California Ends Session With Victories for Labor, Environment

California lawmakers wrapped up their annual business Thursday night with major victories for organized labor. Minimum wage increases for fast-food and health-care employees and Hollywood-aimed unemployment benefits for striking workers now head to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.

The legislature also showcased its progressive muscle, a point of pride in the Golden State, with first-in-the nation measures to require greenhouse gas emission and climate risk disclosures. A ground-breaking bill offering a “delete button” that all residents can use to erase personal information amassed by data brokers builds on California’s nationwide leadership in privacy regulation.

The traditional September marathon session, in which state lawmakers typically clear hundreds of bills, carried few surprises with Democratic supermajorities in both chambers.

Business interests won some last-minute concessions in two areas. Sponsors of the fast-food bill dropped language that would have held restaurant chains liable for labor violations at restaurants operated by franchisees. The health-care bill now includes provisions to boost the pay rate at dialysis centers and larger employers at a much faster pace than at other facilities.

With Newsom’s signature, the minimum wage for on-site health-care workers will go up to $25 an hour, and workers at major fast-food chains will get a minimum pay bump of up to $20 an hour.

In both cases, labor and business also agreed to drop any effort to fight the issues out on a statewide referendum on next year’s ballot, a strategy that business groups have used in recent years to stymie labor gains in the state legislature.

The labor bills were pushed by the Service Employees International Union as the group’s top legislative priorities.

Help for Movie Workers

With actors and screenwriters still on the picket lines, lawmakers also passed a bill that would extend unemployment benefits to striking workers starting next year.

State law currently excludes workers from unemployment insurance if they are out of work due to a strike. But amid a summer of labor unrest across California, unions and Democratic lawmakers made a last-minute push to extend benefits to those workers.

California’s confusing tradition of putting policy questions directly to voters surfaced in two amendments addressing the threshold needed to pass ballot initiatives on state and local initiatives that include tax increases or address infrastructure.

As a rule, Newsom doesn’t hint in advance how he’ll handle the slate of bills the legislature sends him, but he’s unlikely to reject the flagship climate and privacy proposals. There is doubt, however, about how he’ll react to two measures affecting the tech industry.

Newsom has previously said a Teamsters-backed bill to require drivers in autonomous trucks would stifle the state’s tech sector. State lawmakers also passed a bill to regulate California’s cryptocurrency industry Thursday, even though Newsom vetoed a similar measure last year.