UC Berkeley Labor Center

Our new quarterly newsletter is out! We hope you enjoy this collection of our latest work including recent research, presentations, and upcoming events: http://ow.ly/f8VT50F3gPy

Any industry can take a high road approach. "It really is a choice: Are we going to make it a sweatshop industry, or one where workers are valued and we value the quality of their work and we get a quality product that will last longer? - Carol Zabin, director of our Green Economy Program https://calmatters.org/polit//06/california-jobs-training/

While many are aware of the historical significance of #Juneteenth, few know about its connection to the struggle for workers’ rights and equality for Black workers. Read this blog post by Steve Smith of the California Labor Federation, citing Rebecca Dixon, who wrote on this important topic for Nelp. https://calaborfed.org/juneteenth-and-the-struggle-for-bla/

We’re thrilled to introduce the Labor Center’s Labor Summer 2021 intern class! Now in its third decade, Labor Summer is a rare paid educational internship that connects students with the labor movement in California. Starting June 21, this talented group will begin their internship remotely, divided into two tracks: Learn Organizing Skills and Applied Research and Policy. They will learn from and work with labor and community organizations in California, applying their skills in real-world settings on issues vital to the state’s working people. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/meet-our-2021-labor-summe/

Our newly released report finds almost half of families of construction workers in California are enrolled in a safety net program, costing over $3 billion a year. By comparison, just over a third of all workers in the state have a family member enrolled in one or more safety net programs. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/the-public-cost-of-low-wa/

Applications are now open for Dellums School! This virtual 6-week program brings together & trains young emerging leaders in the greater Bay Area to strengthen the connection between the Black community & labor movement. Learn more and apply by 6/23: http://bit.ly/DellumsLeadershipSchool

Applications are now open for our 2021 C.L. Dellums African American Leadership School! This virtual 6-week program brings together and trains young emerging leaders in the greater Bay Area to strengthen the connection between the Black community & labor movement. Apply by 6/23. Learn more and help us spread the word: http://bit.ly/DellumsLeadershipSchool

Ken Jacobs: "For state lawmakers, 2020 was a year that started out with lots of aspirational plans. But it became a year about saving lives." Check out Margot Roosevelt's article in the LA Times reviewing workplace laws passed in 2020. https://www.latimes.com//new-california-workplace-laws-cov

Ken Jacobs discusses our new study on the Public Cost of a Low Minimum Wage in Georgia with Jim Burress of WABE, Atlanta's public radio station, explaining how the Raise The Wage Act could free up billions of dollars a year GA now spends on safety net programs. https://www.wabe.org/2003566-2/

Our new data brief estimates the public cost to Georgia and the federal government from the use of safety net programs by low-wage working families who would be directly affected by an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. We find that just over half of these Georgia families (51%) are enrolled in at least one safety net program, at an annual cost of $4.7 billion. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/the-public-cost-of-a-low-/

"Politicians love promising jobs. But where do the numbers come from?" And don't forget about job quality. Sara Hinkley and Betony Jones on Marketplace.

Our new report with Working Partnerships USA delves into the food delivery and e-commerce industry. Jobs in this industry have been growing fast during the pandemic, providing an important lifeline to laid-off workers. But many of these new jobs are insecure and unstable, with limited rights and protections. Chris Benner and Sarah Mason interviewed dozens of experts and charted how more Americans than ever are ordering food online. In a recent month, an estimated 45% of all h...ouseholds--55.5 million--ordered groceries online for delivery or pickup. Some in-store shopping will resume, but a bump in online ordering is likely to last--by some estimates, as much as 10% of grocery sales will be online after the pandemic, compared to less than 2% before. That means that jobs in food delivery will continue to be an important part of our economy. Currently, many of these workers are hired as independent contractors by app-based companies like Instacart, DoorDash, and UberEats. This means that they lack access to stable wages, benefits, and rights and protections on the job. In many cases they aren’t provided PPE, putting both workers and customers at risk. Still, our research shows that another path for grocery e-commerce and delivery jobs is possible. Some stores, like Albertsons and Kroger, employ their grocery pickers and delivery workers in-house as employees, rather than independent contractors. These workers are doing the exact same type of work as the gig workers, but with stable hours and wages, benefits like paid sick leave, and representation by a union. App companies spent hundreds of millions to pass Prop 22 in California this November, creating new obstacles to improving job quality for grocery delivery workers, and threatening good jobs in the industry. Unless we change course, workers are facing an insecure, precarious future. Read our report to find out more. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/delivering-insecurity/

