Support for labor unions plummets in California

With heated controversy in recent years surrounding public pensions, municipal bankruptcies and political campaigns, public support for labor unions has plunged in California. For the first time, more voters say these organizations do more harm than good.

A new Field Poll reveals a dramatic 16 percentage point swing in public opinion from two years ago. Forty-five percent of registered voters now believe that unions do more harm than good, compared to 40 percent who say they do more good.

This summer's Bay Area Rapid Transit system drama has also raised the question of whether public transit workers should be allowed to strike. In September, Senate Republican leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, introduced a bill to strip them of that right.

Though a slight plurality of Californians - 47 percent - still believe public transit workers should be able to strike, a majority of the usually liberal San Francisco Bay Area - 52 percent - is now opposed.

Reporter David Siders has more in his story. Here are the statistical tabulations prepared exclusively for Capitol Alert.

The next Field Poll covers Californians' views on the U.S. Congress. Our story will be available early, tonight at 8 p.m., on the Capitol Alert Insider Edition app.

via:  http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/12/am-alert-support-for-labor-unions-plummets-in-california.html#storylink=cpy

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'Wal-Mart' bill fails in Assembly as Democratic caucus splits

The California Assembly rejected hotly contested legislation Thursday to penalize large employers that provide workers with wages and hours low enough to qualify them for Medi-Cal rolls.

Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, was granted reconsideration after hisAssembly Bill 880 failed on three roll call votes.

Gomez conceivably could take the bill up again, but Democrats will lose their supermajority Sunday, clouding prospects for a future vote.

The final tally Thursday was 46-27, eight votes shy of passage.

The vote on AB 880 was closely watched statewide as a test of Democrats' supermajority because it forced moderate lawmakers in the party to stand with or to buck their more liberal colleagues in the lower house.

Three Assembly Democrats voted against it: Cheryl Brown of San Bernardino, Tom Daly of Anaheim, and Adam Gray of Merced. Five party colleagues did not vote: Henry T. Perea of Fresno, Raul Bocanegra of Pacoima, Steve Fox of Lancaster, Rudy Salas of Bakersfield, and Al Muratsuchi of Torrance.

Lobbying was intense, pitting organized labor against business groups on a top-priority issue for both.

The Assembly was running out of time to act on the bill because it required a two-thirds vote for passage and Democrats will lose their supermajority when Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield resigns Sunday to join the Los Angeles City Council.

The California Labor Federation and the United Food and Commercial Workers, sponsors of AB 880, claim that it would close a loophole that allows the state's largest businesses -- 500 employees or more -- to avoid subsidizing employee medical insurance under next year's federal health care overhaul.

Federal law will penalize businesses if employees who work 30 hours a week are forced to buy health insurance from a new state exchange next year because they are not covered by an employer plan.

No penalty is provided under current law if compensation is low enough to push employees onto Medi-Cal rolls, meaning income of about $15,900 for an individual or $32,500 for a family of four. AB 880 would close that gap by penalizing firms about $4,400 for each employee on Medi-Cal who works at least 12 hours per week.

The California Chamber of Commerce has labeled AB 880 a "job killer" bill. Business groups contend it would be a drag on the economy, discourage the hiring of part-time workers, and that it is premature because the federal health care overhaul has not yet been implemented.

Organized labor has accused Wal-Mart of practices targeted by AB 880. The giant retailer, in a written statement, counters that its wages and benefits "meet or exceed those offered by most competitors and our health care offerings go beyond the eligibility and affordability requirements of the Affordable Care Act."

PHOTO: First-term Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D- Los Angeles listens during the first day of the legislative session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. The Sacramento Bee/ Hector Amezcua

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California businesses fights proposed bill tha outlines healthcare fines

As employers across California scramble to figure out what their obligations will be next year under federal health reform, many of them are simultaneously fighting to defeat proposed state legislation that would throw a whole new set of calculations into the mix.
A bill sponsored by Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, would fine large employers if any of their non-disabled employees who work at least eight hours a week are enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program for the poor.

Advocates of the bill, including the California Labor Federation and the United Food and Commercial Workers union, argue that it merely fills a hole in the federal Affordable Care Act.

The act, widely known as Obamacare, would penalize employers who don't provide affordable health coverage, if even one of their workers receives a federal tax subsidy to buy it independently in one of the state-run insurance exchanges established under the law. But the reform law says nothing about a lower-income group of workers -- those who earn little enough to qualify for Medi-Cal, which is California's version of the federal-state Medicaid program.

The proposed state law stipulates that all fines collected go back into the Medi-Cal program. It requires a two-thirds vote in both the Assembly and the Senate, which lengthens the odds of its passage, even if Democrats do command a two-thirds majority -- barely -- in both houses.

