Protecting Workers and Material Working Conditions

April 26, 2021

Despite the immense wealth generated by Silicon Valley, real estate speculators, and entertainment elite – a majority of the State’s recent growth has come from low-end service businesses. According to Marshall Toplansky, a researcher at Chapman University, 80% of all jobs created in the State of California over the past decade paid less than the state median income and half of those are well under $40,000. These are not living wages, and these are jobs that often provide minimal employee benefits – if they provide any at all.

Long before COVID-19 and the subsequent economic crises, Workers in #OurCalifornia experienced wage theft and looming threats of debt, starvation and homelessness which are intentional features of US-ian poverty. Compounding matters, US capitalism refuses to count the unemployed properly because that would expose the disposability of large sections of the workforce and abject policy failures. To End Poverty in California my government intends to address the systemic and fundamental operations of California’s economy and how it preys on the Poor – and specifically Workers. This pandemic and crisis have exponentially compounded these issues, while threatening the physical safety and health of our workspaces.

#OurCalifornia’s Workers deserve a Government and Governor who recognizes the very real struggles we’ve all faced, and is committed to improving material working conditions and expanding Worker protections during and post-COVID-19.

I believe that we cannot continue to provide Corporate Welfare at the expense of workers in this State. For too long we’ve seen corporations we’ve catered to, provided subsidies to, & reduced taxes only to leave our great State crushing workers and negatively impacting our economy.

No more.

My government is not interested in expanding the dependence on government, but a dependence on ourselves. I believe #OurCalifornia and government can make it so that the key elements of sustaining a quality and comfortable life are available to all and provided collectively by society: healthcare, food & shelter. Without these looming threats which inherently place profits over people, Workers have more freedom over their place of Labor, workers can join or create companies, businesses and collectives themselves that value their worth. Again, I believe it is critical that we are not dependent on government, but dependent on ourselves to do and be better for us all. Workers in #OurCalifornia deserve healthy and safe working conditions and protections from the State government must be at the forefront of any economic and social agendas. When #OurCalifornia’s most marginalized are protected and succeed, we all win.

I remain committed to the workers of this great State, and as your Governor, I intend to End Poverty in California. This is how I believe protecting Workers and material working conditions in California will help us achieve this:

