the use of taxpayer dollars to create jobs in other countries.

• SB 1492 (Dunn) would require companies to disclose that private medical records are sent offshore and receive the patient's consent prior to offshoring.

• SB 888 (Dunn) would guarantee that no work essential to homeland security could be done offshore.

• AB 3021 (Assembly Labor Committee) would require corporations doing business in California to report their number of jobs in the state, in the country, and in other countries.

• AB 2832 (Leiber) would increase the minimum wage from $6.75 an hour to $7.75 an hour over two years.

• AB 1960 (Pavley) would help control the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs by providing better and more transparent information to health care purchasers.

[return to top]