With signs of economic turbulence ahead, more than 50 progressive organizations call to further strengthen safety net for communities already struggling to make ends meet
Sacramento, CA – The Building the California Dream Alliance – a broad coalition of progressive organizations – today announced that their unified efforts pushed California toward greater equity and justice in 2022, with 13 coalition priorities adopted through legislation and the budget process. Advocacy by the Alliance and its member organizations achieved significant victories in the areas of gender and LGBTQ equity, health care and economic justice, racial justice, and empowering workers.
“Governor Newsom and legislators adopted key pieces of the Building the California Dream Alliance agenda this year, heeding the call of more than 50 organizations to strengthen California’s leadership on economic justice, equity, and worker empowerment this year,” said Mariko Yoshihara, Policy Director for the California Employment Lawyers Association. “By enacting nation-leading protections for women’s reproductive health, empowering fast food workers to transform their workplaces, expanding civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ Californians and more, California has not only set a strong course for the rest of the nation to follow, but made a real, tangible difference in the lives of millions of Californians.”
See below: list of Alliance priorities enacted in 2022.
As storm clouds gather over the economy, Alliance member organizations cautioned that California must do more to protect Californians who are already struggling to provide for their families. Our economy has been rigged by corporations, giving them largely unchecked power to hold down wages, exploit barriers to prosperity for people of color, and steer public dollars into tax breaks for the wealthy rather than support for struggling families. As a result, it is workers in low-wage jobs and their families, communities of color, and vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities who will suffer most in a recession, without decisive action by state leaders. Pushing forward policies and budget priorities that prioritize workers and communities over corporate executives will be a key focus of the Alliance’s work in 2023 and beyond.
“The threat of an economic downturn creates even greater urgency to change the rules so working people, regardless of their immigration status and our communities have a fair shot, not just the wealthy and CEOs,” said Rita Medina, Deputy Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). “Without strong action to protect families and communities who are already struggling, the next recession will decimate the same frontline workers and Black and Brown communities left exposed to the COVID-19 virus and economic harm. The lesson of the Great Recession was that governments must act early and boldly to prevent greater devastation.”
The Building the California Dream Alliance was founded in 2015 to further a progressive, positive vision for California, offering a sharp contrast to the Chamber of Commerce’s cynical, anti-worker, anti-environment agenda. Each year the coalition outlines an ambitious agenda to uplift families, empower workers and communities, and expand opportunities for all Californians to take part in the California Dream. This year, 13 of the coalition’s priorities were signed into law:
2022 BUILDING THE CALIFORNIA DREAM ALLIANCE PRIORITY VICTORIES
GENDER EQUITY
SB 1162 – LIMON (SIGNED). Will help to close the gender and race wage gaps by increasing pay transparency. Specifically, this bill would require employers to report pay data broken down by race, ethnicity, and sex for both direct employees and employees hired through a labor contractor. It would also require employers to provide pay scales on all job postings.
AB 2223 – WICKS (SIGNED). Protects Californians from pregnancy criminalization, ensuring that no one in the State of California will be investigated, prosecuted, or incarcerated for ending a pregnancy or experiencing pregnancy loss.
HEALTHCARE & LONG-TERM CARE ACCESS FOR ALL
AB 1130 – WOOD (ADVANCED THROUGH BUDGET). Creates the Office of Health Care Affordability to collect and analyze information and identify trends in health care prices in order to address costs across the entire health care system. The Office will set enforceable cost targets for health care affordability while also aiming to improve quality and equity.
AB 204 – CARILLO and HERTZBERG (ADVANCED THROUGH BUDGET). Directs $70 million s to address healthcare workforce retention challenges at community clinics, also known as federally Qualified Health Centers, The funding invests in community clinic healthcare workers serving California’s low-income communities of color through retention payments.
