Lorena Gonzalez will leave the Assembly to lead one of California’s most powerful unions

The California lawmaker who wrote a consequential law requiring employers to provide benefits to more workers announced on Monday that she is resigning from the Assembly to become the chief executive of the state’s most powerful labor organization.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, will leave the Legislature this week to lead the California Labor Federation, which is an alliance of 1,200 unions representing some 2 million workers.

She’ll succeed the Labor Federation’s current chief, Art Pulaski, who will retire after serving since 1996.

Gonzalez made the announcement on the floor of the Assembly on Monday. She thanked her colleagues for their support, especially over the last year as she battled breast cancer.

Her resignation, which goes into effect Wednesday, closes her seven years in the California Legislature, including nearly five years as chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

Speaker Anthony Rendon announced Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, would take over as Appropriations chair.

“As a legislator and as a labor leader, my top priority has been to create opportunities that lead to more jobs, better jobs, and better lives for working people,” Gonzalez said. “It’s been an honor to serve the people of San Diego County and the entire state as a lawmaker who tried to accomplish the most amount of good for the most amount of people.”

Gonzalez authored several landmark laws expanding rights for workers, voters, women, and immigrants. She’s gone after powerful corporations and billionaires, including Amazon and Telsa.

In early 2020, she tweeted “F--- Elon Musk” in response to the Tesla CEO’s alleged disregard for worker safety and union busting tactics.

“Message received,” replied Musk, who a year later moved Tesla’s headquarters to Texas.

Gonzalez was the first Latina to chair the appropriations committee and the longest serving leader of that committee. Gonzalez also served as Chairwoman of the California Latino Legislative Caucus in 2019-2020.

“Lorena can be depended upon to stick to her commitments and to be absolutely forthright in expressing her values,” Rendon said in a statement. Assemblywoman “Gonzalez has very understandable personal and professional reasons to make this change at this time and I hope her colleagues and constituents will all join me in supporting her as she does so. We will miss her.”

Gonzalez has a long history advocating for labor, serving as secretary-treasurer and chief executive of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO, between 2008 and 2013. She stepped down from the position when she was elected to be an assemblywoman in a special election in 2013.

She has sponsored a number of prominent labor bills during her tenure, including Assembly Bill 5 in 2019, which required businesses to give employment benefits to more workers and restricted their use of independent contractors.

Last year, she wrote a law that takes aim at Amazon warehouses, compelling them to disclose quotas for their workers and prohibiting them from preventing their employees from taking legally required bathroom breaks.

Gonzalez’s role as head of the labor federation is subject to a formal vote by the Federation Executive Council upon Pulaski’s retirement.

“I couldn’t think of a more qualified, passionate and committed leader to continue the critical advocacy of working people at the nation’s largest state federation of unions,” Pulaski said in a statement.

This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 2:41 PM.