Despite the bill's uncertain prospects, businesses that employ a lot of part-time and seasonal labor -- retailers, restaurants, tourism and hospitality businesses, homebuilders and farms, for example -- are furious about it. So are some nonprofits, which would also be liable for the penalties.

A group of Orange County business representatives gathered in Santa Ana on Wednesday to denounce the legislation, arguing that it would hit the economy at a time of continued economic fragility and deny opportunities to first-time employees, college students and people re-entering the labor market.

They also said that the "vagueness" of the language creates a lot of uncertainty that could lead to numerous lawsuits.

"It would put the brakes on job growth, discourage businesses from locating in California and impact our tourism industry, which is huge in Orange County," said Heidi Larkin-Reed, CEO of the Orange Chamber of Commerce.

Steve Smith, spokesman for the California Labor Federation, which co-sponsored the legislation, said that reports of companies cutting workers' hours to avoid or limit their responsibility under the Affordable Care Act "caught our attention," and was one of the factors behind the bill.

If employees work few enough hours or earn low enough wages to be covered by Medi-Cal, their employers are essentially dumping responsibility for them onto the taxpayers, Smith argued. And that violates the spirit of the federal health reform, which calls on everyone to "pay their fair share," he said.

He also noted that the most recent California budget slashes the state's spending on Medi-Cal by 10 percent from its 2011 level. The pending legislation, which would generate "fairly significant" revenues for Medi-Cal, is "a very important way to support the long-term viability of the program," he said.

About 250,000 Californians are enrolled in Medi-Cal and work for companies employing 500 or more people -- the threshold established in the bill -- according to the Labor Center at UC Berkeley. That figure could rise as high as 350,000 next year and 380,000 by 2019 because of the Medicaid expansion envisioned under Obamacare, the center estimates.
Rick Fowler, CEO of the nonprofit Community College Foundation, complained that his organization's "good public work" could be lost if the bill passes.

The foundation tutors schoolchildren under the federal "no child left behind" program, puts college students in paid internships, and runs a financial literacy program. "If we had to pay a health care fine for part timers, we would be put out of business," Fowler said.
via medcitynews.com

California Farms Face Labor Shortage as Farmworkers Age

 California's $44 billion agricultural industry faces a worsening labor shortage as farmworkers age, more return home to Mexico and fewer new migrants arrive to replace them.

The state's farming workforce is aging and shrinking for several reasons, including stricter immigration enforcement, an improving economy in Mexico and the lack of interest in field work among the children of farmworkers, according to the Sacramento Bee (http://bit.ly/ZC3Q0j ).

"Basically, we're running out of low-skilled workers," said J. Edward Taylor, a University of California, Davis, economist who has studied the migration of farmworkers from Mexico. "The second generation doesn't do farm work. That's why we've relied on a steady influx of newcomers. And the newcomers are in dwindling supply."

More than 70 percent of state agricultural producers expect a worker shortage starting this spring and worsening through the growing season, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Lawmakers and farm lobbyists are discussing remedies, including granting legal status to more than 1 million undocumented farmworkers and expanding the number of visas for agriculture.

"We have to try to find a system that is not going to cause a major disruption to our industry," said Bryan Little, the farm bureau's director of labor affairs.

Manuel Cunha Jr., president of the Nisei Farmers League, representing 1,100 farms and other agriculture outlets, said his group's workforce fell by 20 to 30 percent during last year's harvest season. By September, some farm crews were as much as 60 percent short of the workers they needed.

Cunha blamed increased farm audits by federal immigration officials and the increasing dangers of crossing the border from Mexico.

"Workers were leaving agriculture because they were fearful of the audits and getting busted," Cunha said. "And then, when they went home, they realized it wasn't worth it to return because of the drug traffickers and human traffickers."

The declining number of farmworkers is prompting some growers to switch to crops that require less labor.

Chandler Farms, about 40 miles southeast of Fresno, decided to cut back on peaches and plums and use more land to grow almonds, which can be harvested by machine.

"I don't know if it is going to get better for a while," said Bill Chandler, who runs the family ranch in Selma with his son. "If you want peaches or plums, or strawberries or lettuce or tomatoes, we need a program in which we can have labor. I don't have the answers."

Arcadio Castro, a foreman at the Chandler ranch, said workers in his Mexican hometown of Zacatecas can't afford to pay a "coyote" to smuggle them across the border and prefer construction jobs in urban areas.

So Castro, 59, has depends on veteran laborers willing to do work many of their children won't consider.

"You're not going to believe me, but the older workers are better," Castro said. "They go slower, but they work all day long. The younger ones start complaining. They say, 'Oh, it's so hot.' Then they climb up a ladder and start texting."