A few important legislators stood out last year as real friends of labor. The California Labor Federation’s Labor Legislative Scorecard rated Senators Ellen Corbett (D-Hayward), Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), and Bill Monning (D-Carmel) 100% for their pro-labor committee and floor voting records in 2014.
The State Assembly showed itself to be more progressive, boasting a 100% rating for roughly 43% of its representatives in terms of labor legislation. Important bills passed in the Senate for workers were Sen. Monning’s SB 193, protecting workers from workplace chemicals; SB 862 to fund high-speed rail from cap-and-trade revenue, and Sen. Leno’s SB 935 to step-increase the minimum wage from $11 to $13 an hour by 2017, as well as his measure SB 1182 to improve healthcare transparency.
