California to weigh in on private labor disputes if NLRB can’t
California will try to resolve labor disputes between union workers and their employers if the National Labor Relations Board can’t or won’t swiftly resolve them after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 288 into law Tuesday.
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, D-Hawthorne, proposed AB 288 earlier this year to ensure private sector workers had a “real right to unionize,” citing employers using the NLRB’s slow response time to slow-walk or ignore labor law requiring them to negotiate with unions.
The NLRB has come under fire in recent years as conglomerates facing union drives like Amazon and Starbucks have challenged the 90-year-old federal agency’s constitutionality. President Donald Trump immediately fired Jennifer Abruzzo, the labor watchdog’s top attorney, after taking office in January, and more recently its board chair, Gwynne Wilcox, depriving the agency of a quorum to move forward with ruling on labor cases. The agency had been underfunded for more than a decade before coming into the current administration’s crosshairs.
AB 288 expands the state Public Employment Relations Board’s powers over private sector labor disputes like unfair labor practice charges and enforcing collective bargaining agreements. Other blue states, including New York, are trying to expand their state labor agencies’ powers over issues that would normally be decided under the National Labor Relations Act, citing Trump’s antipathy to organized labor.
“With the federal government not only asleep at the wheel, but driving into incoming traffic, it is more important than ever that states stand up to protect workers and ensure they have a path to defend their right to organize and collectively bargain,” Newsom said in a statement after signing AB 288. “California is a proud labor state — and we will continue standing up for the workers that keep our state running and our economy booming.”
The bill, which applies to all workers covered by the National Labor Relations Act as of Jan. 1, 2025, would allow PERB to step in if the NLRB does not respond to unfair labor practice challenges, issue bargaining orders or respond to certification petitions within six months.
McKinnor said her bill was necessary in light of “Trump attempting to take a wrecking ball to public and private sector employees’ fundamental right to join a union and collectively bargain for fair wages, benefits and safe working conditions.”
“This is unacceptable and frankly, un-American. California will not sit idly as its workers are systematically denied the right to organize due to employer intransigence or federal inaction,” she said. “Governor Newsom is on the right side of history by signing AB 288 into law and I am thankful for his continued leadership to protect workers across the Golden State.”
Lorena Gonzalez, the California Labor Federation leader who has sparred with labor antagonists like Elon Musk, called AB 288 the “most significant labor law reform in nearly a century.”
“We commend Governor Gavin Newsom for standing up for California workers and our fundamental right to collectively bargain,” she said. “California workers will no longer be forced to rely on a failing federal agency when they join together to unionize.”
AB 288 could trigger federal challenges. Acting NLRB General Counsel William Cowen told Bloomberg earlier this month he planned to sue New York after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a similar bill, which he called a “direct attack” on the federal agency’s authority.