Check out our new report! Workers’ risk of exposure to the coronavirus in the workplace is known to be affected by many factors, and the level of physical proximity to co-workers and consumers is one of them. Our latest research brief investigates the level of physical proximity to others for the full range of occupations in the California labor market. Under a scenario of full economic reopening, we estimate that about two-thirds of California’s workers would be employed in occupations entailing moderately close (e.g., arm’s length) to very close (e.g., near touching) physical proximity to other people. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/physical-proximity-to-oth/

This GAO study requested by Senator Bernie Sanders finds "a sizeable number" of recipients of Medicaid, food stamps & other federal aid programs are employed by Walmart, McDonald's, and other large and profitable corporation. The results align with the Labor Center's research on "The Public Cost of Low-Wage Work." In the article Ken Jacobs explains, There is growing evidence of serious, long-term, negative effects on families of low income" including impacts on children’s educational outcome, children’s health, adults’ mental health, and crime and recidivism. #fightfor15

ICYMI: The first episode of Steven Pitts's new postcast "Black Work Talk" is up! Episode one features Steven's conversation with Bill Fletcher, long-time racial justice and labor activist. Don't forget to subscribe!

WEBINAR: November 19, 2020 11 AM PST The science is clear on climate change: we must rapidly phase out fossils fuels. But tens of thousands of workers have jobs in fossil fuel and related industries. How do we secure a just transition that guarantees good jobs with benefits for these workers in the new clean energy economy? Carol Zabin (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley) is a labor economist who recently completed a comprehensive report for the California legislature c...alled Putting California on the High Road to answer that question. You will also hear from the perspective of the state agency charged with implementing the report’s findings and a seasoned labor activist. Please read the executive summary of Zabin’s report and The Climate Center’s Climate-Safe California platform before joining this deep-dive discussion and bring your questions. REGISTER NOW. https://theclimatecenter.org/a-just-transition-for-labor-w/

More Prop 22 post-mortems ... "Prop 22 promises substandard healthcare, a death sentence to many in the middle of a pandemic. We’re promised a sub-minimum wage in the middle of a recession that an independent study showed would be as low as $5.64 an hour not the eventual $15 state minimum. We’re given no family leave, no paid sick days and no access to state unemployment compensation. Most importantly, while we’re already prevented from unionizing under federal law, the measure also makes it nearly impossible for California to pass laws protecting drivers who organize collectively, a fundamental right that companies undermine to silence worker power." https://www.theguardian.com//uber-prop-22-law-drivers-ab5-

"A study by three research groups at the University of California at Berkeley found that Uber and Lyft drivers would be guaranteed only an estimated $5.64 per hour. This no doubt would have surprised 40 percent of those in a survey of early voters who said they had supported Proposition 22 to ensure workers earned livable wages." https://www.nytimes.com//prop-22-california-gig-workers.ht

Californians typically support labor rights and yet Prop 22 passed. What happened? Ken Jacobs provides some perspective, noting that the gig companies successfully confused the issues. https://www.washingtonpost.com//uber-prop22-results-calif/

"Jobs v. environment is a false choice." Carol Zabin explains why in her new blog post. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/progress-on-the-path-towa/

We're thrilled to help spread the word about this new podcast! "Black Work Talk: Perspectives on Race, Class, and Organizing with Steven Pitts." Launching on Tuesday, November 10th, Steven and his guests will look at struggles to build the collective power of Black workers and challenge racial capitalism. https://blackworktalk.com

A reminder that Labor Center chair Ken Jacobs and Michael Reich, economics professor and co-chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, have produced several papers examining the implications of Proposition 22 compared to employee status for gig drivers, consumers, taxpayers, and the companies. This is a good time to take another look. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/labor-center-research-and/

On November 10, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case California v. Texas, one possible outcome of which is the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being struck down in its entirety. The Labor Center has produced several publications exploring the potential consequences for California if the ACA is overturned. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/affordable-care-act-in-ca/

