Sweeping new laws ramping up in 2021 will force California businesses to offer employees more help to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, including measures on disclosure of workplace infections, on healthcare and wage replacement, and on job-protected leave to care for sick family members.
For state lawmakers, 2020 “was a year that started out with lots of aspirational plans,” said Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “But it became a year about saving lives.”
What with legislators’ personal COVID-19 scares and Capitol shutdowns, “leadership basically asked us to kill any bill that wasn’t COVID-related,” said Heath Flora (R-Ripon) vice chair of the Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee.
Sweeping new laws ramping up in 2021 will force California businesses to offer employees more help to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, including measures on disclosure of workplace infections, on healthcare and wage replacement, and on job-protected leave to care for sick family members.
For state lawmakers, 2020 “was a year that started out with lots of aspirational plans,” said Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “But it became a year about saving lives.”
What with legislators’ personal COVID-19 scares and Capitol shutdowns, “leadership basically asked us to kill any bill that wasn’t COVID-related,” said Heath Flora (R-Ripon) vice chair of the Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee.
12/25/2020 | News release | Distributed by Public on 12/24/2020 18:17
Fred HirschâA Working Class Hero Reme
Look at what it says over his left pocketâ¦.
We received news last week of the death of Fred Hirsch ((Nov. 11, 1933 - Dec.15, 2020), a true working class hero. Fred was a giant in the struggle for all human rights, especially labor rights, and a true internationalist. He was Vice President of the Plumber & Pipefitters Local 393 of Santa Clara and San Benito Counties in California. His activism was always rooted in his being a worker and a union member.
Fred had a significant and continuing impact on us at the Alliance for Global Justice. He was a founder of our Worker to Worker Solidarity Committee. He not only proposed its name, but the two points of its mission: to end US labor s dependency on government funding and oversight of its international relations; and to develop a new model of direct, worker to worker solidarity.
AP
SACRAMENTO, Calif. California officials aren’t pulling punches when it comes to going after big corporate capitalists who harm workers, even though it’s the holiday season. The state’s latest moves: Taking on Amazon for not providing coronavirus pandemic data, and fining notorious “gig economy” employer Uber $59 million for not dealing with sexual assault and sexual harassment on the job.
The firms’ actions, slammed by Attorney General Xavier Becerra and a three-judge Public Utilities Commission panel, don’t surprise the California Labor Federation, Communications Director Steve Smith e-mailed. He also said the state fed would work with both the AG’s office and the PUC on the issues.
FILE – In this April 15, 2020, file photo, a farmworker, considered an essential worker, covers his face as he works at a flower farm in Santa Paula, Calif. A pair of advisory committees are making potentially life-and-death decisions starting Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, over who’s next in line for scarce coronavirus vaccines that aren’t expected to be universally available to California’s nearly 40 million residents until sometime deep into next year. Should teachers be among the chosen few? Farmworkers? Grocery workers? Ride-hailing drivers? Each has its constituency lobbying to be included among about 8 million California residents who will be selected for the second round of vaccines early next year. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)