Loni Hancock: Supporting California's Working Families

Assemblymember Loni Hancock has a strong record of supporting California’s working families.  She has carried critical legislation, personally negotiated on behalf of unions, and been arrested on picket lines in support of labor organizing campaigns in her district. Below is a partial list of issues Loni has worked on in support of working people and their unions.

• Loni authored California’s exciting new law to expand hands-on learning and career technical education to lower the unacceptably high dropout rate and better prepare our young people for college and careers.

• Loni has supported all of the UC and CSU affiliated unions in contract negotiations over the years, including the on-going negotiations for AFSCME workers on several UC campuses.  Other unions she has supported in this effort include CUE and UPTE.

• In 2004, as part of the continuing fight with the UC to provide workers with good working conditions and a livable wage, Loni introduced AB 1230 that established card check recognition for employees seeking to organize a union at both UC and CSU systems. The passage of this law lead to a successful organizing effort of graduate assistants.

• In 2004, working in coalition with former Senator Richard Alarcón, Christina Vasquez of the garment workers union, UNITE HERE, SEIU, and the California Labor Federation, Loni was able to pass critical anti-sweatshop legislation.  The new law requires all contractors for state procurement contracts to sign a “Sweat Free” Code of Conduct certifying that they adhere to minimum worker protections and that those products procured for the State were not made using sweatshop labor.

• Loni carried AB 2532 which was supported by the California Labor Federation, CNA, SEIU and AFSCME and would have required hospitals to provide "lift teams" to assist health care workers in lifting patients.

• When SEIU UHW was engaged in their protracted contract battle with Sutter Hospitals, Loni hosted a forum in Oakland to alert the community to licensure issues and charity care limitations on the part of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and regularly advocated for hospital staff before and during union strikes.  Loni has also supported CNA in their contract fight with Sutter.

• Loni has consistently opposed Wal-Mart stores moving into the Bay Area and supported the efforts in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties to keep "Supercenters" out of the area. 

• Over the years Loni has intervened on behalf of SEIU in their efforts to secure better contracts for long-term caregivers and IHSS workers. Recently, she intervened in stalled negotiations over contract renewals with several major nursing home operators.

• Loni intervened on behalf of Berkeley Federation of Teachers to encourage contract settlement, successfully averting a strike.

• Loni is currently working to support immigrant workers at the Woodfin Hotel in Emeryville in their fight for livable wages.  Loni advocated for the Woodfin workers and was recently arrested at a rally supporting fired workers, most of which are women housekeepers.

• During the 2007 legislative session, Loni introduced AB 524 on behalf of PEU Local One authorizing their contract with the local wastewater district.

• Last  year she introduced legislation to lift the 24-hour visitation cap for post surgical physical therapy, occupational therapy and chiropractic care in worker compensation cases.  This bill will help to undo the damage caused by the Governor’s workers compensation reforms that Loni opposed.

• When Bayer threatened to contract out to a non-union security firm, Loni intervened on behalf of SEIU to ensure that union jobs were not lost.

• This past year, Loni intervened on b