More coverage of our Future of Work and Workers research industry studies - today in a Seattle Times article on Amazon's turnover rate: The assumption that streamlining processes leads in a linear fashion to greater efficiencies, and thus cost reductions, may be fundamentally flawed, professors Beth Gutelius and Nik Theodore wrote in the paper, commissioned by the U.C. Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and Working Partnerships USA. Gains could be counteract...ed by new health and safety hazards, as well as increased employee turnover due to overwork and burnout. The toll on workers is both physical and psychological, as increased performance metrics may push workers to exhaustion while heightening anxieties over the threat of being dismissed for missing performance targets. https://www.seattletimes.com//amazons-turnover-rate-amid-/

Our research on the Future of Work and Workers spotted in the New York Times today: "A recent report by the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and the nonprofit Working Partnerships USA predicted that workers would come under new pressure as stores began to resemble Amazon warehouses, and noted that 'stock clerks’ jobs seem destined for more radical change than any of the other major retail job categories.' On the store floor, they also will be more freq...uently prompted by ‘alerts’ to replenish stock, the report said. As with cashiers, this could make stocker jobs more varied and interesting, but in combination with new ways of tracking work, it also could result in jobs that are surveilled, closely watched, sped up and stressed. https://www.nytimes.com//bu/retailers-curbside-pickup.html

"Cherri Murphy, like other gig workers, found she couldn't get unemployment insurance because Lyft didn't classify her as an employee. She says the fight over this ballot measure is critical for worker protections .... A University of California Berkeley study estimated that Uber and Lyft would have paid $413 million into the state's unemployment insurance fund" over the past five years if their workers were treated as employees." Listen to (or read) this in-depth piece on Prop 22 from PBS Newshour - that cites our research - here: https://www.pbs.org//this-multimillion-dollar-ca-ballot-me

"There is hope and it lies in a path for a worker-led, climate-resilient economic recovery. Recently, the California Workforce Development Board submitted a new report to the Legislature, Putting California on the High Road: A Jobs and Climate Action Plan for 2030, detailing just how to get there." (Commentary from State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo on California's economy and climate change, citing the recent report of the California Workforce Development Board with lead author Dr. Carol Zabin, director of the Labor Center's Green Economy Program) https://calmatters.org//recommendations-to-help-californi/

New report from California Health Care Foundation finds Californians largely held on to their job-based health insurance through the early stages of the pandemic, a finding that may partially explain why Medi-Cal enrollment figures have remained remarkably flat during the public health crisis. "The lower-than-projected decline in job-based coverage helped explain why we haven’t seen 2 million more enrolled in Medicaid, as projected in the state budget," said Laurel Lucia, report co-author and director of the Health Care Program at the Berkeley Labor Center.

New! Report features stories from 19 working Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal. Published by California Health Care Foundation, authored by Laurel Lucia and Kevin Lee of the Berkeley Labor Center and Rebecca Catterson and Lucy Rabinowitz of NORC:

"Unless workers in the gas and oil industry see a future for themselves in a low-carbon economy, their first priority is to save their own livelihoods, said Carol Zabin, director of Green Energy Program at UC Berkeley Labor Center. For the state to truly achieve its goals fighting climate change, Zabin said, it needs to invest in helping its gas and oil workforce transition."

Job announcement! Communications Director for the UC Berkeley Labor Center. More information on the position and how to apply here: https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/job-opening-communication/

New! This fact sheet highlights the key health coverage gains made in California under the state’s robust implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since it was enacted over 10 years ago. These achievements show how much is at stake in California v. Texas, the case the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on November 10, 2020, under which the ACA could be overturned. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/californias-health-covera/

Job Announcement! Coordinator of Student Field Programs. Please share widely: https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/job-opening-coordinator-o/

Webinar invitation: Local strategies to protect public jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic The UC Berkeley Labor Center invites you to join us from 3-4pm (PDT) on Wednesday, September 16 to discuss local fiscal strategies to protect public jobs and push back against austerity. Since February, California has lost 33,000 state government jobs and 160,000 local government jobs. The pandemic-induced downturn has caused most local revenue sources to plummet, putting thousands of pe...ople out of work and jeopardizing vital services during a public health crisis. What strategies can local governments pursue to avoid costly austerity measures that may deepen the state’s economic crisis? How could better state and local fiscal policy protect public jobs and services during economic downturns? Panelists: Bob Brownstein, Working Partnerships USA Caitlin Prendiville, Research Director, SEIU 1021 Kristen Schumacher, Research Specialist, IFTPE 21 Facilitators: Sara Hinkley, Lead Researcher, UC Berkeley Labor Center Ken Jacobs, Chair, UC Berkeley Labor Center To join: Register for this zoom webinar at https://berkeley.zoom.us//regist/WN_P2h7V-BxTFG4ov8C2f8T5Q You can submit questions in advance to Sara Hinkley at [email protected]

