Sacramento Is Poised to Embrace Union Agenda

Thousands of California workers--including students who put in long hours on part-time jobs, baby boomers worried about layoffs and parents caring for ill children--could soon benefit from a more labor-friendly, Democrat-dominated state government.

Union leaders are aggressively promoting a legislative and regulatory agenda that would have seemed wildly optimistic only a year ago. And with Gray Davis sworn in this week as the first Democratic governor in 16 years, chances are good that much of their wish list eventually will win approval.

Already, Davis has endorsed restoring daily overtime pay, an issue of huge symbolic importance to organized labor in California. That means part-time workers who sometimes spend long days on the job--a group typically including many students and temporary employees--would again receive overtime pay whenever they put in more than eight hours a day.

The daily overtime guarantee, which California unionists say protects the sanctity of the eight-hour working day, was killed by the administration of former Gov. Pete Wilson in 1997 after a rancorous labor-versus-business battle.

Now union leaders and their allies, who have watched many labor-backed bills die on the governor’s desk in recent years, are dusting off old proposals with new hope.

They also are counting on Davis appointees to enforce existing laws, such as those protecting employee health and safety, with more enthusiasm than their predecessors.

“The landscape has changed dramatically from a very hostile, cold and foreboding one to one which I think is going to be warm and embracing of the needs of working people in California.” said Tom Rankin, president of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, the umbrella group for the state’s major unions.

Republicans, while expressing concern about the potential damaging impact on the state economy, agree that organized labor is ready to capitalize on the political changeover. “It has the potential of being a feeding frenzy,” said John C. Duncan, who was director of the California Department of Industrial Relations in the Wilson administration for most of the last two years.

Some Republicans and their business lobbyist allies, however, expect that Davis, a self-described moderate, will temper organized labor’s positions. “The governor is going to want to keep the economy strong, and he’s talked about governing from the center,” said Jack Stewart, president of the California Manufacturers Assn.

Likewise, Democrats are reluctant to push Davis too hard and put him into a difficult corner so early in his term. “I think the labor movement is beginning to think about what it means to have a Democratic administration, but one that is very measured,” said Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), a former labor leader. “The key is there has been a partnership in the campaign between labor and the government, and now people want to move forward in a collaborative effort. It’s just a question of trying to make sure we’re all working together.”

Even so, labor’s anticipated victory on daily overtime is likely to presage a series of advances for the union agenda. Davis has indicated he will approve pay increases long sought by public employee unions.

What’s more, the California Labor Federation is making plans to push legislation to boost the state’s minimum wage which, at $5.75 an hour, already is 60 cents higher than the federal standard.

A host of benefits increases that were vetoed or died in committee in recent years are expected to be proposed soon. They include boosts in unemployment insurance and in disability and workers’ compensation benefits. These benefits are funded by employers or workers, rather than by state taxes--a key political consideration at a time when the state is facing a budget deficit of up to $3 billion.

Meanwhile, responding to the new tone set by Davis’ election in November, legislators last month began reintroducing bills that Wilson had vetoed.

One, introduced by Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) would allow employees to use at least part of their accumulated sick leave to care for ill children or other relatives. The bill would not force employers to provide sick leave, which is not mandated by law.

Another bill that was once vetoed but now appears likely to win approval was introduced last month by Sen. Martha M. Escutia (D-Montebello) to protect older workers from age discrimination.

The bill would strengthen the rights of workers age 40 and older to sue for age discrimination when they are laid off--and younger, lower-paid workers are spared. The bill is intended to reverse the impact of a landmark California Court of Appeal decision in July 1997 that cleared the way for employers to give younger workers preference over their older counterparts if the moves can be justified economically. With so many workers in their 40s, 50s and 60s worried about job security, the bill commands broad appeal.

“This has a broad coalition behind it,” said Escutia’s chief of staff, Suzanne Wierbinski. “It has the strong support of labor unions, seniors organizations and attorneys.”

Organized labor also stands to gain in the controversy over what is known in the construction industry as the prevailing wage, the guaranteed wage for laborers on public works projects. Wilson administration officials had pushed an initiative to bring the state’s prevailing wage rules in line with those of the federal government and other states, saying it would save taxpayers $200 million a year by cutting pay for the construction workers.

Building trades unions largely tied up that initiative in the courts, and now that the Davis administration is in place, the state is expected to drop its legal defense of the Wilson plan. In addition, Democrats are expected to pass a new bill that would safeguard California’s traditional method of calculating prevailing wages.

Sen. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte) who chairs the Industrial Relations Committee, said workers could immediately benefit from more zealous enforcement of existing laws, as well as a more sympathetic attitude toward workers’ needs. She pointed to the appointment of Steve Smith, a former public employees union lobbyist named by Davis to head the Department of Industrial Relations, as a key to setting this new tone.

“The system is somewhat broken. People get lost in it,” she said. “We’ve heard a lot of horror stories--people who in many cases don’t even receive the [workers’ compensation] awards that are due them. We want and need to do a better job.”