Cal Labor Fed Sets Agenda for 2005

Three years after this country's recession officially ended, working families in California have seen little economic relief. The jobs lost during the recession still have not been recovered-California's jobs gap now exceeds one million jobs. Paychecks for middle-class families continue to lag far behind the price of housing. Health care costs rose by double digits in 2004 for the seventh year in a row.

Meanwhile, corporate CEO pay continues to soar. In 1989, CEOs earned 71 times what an average worker earned. In 2003, CEOs earned 185 times more than a typical worker. Workers are boosting productivity levels but share little of the financial rewards.

The social contract in this country has been broken - and it is time to restore it. We must rein in corporations that ship our jobs overseas while taking away health care benefits for workers at home. We must secure the safety net for workers who fall through the cracks through no fault of their own. We must boost the incomes of those workers who struggle at below-poverty wages.

We must rebuild an economy that is founded on a shared responsibility between workers, government and industry.

Creating Access to Affordable and High Quality Health Care

Prevent employers from shifting their responsibilities onto taxpayers. When businesses fail to provide their workers with good wages and health care benefits, those workers are forced on the public dole. The end result: taxpayers pay the price for workers who end up relying on public health and financial assistance programs. A recent UC Berkeley study documented nearly $100 million in California taxpayer subsidies to a single corporation - WalMART. Taxpayers have a right to know which corporations are profiteering off the public dole. AB ___ (Leno) would require the disclosure and annual reporting of employer names whose workers receive certain public assistance.

Provide health insurance for working families. Proposition 72, a measure that would have required medium and large employers to provide family health insurance, garnered over 6 million votes on the November 2004 ballot. Clearly, Californians are looking for health care reform. Voters recognize that workers, employers, and the government should share the responsibility to expand access to quality, affordable health care. AB ___ (Nunez) would require certain employers to provide family health insurance. It's good for business, good for workers, and good for California.

Keeping Good California Jobs

Increase the minimum wage. California currently pays the lowest minimum wage of all West Coast states. 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 48 (Lieber) would increase our minimum wage from $6.75 to $7.25 and then index it to the cost of living. Washington, Oregon, Connecticut, and Alaska all have higher minimum wages than California.

Stop the offshoring of our jobs. Offshoring continues to eliminate good California jobs. Some corporations, like Dell and Lehman Brothers, have brought offshored jobs back to the US because of consumer complaints and economic losses. However, employers in the retail, banking, airline, customer service, and information technology sectors continue to eliminate jobs in search of the lowest labor costs. At a minimum, taxpayer funds should not be used to create jobs in other countries and AB ___ would accomplish that.

Hire California workers. Our taxpayer dollars should be used to create good jobs in California. Companies that apply for and receive state contracts should seek to hire California workers first. AB ___ (de la Torre) would grant a bid preference for state contractors who hire a majority of Californians to do the work.

Reduce the cost of workers' compensation insurance. The recent changes in the workers' compensation system have denied medical treatment to injured workers and taken away permanent disability benefits from those most seriously injured. These changes were enacted to bring down the cost of workers' comp insurance for employers, but employers are not seeing lower prices. Something must be done to guarantee that these cost savings are passed on to employers. SB ___ (Alarcon) would stabilize and reduce the price of workers' comp insurance in California.

Ensuring Corporate Responsibility

Enforce our state's labor laws. Each year, scofflaw employers steal millions of dollars from our state treasury by cheating on payroll, unemployment, workers' comp, and corporate taxes. In difficult economic times, the underground economy grows as employers cut corners and disobey state laws. Too often, an employer who cheats on income taxes also cheats on other required state taxes. AB ___ (Koretz) would trigger a labor agency audit of any employer who is found guilty of tax avoidance.

Require corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. Publicly held corporations report two different incomes - high profits to their shareholders and no profits to tax collection agencies. Requiring corporations to pay state taxes on the "book income" reported to their shareholders would (1) boost state revenues, and (2) reduce the incentive to mislead shareholders. Corporate meltdowns like Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco could be avoided by requiring honest reporting of corporate incomes. SB ___ would require public corporations to pay state taxes on their book income.

Stop captive audience meetings. Workers who seek to form a union-whether at a construction site or in an office, hospital or manufacturing plant-often face unending threats and harassment from their bosses. Ninety-two percent of private-sector employers, when faced with employees who want to organize, force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda. Eighty percent require supervisors to attend training sessions on attacking unions. Seventy-eight percent require supervisors to deliver anti-union messages to workers they oversee. AJR ___ would ask Congress to ban the use of these coercive "captive audience" meetings.

Maintaining the Safety Net

Oppose the privatization of Social Security. Social Security, America's most successful social program, protects families when a worker retires, becomes disabled or dies. Its benefits are lifelong, guaranteed, and unmatched by any other type of insurance or investment available on the private market. The Bush Administration is seeking to undermine Social Security by privatizing it. Privatization would force workers into risky and expensive private investment accounts with far higher administrative costs. The Bush proposal is likely to raise the retirement age, cut benefits, and raise taxes or run up huge new federal deficits. AJR ___ (Torrico) would put California on record opposing the privatization of Social Security.

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