Just in time for Labor Day! - an interview with Labor Center senior policy fellow Jane McAlevey about her work and her newest book: "A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy." https://datebook.sfchronicle.com//in-a-collective-bargain-

Margot Roosevelt's latest deep dive story on how businesses are trying to stop workers from going to court over COVID safetyand what the big lawsuits are in California. https://www.latimes.com//covid-19-lawsuits-california-busi

From Sammy Roth, energy reporter at the Los Angeles Times: "So how do we actually create those kinds of family-supporting jobs, and give people the skills to fill them? That’s the subject of a report released today by UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education. It was commissioned by the California Legislature, and at 636 pages it’s an extremely thorough guidebook for policies the state might employ."

New! A UC Berkeley Labor Center report submitted by the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) to the Legislature pursuant to Assembly Bill 398. With the pandemic-induced economic downturn and uncertainty hurting Californians across the state and with the fires a reminder of the urgent need for climate action the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) today submitted a new report to the Legislature highlighting a path forward for an economic recovery that ad...vances the Administration’s high road principles of economic equity, climate resilience, and job quality. Mandated in Assembly Bill 398 (E. Garcia, Chapter 135, Statutes of 2017), Putting California on the High Road: A Jobs & Climate Action Plan for 2030 presents recommendations on how to support California’s working families and high road employers as the state transitions to a carbon-neutral economy. The report offers a roadmap to ensure that major climate change policies and programs do not reproduce existing economic inequities, and instead lead to family-supporting jobs, career pathways for disadvantaged Californians, and comprehensive redevelopment for workers and communities dependent on fossil fuel industries. By showing that some climate policies have already led to increased access to good jobs and by pointing the way towards improvements in other state climate efforts the report puts to rest the false choice of jobs v. environment and instead illustrates how we can have both. Just as California’s climate policies have led the nation in creating demand for zero-emission vehicles and renewable electricity, the state can send strong policy signals to ensure quality job creation in our transition to a carbon-neutral economy said Dr. Carol Zabin, Director of the Green Economy Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and lead author of the report. We don’t need to accept the continued growth of low-wage jobs and racial and gender disparities. Public agencies are in a unique position to harness the power of public investment to ensure that climate policy supports good-paying jobs. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/putting-california-on-the/

We just released a report with Working Partnerships USA on the future of retail work and how technology is going to change the sector. Authors Françoise Carré and Chris Tilly spent more than two years investigating new technologies being introduced into the retail sector and detailing how workers are going to be affected. The findings are worrisome. Cashiers, salespeople, stockers, and other in-store workers will likely see more intense jobs, more monitoring at work, and more... coercion from management via new tech, like missed scan systems that penalize cashiers and smart belts that track worker movement. This tech will mean workers are doing more tasks for the same pay as before, with increased stress and loss of privacy. COVID is accelerating tech experimentation, especially at larger companies with more resources. Stores are finding ways to cater to growing numbers of online orders, using click and collect systems and third-party delivery platforms. These changes result in expanding responsibilities and a heavier workload for retail workers. Job quality in retail was already a concern before the threat of new technologies and before the new risks and challenges introduced by COVID. Union rates in retail are very low4% in 2019, down from 9% in 1983. Retail workers are today paid less than 40 years ago, with fewer benefits, fewer chances at promotion, and less flexibility. While new tech is likely to worsen these conditions, this outcome is not inevitable, the research found. New technologies could be used in ways that support retail workers and enhance their experience at workthis will require proactive policymaking to establish strong standards and protections for workers’ rights and privacy. Worker centers and unions can also play an important role in ensuring retail workers have a say in how technology affects their workplace, and shielding workers from race to the bottom cost-cutting to compete with big companies like Walmart and Amazon. Read our report to find out more. https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/change-and-uncertainty-no/

