Campaigns / Policy Campaign Wins
Policy Campaign Wins
CCWP has supported the passage of dozens of ally bills and hundreds of millions of dollars in budget allocations to strengthen protection against retaliation, expand enforcement of anti-discriminations laws at the local level, advance worker protections, prevent technology surveillance, and close corporate loopholes.
California Coalition for Worker Power Policy Campaigns and Priorities
2026
Assemblymember Kalra
Assembly bill 2495 amends Labor Code §1019 to make clear that immigration-related coercion itself is unlawful, even when workers have not yet engaged in any protected activity. The bill would Prohibit employers and others from coercing workers through unfair immigration-related practices to preemptively induce silence, inaction, or compliance. It would also clarify that actions designed to dissuade a worker from exercising their rights are unlawful. It preserves existing retaliation protections while closing the loophole that allows coercion that is not tethered to an employee’s protected activity.
Truth in Disclosure Act
Assemblymember Bryan
Assembly bill 2599 increases corporate transparency and public trust by requiring companies in specific industries to disclose their historical ties to slavery. Creates a public digital platform to house these disclosures and associated data.
Protect California Rights Act
Senator Perez
Senate bill 1105 requires interagency agreements with the federal government and out-of-state law enforcement to expressly state that California law enforcement will not engage in racial profiling, criminalization of speech, or use of unauthorized weapons of war. The bill also ensures that the state of California does not give federal law enforcement officers acting beyond their federal jurisdiction broad power to stop and arrest Californians.
Stand for Security Act
Senator Smallwood-Cuevas
Senate bill 1203 strengthens safety, accountability, and workforce standards for California’s private security officers through an increased training requirement and expanded de-escalation and in-person classroom training. The bill also addresses low pay and working conditions through Industrial Wage Commission review, establishes a reporting requirement to ensure training is conducted, and reduces racial profiling through improved training standards on implicit bias.
2025
Codify the Workplace Outreach Project (CWOP)
Smallwood-Cuevas
The California Workplace Outreach Program (CWOP), California’s unique and highly effective workplace outreach and training partnership between labor agencies and community groups, was launched during the pandemic and expanded in 2023. The program has evolved to conduct outreach to workers to educate them on “know-your-rights” training as a response to the hostile current conditions. Senate bill 578 codifies this program into the Labor Code making it a permanent program and protecting funding.
Notice of Worker Rights
Senator Reyes
SB 294 educates workers and employers of their labor and civil rights under state and federal law to ensure adequate, just, and equal enforcement of those rights.
Protect Workers’ Rights to Organize
Assemblymember McKinnor
Assembly Bill 288 expands the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) jurisdiction to decide unfair labor practices cases and order all appropriate relief for a violation, including civil penalties
Tip Theft Enforcement
Senator Smallwood-Cuevas
Senate Bill 648 grants the Labor Commissioner authority to investigate and take legal action against an employer who takes or deducts gratuities from employees.
Right to Organize Gig Workers
Assemblymembers Wicks, Berman
Assembly Bill 1340 establishes the right to organize and join together in a union for all gig rideshare drivers. The bill protects gig workers from retaliation to improve their working conditions and sets a process for gig drivers to choose a union and bargain with gig corporations
Re-establish Farm Liens to Farmworkers
Senator McNerny
Senate Bill 846 removes the term “limited partnerships” in the existing farmworker lien statute to align with modern agriculture businesses. This allows the lien to continue to attach to crops and farm products to advance worker protections in the agricultural industry.
Repeat Wage Theft Accountability
Assemblymember Gabriel
Assembly Bill 1002 protects workers from serious wage theft violations by allowing the California Department of Justice (DOJ) to seek the license revocation or suspension, or put conditions on licenses, of contractors that have repeatedly violated wage theft laws.
2024
Local enforcement on discrimination claims
Senator Smallwood-Cuevas
Senate Bill 1340 boosts enforcement of employment nondiscrimination laws in California through state partnerships with local agencies. This law applies to all protected classes of workers named in California’s workplace nondiscrimination laws.
Unlawful discrimination against paid sick days
Assemblymember Schiavo
Assembly Bill 2499 expands safe leave rights to employees or family members who have experienced violent or traumatic events. It would also expand rights to safety accommodations to family members, and streamline the process through which workers can assert their rights
Report state vacancies
Assemblymember McKinnor
Assembly Bill 2561 protects public jobs and the quality of public services by requiring local public agencies to develop, publish, and implement a plan to fill vacant positions when vacancy rates reach more than 20% for one bargaining unit in a six-month period.
Ban Captive audiences
Senator Wahab
Senate Bill 399 protects workers who refuse to attend meetings held by their employer to communicate the employer’s political or religious views, including “captive audience” meetings for the purpose of discouraging workers from organizing a union.
Notice of grocery and pharmacy closures
Senator Smallwood-Cuevas
Senate Bill 1089 helps mitigate the harms from abrupt disruptions in access to food and prescription medication, especially in underserved or at-risk African Americans communities, by requiring 45-day advance notice for grocery store of pharmacy with 5 or more employees; a 60-day notice for business under the California WARN act; and a 30-day notice for businesses with less than 5 employees.
Extended paid family leave
Senator Durazo
Senate Bill 1090 provides working families with more timely access to Paid Family Leave (PFL) and State Disability Insurance (SDI) benefits by allowing workers to apply for these benefits prior to the start of their leave, up to 14 days in advance of an anticipated leave.
Discrimination protection
Senator Smallwood-Cuevas
Senate Bill 1137 clarifies that California laws prohibiting discrimination and harassment on the basis of protected characteristics – race, gender, age, disability and sexual orientation, etc. – also apply to intersectional identities where two or more of the characteristics result in a unique form of discrimination. For example, a Black woman could experience workplace discrimination based on her race or gender, but also a combination of the two, making her subject to a set of stereotypes and assumptions not shared by Black men or white women.
Extend health and safety laws to domestic workers
Senator Durazo
Senate Bill 1350 ensures that California complies with federal law by extending CA occupational safety and health act coverage to the more than 175,000 domestic workers who work for homecare, cleaning, or nanny agencies.
2023
Equal Pay and Anti-Retaliation Act
Senator Smallwood-Cuevas
In 2023, CCWP launched the “Our Voice, Our Jobs Campaign” campaign to protect workers against retaliation at the workplace. The campaign was successful in passing SB 497 (Smallwood-Cuevas), the Equal Pay and Anti-Retaliation Act to shift the burden of proof onto the employer for all retaliation claims filed with the Labor Commissioners Office.