Labor, Economic Justice and Poverty Elimination

California Democrats continue to be close partners with labor and strong supporters of workers’ rights. The ‘glass ceiling’ for people of color and women must be shattered and there must be equal pay for equal or comparable work. Our strong workforce, coupled with a work ethic second to none, is what made California among our nation’s most valuable resources.

As we pull ourselves out of this devastating economy, California’s future prosperity will depend upon jobs that ensure a minimum standard of living for all its residents. Food, shelter, clothing, health care and education are among the basic human rights of all individuals. We are determined in our commitment to safeguard these basic human rights and to strongly support public services designed to eliminate poverty, hunger and homelessness among the poor, the elderly, the blind and disabled in order to strengthen all California communities.

To meet the basic economic needs of all Californians, Democrats will:

• Support a living wage, especially in areas where the increasingly high cost of living, furloughs, pay cuts and rising inflation renders it impossible to afford the basic necessities of life;

• Support creating and maintaining public and private sector jobs that permanently lift the working poor out of poverty and achieve self-sufficiency;

• Fight for public assistance programs that allow individuals to support themselves and their families;

• Guarantee Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) for CalWorks and Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Program (SSI/SSP) recipients in state and federal budgets;

• Support the full funding of food stamp programs to relieve hunger;

• Promote expansion of emergency food networks, senior and school meal programs to end starvation;

• Encourage business and preference for firms that employ California workers whenever public funds finance bridges, highways and other public works construction;

• Pay prevailing wages to protect the economic base of the communities where government-funded projects are undertaken, thereby ensuring that government is not lowering the standard of living;

• Support the 8-hour workday and daily overtime and fight any efforts to repeal the 40-hour workweek;

• Enhance the strong workers’ safety programs with adequate and appropriate penalties for injurious and unsafe working conditions;

• Boycott employers who have permanently replaced strikers and protect the collective bargaining rights of workers in both the public and private sectors; and

• Fight anti-worker initiatives that seek to undermine the ability of union leaders to carry out the will of their members and engage in political activities.