New analysis from the UC Berkeley Center for Wage and Employment Dynamics and the UC Berkeley Labor Center: The Effects of Proposition 22 on Driver Earnings: Response to a Lyft-Funded Report by Dr. Christopher Thornberg "Our earlier research found that under Proposition 22, drivers could still earn as little as $5.64 an hour. Thornberg repeats the same errors and misleading statements about driver earnings under the ballot initiative that we critiqued in our earlier report. We stand by our results." https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/the-effects-of-propositio/

With the House, Senate and White House at an impasse on a stimulus package, our new study, jointly published with the UC Berkeley Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, takes a hard look at trends in jobs, unemployment and UI benefits: https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/workers-and-the-covid-19-/

"The authors of the Berkeley report use this information to make a compelling case: With a reliable 90-day stockpile of PPE constantly at the ready, the state could save hundreds of millions of dollars, avert thousands of infections and prevent human loss. Here in 2020, the authors William Dow, Kevin Lee and Laurel Lucia estimate that nearly 21,000 essential worker-related COVID cases could have been averted, along with dozens of deaths."

"At least 20,860 cases of COVID-19 could have been prevented in the essential worker population if these individuals had access to the necessary personal protective equipment." - quoting our joint report with the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, published yesterday, on the costs of not stockpiling PPE in California: https://www.sacbee.com/article244917417.html

It was one shocking number after another as I looked at this, said report co-author William Dow, a professor of Health Policy and Management in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. Based on these numbers, we should be building a stockpile for the future. Read our joint Berkeley Labor Center / School of Public Health study here: https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/economic-and-health-bene/ https://www.latimes.com//coronavirus-unemployment-ppe-stud

A new report jointly published by the Labor Center and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health examines the economic and health benefits of California building a PPE stockpile in advance of the next pandemic or health emergency. Key findings include: -- Potential savings from averting high-priced emergency PPE contracts dwarf the budgetary cost of creating a PPE stockpile at normal non-pandemic prices.... --Healthcare access was severely affected in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 251,100 California healthcare workers receiving unemployment benefits, in part due to lack of adequate PPE. --We conservatively estimate that at least 20,860 essential worker-related cases may have been avoidable if proper PPE had been available.

The Labor Center is excited to announced the launch of our new website! We have redesigned our website to highlight the Labor Center's priorities within our three core areas of work: research, labor education, and student engagementespecially in low-income communities, immigrant communities, and communities of color. Please take a moment to explore all of our program areas, including the newly established programs of Labor-Management Partnerships and the Future of Work & W...orkers, as well as our ongoing series on COVID-19: a roundup of Labor Center research on how California is experiencing the pandemic and curated lists of resources, information, and tools for workers and their advocates. Visit the new website here: https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/

A note from Labor Center Chair Ken Jacobs on the retirement of our colleague and friend, Dr. Steven Pitts: ".... Steven is a keen analyst and wise observer of worker movements. He has also been a wonderful colleague and mentor to all of us; his door has been wide open and he has helped us all grow in our work and as human beings ...." https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/a-letter-from-the-chair-o/

Op-ed in today's San Francisco Chronicle by Labor Center Chair Ken Jacobs: "When someone delivers your groceries or your dinner, do you call that person an essential worker or an essential contractor? This might sound like an odd question, but it matters because workers or employees are entitled to protections like paid sick leave and a minimum wage, but contractors are not. California’s Assembly Bill 5 went into a effect in January. The law stops companies from misclas...sifying their employees as independent contractors. As California grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the new law has illustrated how critical workplace protections are particularly for those who are misclassified and treated like independent businesses when they are, in fact, employees .... All working people deserve the right to be safe and support themselves through a crisis. And we all need essential workers to be safe. This is not the time to weaken protections for workers."

"Uber and Lyft have refused to pay into California’s unemployment fund, making it very difficult for the state’s roughly 500,000 drivers to secure such payments in recent months. 'The pandemic has put in stark relief how essential those protections are to workers,' said Ken Jacobs, chair of the Labor Center at UC Berkeley, who’s been closely following the issue. 'They are trying maximize earnings, minimize costs, he said of gig-work employers. It’s what they do as businesses, and it’s up to society and our public institutions to set the parameters within which they work.'

