A joke: State workers can unionize except those working for politicians at the Capitol
State workers inside the California Capitol have been twice insulted this week by the very lawmakers for whom they work so hard.
Assemblyman Jim’s Cooper decision to block Assembly Bill 1577 — which would have allowed California Capitol employees to join a union — was a cowardly move that he blamed on “sparing his board from a hard vote,” though taking hard votes is exactly what we send our lawmakers to Sacramento to do.
Since the 1977 Dills Act excluded legislative employees from the collective bargaining privileges given to all other state workers, the people who toil in the service of California politicians have been barred from unionizing,
Cooper is the latest hypocritical politician to benefit from belonging to a union — in his case, when he was a Sacramento County deputy sheriff — but then deny his own staff the opportunity to participate in collective bargaining. Cooper also infamously opposed overtime for farmworkers in 2016.
It’s a mystery what (or rather, who) got to Cooper, D-Elk Grove, in the 30 minutes between his first decision and his second that allowed the bill to finally be heard Wednesday by the Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee, but I’d like to think it was the resounding chorus of “boo” that rang out from the committee audience that got to him.
It was more likely, though, a coded threat from party leadership: Katie Talbot, a spokesperson for Speaker Anthony Rendon, said his office had “reiterated an expectation” to Cooper that the bill would be heard in committee, and so it was brought back to the table.
When AB 1577 was finally heard in Cooper’s committee, the measure fell short of the votes it needed, receiving support solely from Assemblywomen Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, and Lisa Calderon, D-Whittier, while Assemblymen Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, and Randy Voepel, R-San Diego County, did not vote. The capitol workers’ union was dead for the second time in barely an hour.
Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Santa Cruz, who worked so hard with his staff and other legislators to ensure the bill’s approval, pulled no punches in his official statement, saying that he was “devastated” by the outcome.
“To lose this bill, particularly during the waning days of session when staff work around the clock to keep me and my colleagues prepared, is a slap in their faces,” Stone said. “The message is clear. This committee trusts staff with shaping the laws that govern California, but not to bargain for basic working conditions.”
Former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez flat out called Cooper a “liar” on social media and said his claim that he had not been spoken to about the bill in prior discussions was false: “I spent an hour in his waiting room to meet with him and personally spoke to him about this bill for more than 30 minutes, two years ago,” Gonzalez wrote on Twitter. “He refused to meet with me. I forced him by refusing to leave his office.”
Stone, too, said he attempted to speak with Cooper to address his concerns.
“My office reached out to speak to Assembly Public Employment and Retirement before the language was made public,” Stone wrote. “I have made multiple attempts, since May, to talk to the chair and address his concerns but the chair refused to engage in discussions around his issues.”
It’s especially frustrating that Cooper was the one to kill the bill, as he is leaving the Assembly this year after winning the election as Sacramento County Sheriff. The workers at the California Capitol deserve the same rights to collective bargaining and unionization that Cooper’s new employees enjoy.
His refusal to even deign to allow a debate without a threat from higher authority should be of particular concern to Sacramento Central Labor Council AFL-CIO, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, California Professional Firefighters, the California Correctional Supervisors Association and Laborers Local 185 — all of whom endorsed Cooper in his bid for sheriff.
The fact that legislative employees remain barred from unionizing more than half a century after state employees earned that right is shameful. It is hypocritical for our state’s Democratic leadership to say they are in favor of workers’ rights and yet deny their own staff the opportunity to participate in collective bargaining, leaving them at the mercy of their lawmakers’ whims and vulnerable to firing without cause.
Cooper’s blatant disregard for those workers is behavior unbecoming of both an assemblyman and the man slated to be our next sheriff.
