San Mateo County Assemblymembers Gene Mullin and Ira Ruskin discuss their support for universal health care.

Representatives from Bay Area labor unions met with state legislators in Sacramento April 17 to urge support for bills supported by the California Labor Federation and the State Building and Construction Trades Council. Members of the State Senate and Assembly were questioned about their positions on the labor-backed bills. The legislative lobbying sessions were organized by the San Mateo County and San Francisco Labor Councils and Building and Construction Trades Councils.

Meetings were held with Assembly members Gene Mullin, Ira Ruskin, Mark Leno and Fiona Ma, and State Senators Joe Simitian, Carole Migden and Leland Yee. Each were asked to support labor’s five principles for health care reform, and make sure any legislation passed this year includes those principles.

Also on the agenda were bills to restore the permanent disability benefits cut by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s workers’ compensation reform, support vocational education, restore funding for non-credit classes at community colleges, and reauthorize Labor Compliance Programs for the School Bond measure passed last fall. Legislators were also asked to oppose any Compact with Indian Gaming Tribes that does not contain provisions allowing workers to organize for union representation without employer interference. (The Compacts, negotiated by Schwarzenegger, passed the State Senate April 19.)

San Francisco Labor Council President Conny Ford asked each of the legislators to support labor’s five guiding principles for health care reform. “Many of us support the single-payer legislation by State Senator Shiela Kuehl,” Ford said. “We all agree on the five principles and we all oppose the ‘individual mandate’ that would require everyone to pay for health insurance.” Ford said that the experience in Massachusetts— where former governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s health care reform included the individual mandate—showed that high deductibles and costly premiums made health insurance inaccessible to many.

Fiona Ma said she was a co-sponsor of the Kuehl bill (SB 840), which does include labor’s five principles. She also said she had authored AB 550, which would allow the State Compensation Insurance Fund to sell health insurance. The bill is supported by the building trades.

Ira Ruskin and Mark Leno are also co-sponsors of SB 840. Gene Mullin also said he supports single payer. They each support labor’s five principles.

“We have a real opportunity this year to pass some kind of health care reform,” Ruskin said. “The governor says he’s for it; he’s on the hook for health care reform—regardless of what his motivation may be. The Democrats want it; the Republicans have a different idea.”

Ruskin continued, “Despite my co-authorship of single payer legislation, it won’t become law [because of the need for a two thirds majority to fund it and the likelihood of another Schwarzenegger veto]. I’m open to doing something significant that’s a move towards universal health care.” Ruskin said that the governor’s proposal limiting employer costs to four percent of payroll is a step backwards and not enough.

Mullin joined the discussion briefly between committee votes and said he also supports labor’s principles and that passing single payer was a long term solution. Ruskin said that we may end up with a bill that focuses on covering “all children,” but even that would be problematic as his Republican colleagues oppose any measure that would provide health care coverage to the children of undocumented workers. “It’s a big challenge,” Mullin agreed.

Mark Leno said the political will existed in Sacramento to get something done this year, but that passage of a bad bill could set things back. “Our Speaker [Fabian Nuñez] has said if we can’t get to single payer, what can we do? First take care of the children,” Leno said. “We put forward a bill two years ago for the governor with funding, which was vetoed.”

Leno said that unhealthy kids impact schools and that “we have to do something, so let’s start with the children.” He agreed that the effort to cover “all children” would be a battle. Leno also agreed with labor that, “Individual mandate does not work.” He also said he thought that, “If it were not for labor, we wouldn’t have come this far. Thank you for being the force behind the push for universal health care, which everyone wants.”

State Senator Joe Simitian said, “On the five core principles, I’m pretty much with you.” He said he voted for SB 840 twice. “It may not be the only way, but it has been a way to bring the governor into the conversation, which is essential,” he said. Simitian said he wanted to take a closer look at the individual mandate issue. Conny Ford told him to look at the Massachusetts reform. “With high deductibles and lack of accessibility, it doesn’t really solve the problem and it doesn’t bring costs down,” she said.