"Enrollment could also be lagging because the service industry has been hit hard, and many low-income workers in restaurants, bars or salons were already enrolled in Medi-Cal. 'About a quarter who were at risk of losing jobs were already enrolled when the crisis started,' said Laurel Lucia, director of the Health Care Program at the Center for Labor Research and Education at UC Berkeley." For more on health care coverage of California workers most at risk of job loss due to C...OVID-19, see our May report, here: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/health-coverage-ca-workers/. https://www.latimes.com//california-thought-pandemic-would

New joint report from UCLA Labor Center, UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and us at the UC Berkeley Labor Center on LA's proposed public health councils:

New report from us in collaboration with the UCLA Labor Center and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. We find that L.A. County’s proposed public safety councils at workplaces offer a cost-effective strategy to combat the spread of COVID-19 and help speed LA’s economic recovery. We find that the benefits of this proposal would come at a minimal cost compared to the potential gain to public health and the economy. UC Berkeley Labor Center Chair and co-auth...or Ken Jacobs on the report findings: Research shows that when workers are empowered to speak up it leads to safer conditions on the job. Workers have deep knowledge of the workplace and are best positioned to identify threats to themselves and the public, as well as solutions. Frontline workers are less likely to speak up if they fear retaliation or don’t believe they will be listened to .... Consumer confidence is key to jump starting the economy, and consumers will only trust that it’s safe if they know workplaces are complying with health orders." http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/workers-as-health-monitors/

"UC Berkeley Labor Researcher Ken Jacobs says communities of color have born the brunt of pandemic-related job losses. The jobs that have gone away during this downturn, are jobs that are also disproportionately workers of color, so that includes jobs like non-food retail, the restaurant industry, entertainment industry, [and] hotels, he says. With COVID-19 cases now surging, Jacobs said, it will likely take longer for Californians to recover from those income losses. ... 'That really increases the odds that we have a much longer, much more dragged out recovery. And that more businesses end up going out of business," he said. "And that we see larger, longer-term changes in our economy.'" https://www.capradio.org//coronavirus-related-income-loss/

"Warehouse workers are more likely to toil in dangerous conditions that put them at greater risk of infection. A recent report from the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley, found that, nationwide, Latino and Black workers were far overrepresented in warehouse jobs."

From our friends at EBASE to our beloved (and as of yesterday, newly retired!) colleague, Dr. Steven Pitts. <3

This New York Times editorial on gig workers cites two Labor Center studies: the one on $400m missing from California's unemployment fund due to misclassification and the one on the gig company ballot initiative--we estimate workers would be paid as little as $5.64/hour if it passes.

Wonderful interview with our Associate Chair and colleague, Dr. Steven Pitts, just before his retirement: "We need a society where anti-racism is a value that is hard-wired into every policy and practice and where workers have control over their working conditions."

Today, we released a report with Working Partnerships USA on the impact of tech on healthcare delivery. The report’s author, Dr. Adam Seth Litwin, spent more than a year looking into how healthcare providers are experimenting with new technologies and what this will mean for frontline workers, like nurses, orderlies, and home healthcare aides. Three technologies are likely to play the largest role: telemedicine, machine learning, and semi-autonomous robots. Employers in healt...hcare are already experimenting with these technologies and, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, they may move toward adoption more quickly. While these technologies don’t pose a serious risk for job quantity in the near-term, given increasing need for health care workers, they could have serious consequences for job *quality*especially for women and people of color who are overrepresented in many healthcare jobs. Without a redirection in course, new technologies are likely to result in jobs in healthcare that are increasingly monitored, more stressful, and less rewarding. This is also likely to lead to a diminished quality of care and patient experience. A better outcome is possible: if policymakers work proactively with employers and workers in health care, we can build a high-road path for technology deployment that expands access to healthcare, increases quality of care and quality of jobs, and contains runaway costs. Read our report to find out how. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/technological-change-in-he/

