This week, Gov. Jerry Brown released his May Revise of the state budget, which proposes major reforms to the state’s broken Enterprise Zone program. “Created over 25 years ago, the Enterprise Zone program should be reshaped to meet the needs of the current economy. In its current form, it fails to encourage the creation of new jobs and instead rewards moving jobs from one place to another within the state,” the Governor wrote in his May Revise.

Gov. Brown’s reforms would put an end to the fire-and-replace scheme that has cost our state billions while creating no new jobs, and would shift the focus of the program to creating incentives for companies to hire the long-term unemployed, unemployed veterans and low-income Californians.     Read More

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Although state revenue collections were ahead of the Governor’s January budget projections, the May Revision takes a more cautious approach, saying “the influx is expected to be short-lived.” Education finance would be reformed under his proposal, effectively eliminating earmarks for categorical programs in favor of supplements to districts with disproportionate numbers of economically disadvantaged students and English language learners. The proposal to shift Adult Education to the Community College system has been deferred for two years under the latest proposal.

In the health and human services area, the Governor commits to a state-led Medi-Cal expansion, but proposes to realign responsibilities for human services to the counties utilizing what he believes will be monies saved due to health care reform.

Governor Brown declined to enact a series of regulatory reforms to the California Enterprise Zone program, proposing a more modest restructuring of the program instead.

Read more about the Governor’s May Revision in the following analyses

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Your Executive Board voted to join a grassroots community effort to halt oil companies from further degrading our state. Californians Against Fracking (CAF) is a coalition of environmental, consumer, business, faith, health, agriculture, labor, political, and environmental justice organizations working to win a statewide ban on fracking in California. Adam Scow of Food and Water Watch explains why this practice is a danger to the environment and public health here.       read more

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Over the past three years, the San Francisco Giants have won two World Series Championships and achieved astonishing financial success. Meanwhile, the hardworking concession workers that serve the Giants fans at AT&T Park haven’t seen a wage increase in more than 1,500 days. These workers been fighting for a fair contract for three years, but their employer, the concessionaire company Centerplate, continues to push for wage freezes and cuts to health care, prompting the workers to vote in favor of authorizing a strike at the park if needed.

The concessions workers need your support in their fight for justice. Sign their online petition today to urge the SF Giants and Centerplate to take care of the workers who take care of Giants fans.  Read more and sign petition

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A recent Labor's Edge article by Mike Hall explains a new report "How Immigration Reform Can Stop Retaliation and Advance Labor Rights," outlines how employers across the country are gaming today’s broken immigration system to exploit immigrant workers and evade both labor and immigration laws. The report by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) uses two dozen case studies as examples of employers’ use of immigration enforcement or the threat of it to retaliate against workers who seek their basic workplace rights. read more

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Our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is worse than we think.

 

This inspiring artwork was created for AFSCME Minnesota Council 5 by Ricardo Levins Morales, a Minneapolis artist whose themes depict power.
This piece was part of Council 5's campaign to defeat constitutional amendments proposed by the right wing to restrict human rights, civil rights, and worker rights. They successfully beat back the so-called “right to work” for less, and defeated ballot initiatives to ban same-sex marriage and to require photo identification to vote. Ricardo’s artwork has given them a strong identity, symbolizing to members what the union fights for.

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