Creating a State of California Union that protects all workers’ rights in the State without affiliation or required enrollment/membership in independent unions (like AFL-CIO, SEIU, ILWU, NUHW, etc.). This Union would have no membership fees and ensure that worker’s rights and labor law remain at the forefront of #OurCalifornia. As such:
- All Californians, regardless of work status, will be fully covered under our new #MediCALforAllCalifornians program so both employers and workers can focus on other collective bargaining needs without the threat of ever losing quality healthcare coverage or it’s obscene costs again;
- Ensure all Californians have respectable jobs in a variety of sustainable fields with liveable wages and a pension with our State Job Guarantee Program;
- Increase the State minimum wage to $25/hr:
  - Create small-business sliding scale assistance program where the State assists in achieving the $25/hr mark for small businesses based on previous annual income, profit & labor relation status;
- State-paid two-week vacation;
- Twelve-Week Paid Care Leave: In addition to FMLA or Disability, Care Leave offers all workers in the State stability and peace of mind to focus on what matters – needed time. Care Leave allows workers to take up to an additionally paid twelve weeks off for:
  - Personal disability or serious health condition(s);
  - Time to care for a family member;
  - Additional time to bond with a new child;
  - Spend further time with a family member preparing for military service overseas;
- Strengthening/expanding the opportunity for independent unions;
- Ensure the State of California has comprehensive labor relations laws of its own. Including but not limited to:
  - Strengthen California’s Right to Work Act with Enforceable Measures and Sanctions applied to business bad actors;
  - Decriminalization of sex work and the creation of a California Union for sex workers which contributes to the creation of labor law protections and safety measures that support adult small content creators, independent workers, and reduce exploitation;
  - Expand firm-level collective bargaining rights to industry-wide collective bargaining rights;
  - Expand State legislation for workers’ control,
  - Strengthen Worker-led safety committees which can hold Corporations accountable to both State and Federal Laws when violating our #OurCalifornia’s Right to Organize, OSHA, EPA, Labor & Labor Relations laws;
  - Deputize nonprofit organizations such as California’s own Sustainable Economies Law Center & California Center for Cooperative Development to strengthen and expand extensive worker-owned cooperatives;
  - Expanding the Mechanics’ Lien, which has a 100% collection success rate in a number of pilot programs, to all operating businesses within the State of California;
Ensuring all workers have respect and labor protections under the State Law of California means ensuring our most marginalized populations are protected. This is not only moral, compassionate & cost-avoidant, but substantially improves all in #OurCalifornia’s right to safety, security and reduction of state-sanctioned harm and violence. Full labor protection for marginalized communities is an investment and commitment to human rights that our State must make. Furthermore, protecting marginalized workers in the end affects and improves the work environments and well-being of all workers across the State of California – we all win when our most vulnerable and marginalized are protected. California’s most marginalized workers include, but aren’t limited to:
- Disabled Workers
  - Addressing labor abuses and illegal practices regularly experienced by individuals with disabilities from employment discrimination, sub-minimum wage compensation, retaliation et. al. by holding employers accountable;
    - Completing the backlog of labor complaints and incomplete investigations through interagency support of both State ADA, Disabilities Services, Labor & federal EEOC support (if necessary) impacting all disabled working populations in the State;
  - Enable the State to expand current protections and services by:
    - State prioritization of data; Involving local grassroots organizations, disability advocates and activists are directly involved in conducting research and can assist in creating policies for disabled workers in #OurCalifornia;
    - Increasing funding and resources for Information & Consumer Campaigns, so that workers with disabilities and the general public are aware of both their Federal and States rights;
    - Building capacities through empowerment. In order to prevent and stop exploitation and abuse, disabled workers must be able to effectively exercise their rights. With the State empowering and developing disabled workers’ leadership capacities – we counteract a system of dependency, and allow for disabled workers to actively engage in and influence the decision-making processes affecting their lives. These capacities are essential if workers are to become agents of their own rights;
    - Increasing investment in State workplace inspection – and specifically in sectors where patterns arise of labor is exploitation of the disabled;
      - Promptly applying appropriate sanctions for corporate bad actors, illegal actions and abusive employers;
    - Ensuring Disabled Workers within our State are given safer and healthier workspaces and that their labor is respected with liveable wages under the new State Minimum Wage and State Jobs Guarantee program;
    - Work with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division to ensure all SJG employment positions and training are Title I ADA compliant for all state and local government employers;
- Migrant Workers
  - I will contribute to the development of a just and pragmatic policy for undocumented migrant workers in the State of California. There is an urgent need to find a complete, not our currently superficial, solutions to the ongoing exploitation and abuse of these workers here and that can only be achieved through systemic change and a candidate rejecting worker exploitation of one of the most profitable workforces in the State;
  - Enable the State to expand current protections and services by:
    - Legalizing the status of undocumented migrant workers as a means to increase visibility, protection and combat informal economies that exploit both migrant and non-migrant labor. and reduce the deterioration of general working conditions;
      - Ban State & Locality departments from openly cooperating with ICE & DHS;
    - Deputizing local grassroots organizations successfully meeting migrant worker needs in localities and across the State;
    - Working directly with trade unions, migrant worker collectives and migrant labor activists to create expansive & inclusive legislation;
    - Increasing funding and resources for Information & Consumer Campaigns, so that migrant workers and the general public are aware of both their Federal and States rights;
    - State prioritization of data; Involving local grassroots organizations, migrant worker advocates and activists are directly involved in conducting research and can assist in creating policies for migrant workers in #OurCalifornia;
    - Ratifying the Migrant Workers Convention;
    - Safeguarding the right of migrant workers to organize;
    - Building capacities through empowerment. In order to prevent and stop exploitation and abuse, migrant workers must be able to effectively exercise their rights. With the State empowering and developing migrant workers’ leadership capacities – we counteract a system of dependency, and allow for migrant workers to actively engage in and influence the decision-making processes affecting their lives. These capacities are essential if workers are to become agents of their own rights;
    - Increasing investment in State workplace inspection – and specifically in sectors where migrant work is exploited;
      - Promptly enforcing appropriate sanctions for corporate bad actors, illegal actions and abusive employers;
