They have waited decades for the right to form a union. But it looks like California’s legislative staffers will have to wait at least two more years.
After a unionization bill failed on the last day of the session last year, legislative leaders declared support for the effort this year, even designating the measure as Assembly Bill 1. But this week, that bill was changed to not take effect until 2026.
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, the bill’s author, agreed to the amendments after recommendations from the Senate labor committee last week.
One legislative employee who supports the effort said staff members wish the implementation date was sooner, but remain optimistic about the bill. Organizers behind the union effort declined to comment on the amendments.
McKinnor said Thursday that she and Sen. Dave Cortese, chairperson of the Senate’s labor committee and a co-author on the bill, did a “deep dive into what it would take to make this work,” and decided to delay its implementation date.
“I just think that we have to get this right, and it’s going to take time for staff to choose a union to represent them, and that part really takes a lot of time,” said McKinnor, a Democrat from Inglewood.
The bill’s eventual passage seems more likely than ever, with a list of 42 co-authors that includes new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, and with McKinnor’s leadership role on the Assembly’s labor and employment committee, where the effort has died four out of the five times it has been proposed. The Assembly passed the bill on a 68-5 vote on May 25.
“I think the political will is here now…. We have people who’ve come in and they genuinely care about this staff,” McKinnor, who is serving her first full-term and is a former legislative staff member…
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