SEIU Local 535

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Working Family Legislation: Ignored or Signed?

Ouick Clicks: AB376 I AB226 I AB1230 I AB276 I S1485
SB 60 I S 1485 I Bush Plans Scored

AB 376
AB 376 (Chu), to expand the eligibility criteria for appointees to the Mental Health Planning Council to include public and private sector direct service workers, was signed by the governor on July 21! (Chapter 71, Statutes of 2003) Thanks for all of your work in lobbying for the bill. The next step is for members to apply for appointments to the Mental Health Planning Council.

AB 226
Last month two important labor bills passed the Assembly and were sent to Governor Davis to sign: AB 226 to ban "dead peasants" insurance, passed the floor on a 48-30 vote. Assemblyman Juan Vargas, who, along with Assemblyman Paul Koretz authored AB 226, spoke about the need to stop the reprehensible practice of employers profiting off the death of their workers while the surviving dependants are left out in the cold without the benefits of the insurance policy payout. One Republican, Todd Spitzer, joined Democrats in support of the bill.

AB 276
AB 276, Increasing Penalties for Labor Law Violations (Koretz), passed the Assembly by a 47-31 party-line vote. Assembly member Darryl Steinberg, chair of the Appropriations Committee, took a stand for this bill on the floor arguing that it would bring in around $800,000 in needed revenue both to the general fund. Both bills are on the governor's desk.

AB 1230
AB 1230 (Hancock), the Higher Education Card Check Recognition Bill sponsored by the UC Union Coalition and supported by the AFL-CIO, was signed by the governor on August 11. AB 1230 establishes a procedure for "card check" recognition of unions in the University of California and the California State University systems. Card check recognition means that if more than 50% of workers sign cards that authorize the union to represent them, the union is immediately recognized as the exclusive representative for those workers.

SB 60
SEIU members scored a major legislative victory, successfully leading the lobbying effort to pass SB 60, a highway safety bill that expands access to driver's licenses by removing current immigration-status restrictions. The August 14th bill signing ceremony was televised nationally by Univision. SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina was one of three speakers featured in the ceremony. The others were Governor Davis and Senator Gil Cedillo, former SEIU Local 660 executive director and the sponsor of the measure.

National Legislation

S 1485--Overtime Pay
Senators Edward Kennedy and Tom Harkin introduced legislation, S 1485, to block the Bush administration from gutting overtime pay protections in the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Senate is expected to take up the bill when members return from summer recess in September. The administration wants to change the FLSA regulations to eliminate the right to overtime pay for as many as 8 million workers, including police officers, nurses, and retail workers, according to an Economic Policy Institute study. To send a message to President George W. Bush telling him to stop attacking overtime pay, visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/otpayj1 .

Bush's Plans Scored
A special report by Rep. George Miller, ranking minority member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, outlines the Bush administration's failed economic and workplace policies and the assault on America's working families. The report highlights the loss of more than 3 million private-sector jobs, soaring unemployment, growing private pension deficits and the huge state budget deficits since George W. Bush took the reins of the economy in 2001. The report also outlines efforts by the Bush administration and Republican congressional leaders to eliminate overtime pay, block extended unemployment benefits and a minimum wage increase, and privatize some 850,000 federal jobs. To read a copy of the report, go to http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/laborreport803.pdf.