Partnership for Working Families
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John,
The summer has flown by—and it was jam-packed with exciting developments! We’re wrapping up a groundbreaking legislative season, welcoming fantastic new staff members, and celebrating people-led victories demonstrating that #WeMakeThisCity. Here are the major updates:
[[link removed]]Historic Legislative Victories for Workers and Tenants!
In California, Governor Newsom has signed AB 5, which is designed to protect "gig" workers and vulnerable workers in other industries against misclassification and ensure their full rights as employees, and AB 1482, which puts a cap on rent increases statewide and creates just cause eviction protections for tenants.
This was a major collective effort on the part of our CA affiliates and partners. Workers, tenants, and advocates shared their stories with the media, met with lawmakers, and held actions including dozens of Uber and Lyft drivers blocking the streets in Sacramento to demand their rights, and hundreds of tenants marching the halls of the State Capitol to announce they would work to vote out any legislator who voted against tenant protections.
The bills will have far-reaching impacts across the country, and CA Partnership affiliates are organizing to ensure enforcement of the new laws. A HUGE congratulations to our affiliates who made this happen!
A Warm Welcome to New Staff
I’m so pleased to welcome our newest staff members, Kathy Hoang and Hunter Callahan McFarland!
[[link removed]] As the Partnership’s California Campaign Manager, Kathy Hoang [[link removed]] will be spearheading our work to raise the standards for workers in multiple industries across the state.
Kathy comes to us from Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles, where she helped win historic victories for working people in Los Angeles including a $15 minimum wage, paid sick days, and a wage enforcement policy. Prior to her work with ROC, Kathy organized hotel workers in New York City with UNITE HERE, where she served as a labor representative and organizer of internal and new organizing campaigns for 7 years.
[[link removed]] As the Partnership’s Operations and Executive Assistant, Hunter Callahan McFarland [[link removed]] will be providing critical executive and administrative support to the organization.
Hunter has a background in community organizing and was instrumental in the adoption of Wyoming’s first ever local ordinance prohibiting descrimination on the basis of one’s gender identity and sexuality. She was also a student diversity advocate at the University of Wyoming, where she obtained a Master’s degree in Communication and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and American Indian Studies.
Victory! #WeMakeThisCity Sustainable
Our nationwide #WeMakeThisCity initiative to win the built and social infrastructure we need to live full and healthy lives saw another major local win: Last month, Pittsburgh United’s Our Water Our Rivers campaign won a huge increase in funding for green infrastructure - from from $2 million to $10 million!
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This 500 percent increase in funding will enable the region to use green infrastructure to capture stormwater and alleviate flooding, moving Pittsburgh closer to a sustainable future.
Partnership affiliates put out new visions of what's possible in the first year of #WeMakeThisCity—from communally-designed public transit projects, to organizing for tenant protections, to winning a community budget, to pushing back against Amazon HQ2—we are moving our cities forward for equity and justice.
In neighborhoods across the country, we’re fighting for public goods that will increase community wealth, health and justice for communities of color and all of us.
To read more about our affiliates' groundbreaking initiatives, check out our series of #WeMakeThisCity articles on Medium. [[link removed]]
What We’re Reading
The Racist Lie of “Takers and Makers” - Boston Review [[link removed]]
I was honored to have my commentary on rethinking the American corporation featured in the Boston Review this month. Read more here [[link removed]] about the opportunities for equity and justice that arise when we challenge the myth of shareholder primacy and the white supremacist roots of a framework that invisibilizes the labor of working people.
How Workers Can Demand Climate Justice: A Bargaining for the Common Good approach to the climate crisis - The American Prospect [[link removed]]
The Partnership is proud to be part of Bargaining for the Common Good - an innovative approach to advancing the mutual interests of workers and communities by bringing unions and community allies together in a new type of collective bargaining. Read more here [[link removed]] about how Bargaining for the Common Good can help us build climate solidarity and move forward demands for climate change mitigation, environmental equity, and just recoveries.
Tracking State Preemption - The Latest
With this year’s legislative session coming to a close, we’ve updated our State Preemption Map [[link removed]] , which tracks state laws and court decisions that block efforts to create local policies protecting the rights and well-being of poor people, people of color, women, LGBTQ individuals, and immigrants.
While the tide is starting to turn against state interference, this year’s crop of new laws showed that we must remain vigilant against a new trend towards pro-tech, anti-immigrant legislation.
READ MORE [[link removed]]
In unity,
Lauren Jacobs
Executive Director
Partnership for Working Families
PS: We now have an Instagram account! Follow us [[link removed]] for updates on affiliate victories and organizational learnings—including our recent delegation trip to Barcelona!
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Partnership for Working Families
1305 Franklin St.
Suite 501
Oakland, CA 94612
United States
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