Posts tagged Gavin Newsom
AI JITTERS IN THE WORKPLACE: STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE WORKERS TO EMBRACE NEW TECHNOLOGY
October 19, 2023 // The AI fear is definitely real, too. An APA study revealed that 4 out of 10 workers fret over being replaced by AI. Goldman Sachs predicted that at least 300 million jobs could be on the line, and Forrester reports that 45 million workers could lose jobs by 2030. OpenAI adds that 80% of workers will see daily tasks affected, and a Pew Research Center report shows that over 50% of Americans worry about AI’s potentially harmful effects. Also important to note We don’t know how Chat GPT will evolve or devolve. We don’t know how the government will fully regulate it and other AI tools. In other words, hang tight and be ready to adapt. By adopting efforts to include solutions in your positive employee relations efforts, you can boost engagement, retention, and communicate to your employees that you have their technology concerns in mind.
California Freelancer Says She Questioned How She Would ‘Survive’ Under This State Law
October 16, 2023 // Anderson says she has worked for almost 25 years as a freelance writer, an editor or managing editor, and a photographer. She says she “started investigating” the state’s new law “and I realized that … it encompassed all professions.” “So golf caddies, videographers, photographers, nurse practitioners, whatever. So I thought, well, I want to find out how it’s affecting other people, not just me,” Anderson says of the law, adding: And so I started this public Facebook group just to see if I could hear some people’s stories and … sure enough, they started coming in in … November and December, people started losing their livelihoods overnight. Anderson, a participant in a recent Heritage Foundation panel discussion, is today’s guest on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” She shares the No. 1 takeaway of the California law with listeners and discusses what’s being done to change it.
Union-backed bills pose biggest challenges to cities
October 16, 2023 // The reasons: a tight labor market with unemployment under 4% and pro-union policies by the Biden administration. But one reason not cited is the difficulty of fighting union power in one-party, Democratic states such as California, New York and Illinois. Indeed, the SEIU’s clout was shown this month when Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the late Dianne Feinstein. Most recently the head of Emily’s List, Butler was before that president of SEIU California, representing 700,000 California workers. Through its contributions, the SEIU has a stranglehold on hundreds of local officials in the state. When Republican clout is moribund – and the party seemingly can’t get its act together, as most glaringly in California – there’s no countervailing power to union demands. Urban residents are most dependent on public services and the tourism and entertainment industries represented by these newly energized unions. Strikes always are disruptive and can paralyze an economy, damaging city finances and driving away businesses. The rusted-out remnant of Detroit, until the 1960s dubbed the Paris of the West, is a cautionary example. But one California economic sector will benefit for sure: moving companies. Better pack up before they’re unionized, too.
Newsom vetoes bill to expand worker layoff protections to contract labor
October 10, 2023 // The bill would have extended the WARN-required notice period of impending layoffs, closure or relocation — which applies to companies of a certain size — to 75 days from 60 days. For the rules to apply to employees of labor contractors, they would have been required to work at least six of the 12 months and at least 60 hours preceding the date on which a mass layoff notice is required. Employees of a labor contractor completing a temporary project with a defined end date would have been exempt. Newsom also questioned the bill’s expansion of the kinds of companies that would be subject to the WARN Act to include chain businesses, even when such layoffs might be geographically far apart and unrelated.
After years of setbacks, California legislative workers win the right to unionize
October 9, 2023 // Several factors gave supporters hope this year. Chief among them was the Legislature’s leftward shift after the 2022 midterm election, which brought in a fresh class of diverse, progressive and labor-friendly Democrats. McKinnor amassed 42 co-authors from both chambers, including Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and Senator Dave Cortese (D-Santa Clara), chair of the Senate labor committee. Last month, California lawmakers in both chambers approved AB 1 by more than a two-thirds majority. Many of the Democrats champion unions and labor issues, a point of contention among some staffers who argued the members should play by the same rules as the rest of California’s employers.
Labor forged Laphonza Butler. Could unions ‘sling-shot’ her Senate bid?
October 9, 2023 // Already, the primary field is crowded with the three labor-friendly Democrats, whose policy takes on worker issues are barely different from one another. “We have an embarrassment of riches here,” Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, leader of the California Labor Federation, said at its May candidate forum. Butler, however, would be the only candidate to have lived and breathed union organizing. The longtime political consultant served as the president of both the SEIU California State Council — the political coordination arm of the union — and SEIU Local 2015.
California Public School Students Will Learn About Labor Rights Under First-of-Its-Kind Law
October 4, 2023 // Under A.B. 800, all public high schools in California will hold "Workplace Readiness Week" as part of their curriculum. Students will gain a "strong understanding of their rights as workers, as well as their explicit rights as employed minors" and learn about their right to join or organize a union in their workplace.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom to name former Kamala Harris advisor to Feinstein Senate seat
October 2, 2023 // Butler's biography on the Emily's List says she currently lives in Maryland, but that line was deleted from the website Sunday evening within hours of the news of her appointment. Newsom's office told ABC News that Butler moved to the Washington D.C. area when she became president of EMILY's List in 2021 but she is a longtime resident and homeowner in California, and will re-register in the state before being sworn in.

Gov. Newsom rejects bill to give unemployment checks to striking workers
October 2, 2023 // The fund the state uses to pay unemployment benefits is already more than $18 billion in debt. That's because the fund ran out of money and had to borrow from the federal government during the pandemic, when Newsom ordered most businesses to close and caused a massive spike in unemployment. The fund was also beset by massive amounts of fraud that cost the state billions of dollars.

Gavin Newsom signs law raising minimum wage for California fast food workers. Here’s how much
September 28, 2023 // Future increases will be determined by the new nine-member council consisting of two representatives of the industry, two franchisees or restaurant owners, two employees, two advocates for employees and one neutral member of the public, who will serve as chair. It is set to hold its first meeting by March 1. Newsom pushed back against criticism that Californians will pay more for their Starbucks and McDonalds. He cited the The Fight for $15 movement, which raised the minimum wage to $10 per hour in 2016 and and $15 per hour last year.