Unions

An unusually high number of influential state legislators are retiring or running for higher office. The reasons include a combination of new electoral districts, term limits and political ambition.

As union representation has bottomed out in some of the country’s lowest-paid industries, a group of California lawmakers and labor leaders are pushing to test a version of sectoral bargaining, a labor strategy common in other high-income countries. Progressives are pushing for a state-appointed council for the fast food industry to set wages and work conditions, which have historically been negotiated privately between employers and worker unions.

Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, a key union backer in the California Legislature, will step down to take over the California Labor Federation.

California State University and its faculty union announce a tentative contract that includes raises and a COVID-19 bonus.

Frente a una asombrosa brecha económica, California sugiere aumentar la participación sindical entre los trabajadores con salarios bajos, y señala que una membresía sindical reduce la pobreza laboral mejor que un título universitario. Pero lograr que más trabajadores voten por los sindicatos requerirá que las empresas y los sindicatos se comprometan.

Facing a staggering wealth gap, California suggests increasing union participation among low-wage workers, noting that a union membership reduces working poverty better than a college degree. But getting more workers to vote on unions will require businesses and unions to compromise. Recent efforts have stalled but the stakes are higher than ever as a court overturns Prop. 22 and the Teamsters begin to campaign at Amazon warehouses across the state.

The politically powerful prison guards’ union and Gov. Gavin Newsom have resisted a COVID vaccine mandate, despite growing outbreaks.

When it comes to organized labor, Gov. Gavin Newsom giveth and Gov. Gavin Newsom taketh away. The governor on Wednesday signed into law one of the most controversial union-backed bills of the year, which takes aim at warehouse speed quotas that became infamous when reports surfaced of Amazon workers urinating in water bottles due to […]

While California faces extreme labor stratification, unions represent just 16% of workers. Would more unions in the private-sector reduce inequality or raise costs?

California’s homeschool charter schools put power and control in the hands of parents, so that they decide how best to improve the learning of their kids.