SB 923 – WIENER (SIGNED). Creates a workgroup to establish first-in-the nation quality standards for transgender, gender diverse, and intersex (TGI) patient experience and recommend related training curriculum; mandates health plans to require TGI cultural competency training for their staff; incorporates TGI training into continuing medical education framework; requires plan provider directories to identify providers who offer gender affirming services; and requires relevant oversight departments to track and monitor complaints relating to TGI-inclusive care and publicly post findings in their annual reports or website.
INCOME & FOOD SECURITY
SB 731 – DURAZO (SIGNED). Extends a current law that seals the record of old misdemeanor and some felony convictions to include non-violent, non-serious, non-sexual felony convictions that resulted in a sentence of prison incarceration and allows people convicted of more serious felonies to petition a judge to have their old conviction sealed. It creates a comprehensive process to electronically seal conviction and arrest records in the state of California once a person has fully completed their sentence and successfully gone four years without further contact with the justice system. Records of arrests that didn’t result in a conviction would also be electronically sealed.
SB 972 – GONZALEZ (SIGNED). Known as the Enhancing Safety of Sidewalk Vending Act, this bill enables street vendors to obtain county health permits to lawfully sell certain foods.
LGBTQ EQUALITY & RIGHTS
AB 1041 – WICKS (SIGNED). Updates current law to allow an employee to use their leave time to care for any individual related by blood or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.
RACIAL JUSTICE
AB 256 – KALRA (SIGNED). Would make the California Racial Justice Act of 2020 retroactive, ensuring that people now in prison and jail can challenge racial bias in their convictions and trials.
FINANCIAL SECURITY
SB 1477 – WIECKOWSKI (SIGNED). This bill builds on previous legislation authored by Wieckowski (SB 501) in 2015 by increasing the amount protected in a worker’s disposable earnings to $744 per week and reducing the amount over $744 which can be garnished to 40%.
SB 1008 – BECKER (SIGNED) – Requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and youth juvenile facilities or detention centers to provide phone calls free of charge to individuals who are incarcerated.
WORKER RIGHTS
AB 257 – HOLDEN, CARILLO, RIVAS, LEE (SIGNED) – Enacts the FAST Recovery Act to improve standards for workers in the Fast Food Industry. This act would bring together workers, industry and government to help solve systematic problems like low wages, sexual harassment, and violence on the job.
AB 2530 – WOOD (SIGNED) – Provides health benefits through Covered California to workers and their families who lose health benefits due to a labor dispute, ensuring that a worker exercising their right to strike does not lose health coverage for themselves or their families.
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ABOUT THE BUILDING THE CALIFORNIA DREAM ALLIANCE:
We are united in our commitment to the equal worth and dignity of every Californian, inclusive of race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, health status, or age.
Together, we will fight for our communities – for broadly shared prosperity and economic security, educational and job opportunities, a clean environment and a healthy planet, quality and comprehensive healthcare for all, reproductive rights, responsive and democratic government, a strong safety net and justice for all.
California must do a better job of putting our communities and people first – ahead of profit or political gain, and we are working together in order to realize that goal.
The Building the California Dream Alliance includes: ACCE, Advancement Project, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, ACLU California Action, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-CA,, Black Women for Wellness, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, California Attorneys For Criminal Justice (CACJ), California Calls, California Donor Table, California Domestic Workers Coalition, California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA), California Environmental Justice Alliance, California Environmental Voters, California Food & Farming Network , Californians for Safety and Justice, California Labor Federation, California Immigrant Policy Center, California NOW, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, California Reinvestment Coalition, Center for Responsible Lending, Child Care Law Center, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Consumer Attorneys of California, California Chapter (CAIR-CA), Courage California, Disability Rights California, Drug Policy Alliance, Earth Justice , Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Equality California, Equal Rights Advocates, Friends Committee on Legislation of California, Health Access, Housing Now!, Latino Coalition For A Healthy California , Legal Aid at Work, Lutheran Office of Public Policy, NARAL Pro-Choice California, NextGen California , PICO California, PolicyLink, Public Advocates, SEIU California, Sierra Club California, Smart Justice, UFCW, Voices for Progress, Western Center on Law & Poverty, and the Worker-Owned Recovery California Coalition.