‘Striketober’ put a spotlight on the troubled state of labor in California and the country

If you’ve driven down Douglas Boulevard at any hour during the past few weeks, rain or shine, you’ve probably seen striking workers holding down a 24-hour picket line outside Roseville’s expansive Kaiser complex. Over 700 operating engineers and biomedical technicians resorted to the strike over what they say are substandard wages.

It’s not just engineers on the picket line. More than 24,000 Kaiser Permanente employees represented by the Alliance of Healthcare Unions recently voted to authorize a strike, too. The strike votes came amid a wave of labor unrest sweeping the nation. “Striketober” affected tens of thousands of workers across an array of industries, from John Deere tractor factories to Kellogg’s cereal plants, from Alabama coal miners to Massachusetts nurses.

Pressure from labor groups and unions has led to better worker protections particularly in California, including the freedom to unionize, a relatively high minimum wage and paid sick leave, among other critical worker rights. Yet progress stalled on several fronts this legislative session, which saw Gov. Gavin Newsom sign several labor bills but shoot down others.

America’s workers, meanwhile, seem to be done waiting for legislative action to improve conditions. This is a historic moment in which workers are leveraging a combination of labor shortages and festering pandemic-era frustrations. Growing discontent with pay, health care coverage, benefits and ever-changing COVID guidelines have brought many of America’s essential workers to a breaking point.

“People are aware, after the pandemic, of what they sacrificed,” said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego. “We’re seeing more and more striking workers. This is about ensuring a re-balance of democracy. If this doesn’t continue, we’re headed in a bad direction.”

Workers deemed essential risked their health and that of their families to keep the economy on life support throughout the pandemic. Now, many are being forced to work extra hours at the same wages due to labor shortages. Meanwhile, some of the corporations they work for are bringing in record profits. During the pandemic, American billionaires got $1.2 trillion richer.

Last week, employees at a Jack in the Box in Folsom held a demonstration outside the restaurant after management allegedly threatened to call immigration enforcement when employees complained about wage theft and a lack of meal or rest breaks or COVID precautions. Crystal Orozco, one of the protesting Jack in The Box employees, is a local leader with the Fight for $15 and a Union effort, which seeks better pay and representation for fast food and other low-wage workers.

Gonzalez’s Assembly Bill 257, which would make California the first state to set pay and workplace standards for its fast food industry, failed to pass the Assembly in June, though it is expected to be reconsidered next year. Setting minimum standards for wages, working conditions and training, it would be a critical step toward long-overdue support for employees who are making the bare minimum.

The stalling of AB 257 is part of a pattern of slowing labor progress in the state. Newsom recently vetoed AB 616, which would have allowed farm workers to vote by mail in union elections, as well as a Gonzalez bill to make paid family leave more affordable for lower-wage workers. And it remains to be seen whether California can repair its run-down unemployment insurance system.

But we’re still “head and shoulders” above other states on labor rights, Gonzalez said, and she hopes to see the fast food and farm workers’ protections become law next year.

It certainly shouldn’t be up to oversubscribed, underpaid workers to make conditions better on their own. Government must help, especially in a supposedly pro-worker state.

Thus far, strikes and walkouts across the country are being seen as a wave, not a movement. But a dramatic shift in workers’ willingness to speak out, walk out or even quit could force more employers and politicians to reckon with the myriad ways in which American workers continue to be mistreated.