Just posted! A new brief by Labor Center researcher Sara Hinkley summarizes the Great Recession’s impact on public employment and the public sector job losses driven by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Our analysis points to the importance of focusing on the public sector as policymakers respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Key takeaways include: --The Great Recession, which was more sharply felt in California than nationally, was followed by a weak recovery. The economic expansion... of the past decade was characterized by widening inequality and increasingly precarious economic status for many workers. --From 2008-2013, 163,500 California public sector workers lost their jobs. These losses were in addition to furloughs and other earnings reductions across state and local governments. California’s public sector, although it finally surpassed pre-recession employment at the end of the 2010s, has fallen far behind the state’s population growth. --Since February 2020, more than 150,000 state and local employees in California have already lost their jobs. As local governments adopt 2020-21 budgets that account for dramatic revenue losses from COVID-19, we expect to see those losses climb significantly. --The public sector continues to be a path to the middle class for Black workers, who are more likely to work in the public sector than all other racial groups. Data from the Great Recession suggests that public sector budget cuts disproportionately impacted Black women. Read more here: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/public-sector-impacts-grea/

Just posted: a compilation of California city & county ordinances, proclamations, mayoral directives, and orders that expand labor standards for workers affected by the pandemic, such as paid sick leave, health care, worker retention/right of return, and policies that lift workers’ voices in firm, industry, and government responses to the pandemic. This page will be updated on an ongoing basis. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/covid-19-local-labor-stand/

Just posted: an overview of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers in California, both unemployed and essential workers. With thanks to our IRLE research colleagues at the California Policy Lab, whose reports on unemployment are essential reading. Part of our ongoing COVID-19 Series: Resources, Data, and Analysis for California. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu//COVID-research-synthesis.

"But, mostly, McAlevey’s work taps into something that many of us have felt and known to be true: the unshakeable force of solidarity, and the fears we must face in order to claim this power." - from today's New Yorker review of Labor Center Senior Fellow Jane MacAelvey's new book, "A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing and the Fight for Democracy." https://www.newyorker.com//jane-mcaleveys-vision-for-the-f

Good article on the Black jobs crisis and the pandemic (also cites our recent study on racial demographics and essential jobs during the pandemic). https://www.latimes.com//story/2020/black-jobs-coronavirus

New from the Labor Center as part of our COVID-19 Series: Resources, Data, and Analysis for California, a compilation from our Future of Workers research program of the ways that employers and workers are using technology in response to the pandemic. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/covid-19-and-technology-at/

Additional scrutiny from law enforcement during protests on top of pandemic restrictions serve as a double whammy for people of color, said Brenda Muñoz, deputy chair of UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education. Even for those workers deemed essential and exempt from enforcement, people are afraid to be out during curfews due to fear of police brutality, given the most recent killings, Muñoz said. https://www.latimes.com//for-night-shift-workers-curfews-c

UC Berkeley Labor Center statement on the recent killings of Black people: Dear Friends, Like people around the world, we mourn and are outraged by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. They are the most recent victims in a long history of racist violence in the United States at the hands of the police and vigilantes.... We stand in unyielding solidarity with the Black community’s demands for justice and an end to the policies, practices, and norms of systemic racism that affect every facet of life in this country. The Labor Center understands that workers are whole human beings whose lives go beyond their workplace and whose work lives are deeply affected by what happens in their communities. When Black people suffer racist attacks in their communitieswhether the attacks come in the form of police and extrajudicial violence, or underfunded public education, or exposure to environmental degradation, or mass incarcerationthese are workers’ rights issues. The protests around the country are taking place in a context where Black families suffer from the highest rates of mortality from COVID-19and where Black workers face endemic inequality in earnings and wealth and unprecedented job losses as a result of the pandemic. We are committed to supporting all those who fight for economic and racial justice, which are inextricably linked. Unions and other worker organizations play an essential role in this struggle. Dr. King told us that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. It is a moral imperative of the labor movement to take aggressive steps to help bend the arc. We can and must do more. In Solidarity, Ken Jacobs, Chair Steven Pitts, Associate Chair Brenda Muñoz, Deputy Chair http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/labor-center-statement-on-/

The Labor Councils of San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa and San Mateo have issued a joint statment on on racial injustice:

