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Labor and Employment Rights

A good, well-paying, and secure job is the dream of every American. The Santa Clara County Democrats recognizes that safe and secure employments is essential to human dignity, economic security, and access to the American Dream. Every American should have the opportunity to compete for a good paying job in a fair marketplace, and to act collectively to protect their livelihood from corporate greed. The Santa Clara County Democratic Party recognizes that a strong economy depends on strong employment and labor rights that allow workers and labor unions to exerting a countervailing collective power against the economic power of large corporation and wealthy capitalists. As such, the SCCDP:

Unions and Labor Rights

  • Unconditionally supports the right of workers to unionize and bargain collectively in both public and private employment, and strongly opposes both legal efforts to block unionization, such as so-called “right to work” laws, and discourage union members, as well as retaliation and union-busting activities by private employers.
  • Supports Project Labor Agreements and other government policies designed to encourage public contracting with unionized firms.
  • Supports apprenticeship and similar entry-level programs for blue collar jobs, and supports adequate public funding to facilitate these programs.
  • Supports local hire policies on all public and private contracting, and strongly supports the application of local labor standards to all public and private contracting in the County.
  • Supports the expansion of labor and employment rights to child, senior, and home healthcare care workers, a population of exempt workers that is only going to grow in number and responsibility in years to come.

Employment Rights

  • Believes that all workers should be free from discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color, creed, sex, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion, and that it is the responsibility of government to enforce those rights without exception for religious or “conscience” objections.
  • Opposes the reclassification of employees as “independent contractors” to avoid employment, minimum wage, and healthcare laws, unless the employee genuinely wishes to be an independent contractor, the work lends itself to and has historically been done by independent contractors, and the classification is consistent with California law.
  • Supports policies designed to protect the right to earned benefits, including sick leave. 
  • Opposes binding arbitration, class action waivers, jury trial waivers, and other manipulative contract provisions designed to bully public employees into signing away their rights in order to gain public employment.

Wages, Hours, and Leave

  • Strongly supports raising the minimum wage to no less than $15 per hour, and a living wage in areas where the cost of living renders it impossible to afford the basic necessities of life on the minimum wage alone.
  • Supports applying prevailing wage to large private projects, and eliminate the prevailing wage exemption on public projects.
  • Supports the elimination of wage theft, punishing employers who steal wages and tips from their employees, and offering adequate tools for investigating wage discrimination.
  • Strongly supports paid family and parental leave.
  • Supports access to free, affordable, and/or subsidized child care for families.
  • Encourages companies to give workers the opportunity to work from home or work remotely as a means of expanding access to quality jobs, reducing traffic congestion, and reducing the employee’s carbon footprint.