Leland Yee said he had committed his vote to the Kuehl bill. “That’s the only way we can get universal health care,” he said. “I know the reality of politics here, and there is a move to craft the kind of bill that embraces the principles you are talking about.” Yee said that the governor wants to claim victory on health care but that passing something that doesn’t get us what we want will set us back and prevent real reform for several years. “We already have a lesson learned with workers’ comp reform and many people hurt by that,” Yee pointed out. “We’re still trying to fix it.”

“We have to push it as far as we can via single payer and then go from there,” he said.

Rich Hedges of UFCW Local 101 asked each of the legislators to support the package of bills that would address some of the negative impacts of the workers’ compensation reforms enacted in 2005. “The utilization review process is being used to bar workers from receiving health care and has to be fixed,” Hedges said. SB 936 (Perata) and AB 1212 (Nuñez) would restore some of the benefits.

Fiona Ma said that when she worked for former State Senator John Burton from 1995 to 2002, “We tried to make sure workers had enough options like chiropractic treatment, acupuncture, and choosing your physician. I support any way to increase treatment options.”

Ruskin said he supported the package of workers’ comp bills; Senator Carole Migden said she supported the bills. Her SB 942, providing incentives for employers to return injured workers back to work, is one of the bills supported by labor. “The pro tem [Sen. Don Perata] got the governor to agree that some changes need to be made,” Migden said. “We’re looking at the rules and the need to enforce the law, as well as looking at finding a way to involve the people who do the oversight in fixing the system.”

Simitian said he agreed that changes needed to be made and that he was encouraged that at a recent conference, State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner had said he was concerned about the delays in injured workers getting health care.

Senator Yee responded to Rich Hedges’ comment that under the 2-year limit on permanent disability benefits many injured workers are running out of funds: “That’s the tip of the iceberg,” Yee said. “The other problem is that the way of access is through a company doctor. We have to look at this deep and hard.”

Doug Yamamoto of the Glaziers Local 718 asked each of the legislators to support the package of bills expanding vocational education opportunities. “Shop classes that introduce students to the trades have been wiped out,” Yamamoto pointed out. “Building trades jobs are not second class jobs—they provide good careers. We work with our hands and our brains.”

Fiona Ma said she supported vocational education and wanted to see more programs like CityBuild in San Francisco, the pre-apprenticeship program that trains low-income residents in the trades. “We need to fund vocational education in the schools,” she said. “With all our infrastructure bonds, who is going to build all those projects?” Ma said she wanted to bring high speed rail service to the state but that, “We need to train people or we’ll have a gap in the workforce.”

Yee said he supported the bills and that, “I took wood shop and auto shop; any young person should have that experience.”
Ruskin said he wanted to get funding for vocational education back in the budget and see that Voc. Ed. students could still go to college. He said he wanted to know more of the details about AB 1586, which requires that the Cal. State University system count vocational education classes towards admissions entrance requirements.

Migden said she was a strong Voc. Ed. supporter, and that one of her bills was vetoed last year. Regarding SB 672, which would require students to complete two vocational education classes to graduate high school, Migden said, “I’m not sure about making it compulsory for people who don’t want to continue into the trades. We need to make it available for those who want it.”

Senator Simitian said that he had supported similar measures in the past. “This is an area where we have the governor on our side supporting vocational education,” he said. “There’s a better awareness now but we have to connect the funding to it to get it done.”

The legislators were asked to support the bills reauthorizing Labor Compliance Programs. Ruskin said he hadn’t seen the bills yet but supported them in concept. Migden said she supported SB 18 and SB 191 but hadn’t seen the Assembly Bill yet. Yee said “I will absolutely support the bills.” Simitian said that while, “I never commit until I read the bills, I have supported this in the past and support the concept [of the labor compliance programs.]” Fiona Ma said she supports the legislation.

Andrew Dadko of UNITE-HERE Local 2 thanked the legislators for their support of the food service contractor code of conduct and the federal Employee Free Choice Act. He urged them to oppose the new Indian Gaming Compacts negotiated by Schwarzenegger that do not include worker protections and the right to organize through card-check recognition.