Tonight! Labor Center Chair Ken Jacobs and other panelists will be discussing workers' rights during the pandemic: COVID-19 has forced many workers to choose between their health and their paycheck. At the height of the pandemic and throughout the re-opening process, we will all have to make risk assessments for ourselves, our families, our employers, and our employees. Undocumented workers are in an especially precarious position, weighing the risks of infection, arrest, and... lost income while receiving little assistance. Other employees may soon be called back into offices, schools, restaurants, factories, and other workplaces, and lawmakers are pushing for liability protections for businesses that can’t or won’t protect their employees. What are the rights of workers during the pandemic? And how has the epidemic exacerbated inequality between the haves and the have-nots? If employers can force employees back to work, who will be liable if employees contract the virus? Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson speaks with UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education chair Ken Jacobs, Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California founder and executive director Aquilina Soriano Versoza, and United Food and Commercial Workers International vice president Robin Williams about the legal and ethical challenges for workers and employers during this unprecedented time. https://hammer.ucla.edu//online-workers-rights-during-pand

New Labor Center analysis: a profile of front-line essential jobs in California likely to be at risk of workplace exposure to the coronavirus. We find that: More than half of low-wage workers in California are employed in front-line essential jobs compared to 39% of middle- and high-wage workers. ... Overall, Latinx workers have the highest rate of employment (55%) in front-line essential jobs, followed by Black workers (48%), but the patterns differ by occupation. Workers in some of California’s most common front-line essential occupations are disproportionately immigrants. There is strong gender segregation in California’s essential front-line occupations. California’s youngest workers (18-24) are more likely to work in front-line essential jobs, although significant portions of all age groups are at risk. This analysis is part of the Labor Center’s ongoing COVID-19 Series: Resources, Data, and Analysis for California. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/front-line-essential-jobs-/

New from the Labor Center: the likely impacts of the pandemic on local budgets, the factors still unknown, and the principles that must guide California’s response to this ongoing crisis. This post is part of our ongoing COVID-19 Series: Resources, Data, and Analysis for California. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/fiscal-impacts-of-covid-19/

**New** data brief from the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research: We estimate that for every 100,000 California workers losing their jobs due to the pandemic, up to 67,000 workers, spouses, and children are at risk of losing job-based coverage. At this time, we estimate that up to 2.6 million California workers, spouses, and children are at risk of losing job-based coverage by applying our analysis to the 3.9 million recent initial unemploy...ment insurance claims filed in California by May 1, 2020. Many who lose job-based coverage will be eligible for Medi-Cal or Covered California, but some will be unaware they can apply or have trouble affording Covered California premiums, even with subsidies; still others will not be eligible for these programs. This pandemic has further highlighted a major weakness in our current fragmented health care system in which health insurance for most Californians under the age of 65 is tied to employment. At a time when access to health care is particularly needed, many Californians are likely to lose their job-based coverage. A system that provides universal access to health care for all Californians without regard to employment status would reduce the need for workers to worry about affording and accessing health care when they lose or change their job.

The companies have argued historically that because of the nature of the business’anyone can drive when they want’that workers don’t need access to unemployment insurance. This crisis has made it very clear that, in fact, they do, Ken Jacobs, a UC Berkeley Labor Center researcher who co-authored this study, told Motherboard. We have federal pandemic unemployment assistance, which does apply for independent contractors, but very few rideshare drivers will qualify for that assistance."

*NEW* data brief from Ken Jacobs and Michael Reich: Uber & Lyft Could Owe California More than $400 Million Dollars in Unpaid Unemployment Insurance Funds The report estimates how much Uber and Lyft would have contributed to the state’s Unemployment Insurance Fund between 2014 and 2019, had the companies classified the drivers as employees. Our finding: If Uber and Lyft had treated workers as employees, the two companies would have paid $413 million into the state’s Unemploy...ment Insurance Fund between 2014 and 2019. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/what-would-uber-and-lyft-o/

The UC Berkeley Labor Center and SEIU California recently co-hosted a panel discussion of the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on state and local governments. The webinar was to provide California labor and community leaders an opportunity to understand the potential fiscal impacts of COVID-19, policy efforts to promote fiscal recovery, and the implications for the local and state workforce going into the 2020-21 fiscal year. State and local governments are already feeling the ...effects of a statewide shelter in place order, increased public health spending, and soaring demand for public services and safety net programs. Many states and cities have already announced Private sector unemployment has already skyrocketed; reductions in the public sector workforce could further damage the economy and serve as a drag on recovery. How are fiscal policy experts approaching this challenge? It's available to watch here:

The crisis has laid bare the effects of income inequality and conditions of low-wage workers, said Ken Jacobs, chair of UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education. We are seeing an upsurge of worker actions. Unions are playing a leadership role. Their members’ lives are at stake.