x-posted from The Bayne of Blog

Last night, I was privileged to attend a dinner honoring fifteen state legislators for standing with working families. The California Labor Federation and State Building and Construction Trades Council sponsored the dinner as part of their annual Joint Legislative Conference.

Honored for their 100% labor voting record were State Senators Ellen Corbett, Christine Kehoe, Carol Migden, Darrell Steinberg, and Patricial Wiggins. Also honored were Assemblymembers Julia Brownley, Mark DeSaulnier, Mike Eng, Ed Hernandez, Dave Jones, Mark Leno, Fiona Ma, Ira Ruskin, Lori Saldaña, and Sandré Swanson.

Among the votes for which they were honored were these.

They voted to crack down on the underground economy by strengthening labor compliance programs and by supporting real penalties for employers who intentionally misclassify workers as independent contractors.

They voted to improve childcare quality for working families by giving childcare providers a right to organize.

They voted to increase benefits for permanently disabled workers, after the Schwarzenegger Administration slashed benefits by 70%.

They voted against tribal gaming compacts that denied casino workers a real right to organize.

They voted against a repeal of the 8-hour work day and a takeaway of the guaranteed right to a lunch break.

They voted for a resolution calling on Congress to overturn the “Kentucky River” decision to protect the right of charge nurses – and all lead workers – to join a union.

They voted to protect our members’ health care, control health care cost, require the state to disclose which employers have their workers on publicly funded health care programs, and expand coverage through a statewide purchasing pool for health insurance.

The voted to promote worker safety by banning the dangerous butter flavoring chemical diacetyl and instituting an indoor heat standard.