Ira Ruskin and Leland Yee said they were supportive and watching the legislation. Mark Leno said, “We are negotiating with sovereign nations but we are a sovereign nation as well and need to represent our constituents—working men and women. The governor threw this at us last year and we were up against well-funded entities, but we did not blink and elected democrats [like State Controller John Chiang, targeted by the gaming tribes]. We will stand our ground and we won’t support any compacts without labor protections.”

Leno said that while the governor and gaming tribes say the state will receive $500 million annually through expansion of Indian Gaming, the legislative analyst puts the amount at $100 million. “We shouldn’t balance the budget through gaming and adding tens of thousands of Las Vegas-style slot machines,” Leno said, adding that “Nothing in the compacts call for auditing of the money.” He said that while the compacts couldn’t be amended by the state legislature, some side agreements may be reached if they pass.

The State Senate passed the compacts April 19, with Migden and Yee voting against and Simitian voting for the bills expanding tribal gaming operations.

Stan Kiino of the Association of Flight Attendants District Council 11 and Joe DeBono of IAM Local 1781 asked the legislators help make sure Virgin America respects workers’ rights. DeBono pointed out that Virgin’s Richard Branson had already broken a promise to buy union-made aircraft and contracted with anti-union vendors. Senator Yee said that, “We will work with you and make sure they don’t downgrade standards for workers.” Ruskin pledged to work with labor and Simitian said, “When you get to that critical time when my voice can help you with management, I’ll be there.”

Mark Goodwin of the Fair Trade Coalition asked Senators Yee and Migden to support efforts to have the state legislature play a role in US trade policy. He pointed out that a number of states have passed resolutions opposing renewal of the Fast Track negotiating authority. Migden and Yee both said they were supportive of labor’s efforts to stop fast track. “The Bush administration is only looking at helping investors get a return on their investments, not helping create jobs. We are losing manufacturing jobs and the trade deficit is widening with China,” Yee said. “We have to engage agressively with our federal officials and put pressure on our Congressional delegation.” Yee chairs the Senate Select Committee on Pacific Trade.

Legislators were also asked by Ed Murray of the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121 to support SB 361 to equalize funding for non-credit courses at community colleges. The governor cut the $30 million budgeted for non-credit courses. Migden said, “You fought long and hard for it and it should be in the budget. The governor’s numbers and the budget analyst’s numbers aren’t the same, but $30 million seems like something we can deal with.” Yee agreed that, “We have to honor the obligation.”

Fran Schrieber of Worksafe asked for support of AB 515, which would provide protection for workers exposed to hazardous substances in the workplace that cause cancer, reproductive harm or other chronic health effects. Joe Simitian said as a member of the Environmental Quality Committee, he was looking at the issue, “starting with bills on reporting requirements,” saying, “We can’t protect people if we don’t know what they are exposed to.”

The legislative lobbying sessions enabled union members to get some commitments from Bay Area legislators to support labor bills. Senator Simitian said he welcomed the opportunity to meet with constituents from the labor community. “It’s more helpful than you may realize to connect what we do here with real people’s needs,” he said.

SMCLC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Shelley Kessler said that there were a number of bills before the legislature impacting workers, and that the Labor Council would continue to monitor their status and keep union members informed about the issues and how local office holders vote.

Future issues of Labor and the SMCLC website (www.sanmateolaborcouncil.org) will have updates on the California Labor Federation and Building Trades Council supported bills.

Also on April 17, several hundred union members rallied for universal healthcare.

For a comparison of the various health care reform proposals that the legislature may take up, check the website of the California Labor Federation, www.calaborfed.org.

- Paul Burton

San Mateo and San Francisco labor leaders met with local legislators at the state capitol April 17. Pictured, left to right, San Mateo County Central Labor Council Political Director Christa Indriolo, SMCLC President Linda Gregory, San Mateo Building Trades Business Manager Bill Nack, SMCLC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Shelley Kessler, San Francisco Building Trades Executive Secretary Mike Theriault, San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Tim Paulson, SF Labor Council President Conny Ford, and SF Labor Council Political Director Pilar Schiavo. Photos by Paul Burton.