    - Employment inclusion within the State Jobs Guarantee Program;
- Gender Nonconforming Individuals – especially BIPOC Trans, Non-binary & Two-Spirited Peoples
  - I support the realization of current legislation that protects all employees from gender discrimination in workplaces but recognize these privileges are often not afforded to those most in need in spite of our State & Federal legislation;
  - Enable the State to expand current protections and services by:
    - Employment inclusion within the State Jobs Guarantee Program;
      - State Jobs Guarantee adoption of real gender-inclusive policies which are both strategic and transformative;
    - Increasing funding and resources for Information & Consumer Campaigns, so that gender nonconforming workers and the general public are aware of both their Federal and States rights;
    - State prioritization of data; Involving local grassroots organizations, LGBT, Trans & Two-Spirit advocates and activists are directly involved in conducting research and can assist in creating policies for non-binary workers in #OurCalifornia;
    - Increasing investment in State workplace inspection – and specifically in sectors where gender non-binary work is exploited;
      - Promptly enforcing appropriate sanctions for corporate bad actors, illegal actions and abusive employers;
- Sex Workers
  - I support the full decriminalization of adult consensual sex work. A State government that continues criminalizing adult, voluntary, and consensual sex, including the commercial exchange of sexual services, is incompatible with the human right to personal autonomy and privacy – both rights I intend to uphold to the fullest. We must situate sex work within a framework of workers’ rights, a framework under which workers advocate together for economic, racial, and gender justice;
  - Ensure the immediate and full decriminalization of sex work & sex workers within the State:
    - Specifically creating legislation removing criminal penalties for selling and buying consensual sex between adults within the State of California;
    - Ensure Workers Rights & labor relations laws apply to Sex Workers;
    - Ban the overpolicing of bodies by law enforcement officers and their specific targeting of Black, Brown & Gender Noncomforming People;
    - Ensure police accountability to the public and restitution for Sex Workers impacted their actions;
    - Begin the immediate decarceration and record expungement of Sex Workers;
    - Supporting the creation of the State and Country’s first Sex Workers Union;
    - Expand community outreach and education about sexual labor;
  - Support repeal of SESTA/FOSTA and its tech applications and encourage State Legislation which challenges SESTA/FOSTA, specifically:
    - The government has no place in the consensual behavior of adults, and the bill’s significant targeting of legal, already marginalized and underserved populations of legal sex workers – especially those who are LGBTQ, BIPOC or Poor is not something I support;
    - As it stands, SESTA/FOSTA’s regulatory structure is currently only feasible for the largest tech companies as a result of their extensive legal resources. Smaller networks and firms in the State of California, and the country, are often incapable of navigating or complying with this law – thus reducing innovation, economic input and legal content. My government intends to support small business, spur innovation and increase legal content;
- Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals:
  - I support the equal and just wage compensation of incarcerated individuals working for the Prison Industry Authority, the Division of Juvenile Facilities, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
    - Artificially deflating labor wages places insurmountable obstacles that further poverty of incarcerated individuals, formerly incarcerated individuals, and the family/community networks that support them;
    - Artificially deflating labor wages places market exploitation amplifies corporate incentive to hire incarcerated individuals at significantly lower costs, creating greater profit for corporations and compounding harm for labor movements outside the Prison Industry Authority, Division of Juvenile Facilities, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation;
  - Ensure the immediate and full cessation of penalizing formerly incarcerated individuals through state-sanctioned overarching collateral consequences, restoring post-carceral employment rights in credentialed and specialized workforces including but not limited to:
    - Professional Licensing clearance
    - Ensure all Workers Rights & labor relations laws apply to Workers;
Enforce labor & safety violations within a timely fashion, holding bad actors accountable when they harm workers, our communities, our air, our land and our waterways;
Eager to work with the California Lifting Children and Families out of Poverty Task Force to ensure all recommended strategies can be funded and achieved for #OurCalifornia through public policy, action & the robust social safety nets we deserve in our resilient and sustainable communities;
Appropriately fund California’s Labor Commissioner’s Office, Bureau of Field Enforcement and the Attorney General to fully investigate and enforce wage theft with immediate results:
- A landmark study of California wage claims between 2008 and 2011 found that just 17% of workers who won a Labor Commission judgment received even some of their pay. To avoid paying up, many of these employers shuttered their companies or hid assets, leaving workers nothing;
  - Increase and improve post-judgment collections through expanding prompt labor investigations of California’s underground economy and strengthening partnerships with community-based labor advocacy groups, expansion of the Bureau of Field Enforcement
  - Create legislation that expands the Mechanics’ Lien, which has a 100% collection success rate in a number of pilot programs, to all operating businesses within the State of California;
  - Enforce appropriate and sanctions promptly paid by the business/Corporation found responsible that include:
    - Full Restitution for the employee(s);
    - A sliding scale donation paid to relative-industry Union or Mutual Aid network;
    - State fee;
    - Substantial recidivism of documented and determined wage theft will result in asset forfeiture and return the business/corporation and all assets to the workers;
I am eager to work with The LIFT Fund, Disability Rights California, Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers’ Network, Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF), TransFocus Consulting, La Cooperativa Campesina, Líderes Campesinas, Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, Empower Prep, Comité Cívico del Valle, California Rural Legal Assistance, Labor Community Strategy Center, Proteus Inc, Walk Free, National Employment Law Project, California Domestic Workers Coalition, Sex Worker Outreach Project, Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Grassroots Policy Project, Sustainable Economies Law Center, Institute for Policy Studies & other grassroots and impactful organizations, activists, advocates, all labor unions, and pillars in the labor, human rights, and research communities to ensure the needs and material working conditions of ALL workers in #OurCalifornia are inclusive and sustainably met;
State Deputization of chosen grassroots nonprofits who are successfully providing dynamic and critical social services to #OurCalifornia to act as an extension of our government in expanding their work and services with the funding, staffing and State recognition they deserve;
- Will participate within the State Jobs Guarantee Program;
In the true spirit of Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California campaign, I will call on fellow Citizens, Socialists, Governors, and fellow Socialist Gubernatorial campaigns across this country to adopt and implement the same.