A BOLD VISION

Gavin Newsom leads California
in a new direction for working families

Something extraordinary is happening in California.

Just a month after taking office, Gov. Gavin Newsom has launched our Golden State into a bold new direction on behalf of working families.

Gavin is a good friend — the picture on the cover of the Winter 2019 Voice of Action shows his close connection with our Union — and I believe he will be the finest governor in the United States.

By electing him last November, our state has wisely committed itself to continue building a better economy for all people — not just the wealthy few, but everyone who punches a time clock, has a loved one who needs care, or has dreams of raising a family in a neighborhood with good schools and clean air.

A fresh vision for California

In his first State of the State speech on Feb. 12, Gov. Newsom outlined his fresh new vision for California. Of particular interest for working women and men, he addressed these issues:

• Good jobs and higher wages. Gov. Newsom proposes initiatives for training workers in new skills to ensure technological changes will create jobs instead of destroying them. He also supports ongoing efforts bringing Labor and business leaders together to promote opportunities for higher paying employment. In addition, he intends to expand the earned-income tax credit to cover a million additional working families.

• Affordability crisis. Noting 61 percent of young Californians believe they can’t afford to live in the state, the governor described how he is pushing cities to update their zoning rules to encourage building more affordable homes.

• Health care. Responding to the Trump Administration’s efforts to wreck the Affordable Care Act, Gov. Newsom called for state action to restore the individual mandate and increase subsidies for working individuals and families. These actions would, in turn, help lower premium costs for everyone.
He also announced initiatives to reduce health care costs by promoting competition among hospitals and limiting prescription price increases.

Above and beyond these initiatives are a number of legislative proposals advocated by the California Labor Federation to affirm and protect the rights of working people to organize themselves and bargain with their employers from positions of strength.

We expect Gov. Newsom to support these proposals as they move through the Legislature and sign them when they reach his desk.

At the conclusion of his State of the State address, Gov. Newsom introduced Allyn Pierce, an intensive-care nurse in Paradise, Calif., who drove into the fire to rescue patients from the flames that eventually destroyed the hospital where he worked. The heroic nurse was quoted as saying, “This is what we do.”

Taking care of each other is what we do in the Union Movement, as it should be for all Americans. Gov. Gavin Newsom is making sure this is what California will do for everyone who is fortunate enough to dwell inside its boundaries.

Solidarity works!

Thankfulness in Times of Tragedy

Action is the weapon of hope in its war with despair

In times of tragedy, is it possible to feel thankful? The answer for Union members should be an emphatic “yes.”

UFCW 8-Golden State feels deeply the pain of our sisters and brothers in and around Paradise, Calif., who lost their homes and jobs in the wildfires of November 2018. Our Union is responding actively to help relieve this pain by providing economic assistance, referrals and other resources to Union members and their families.

We also share the concerns of thousands of other individuals, in California and elsewhere, whose lives are disrupted by natural and human-made catastrophes, whether they are wildfires in Southern California or horrific shootings in Pittsburgh and Thousand Oaks.

Americans were already on edge due to previous events of violence and disaster, as well as the recent heated midterm election campaigns and the toxic partisan environment we’ve been enduring for years.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to certain politicians and commentators exploiting and deepening the divisions which plague us.

Still, one must always look for the proverbial silver lining in even the darkest of rainclouds, and this lining is found in the human actions of charity and compassion in response to tragedy.

We have witnessed outpourings of sympathy for the afflicted and acts of kindness to relieve their suffering.

Reminders of the season

In this holiday season, which begins with the celebration of Thanksgiving and concludes with the welcoming of a new year, we remind ourselves of the necessity of such virtues as kindness, compassion and charity.

This is the time of year when we are called upon to step out of our resentments and emphasize the positive virtues we all share and cherish.

Choose hope

Tragedies remind us of the seemingly never-ending enmity between hope and despair. But given the choice between them, I will choose hope every time.

Hope is manifested by action to relieve suffering and building a better more secure future for all. It teaches us we have more power to repair the tragedies of our world than we ever thought possible.
Action is the weapon of hope in its war with despair.

Coming home

A colleague who lives in one of the communities threatened by the recent fires in Southern California shared a message.

“Before we re-enter our beloved homes,” he wrote, “let’s pause on the curb outside and remember: This separation from home gave us a golden opportunity to gain a whole new appreciation for how precious is the home.

“Thus as we are reunited with home, we resolve to treat home with a renewed sense of love, respect and tender loving care.

“Specifically, we call on ourselves to ban forever more the two most destructive forces for a home: anger and melancholy.

“Forget termites. Anger and melancholy are the real pests.

“From this day forward, it’s a new start. The separation has cleansed the home of any unpleasant energy it ever imbibed.

“Tempers, flare ups, misplaced anger — gone forever. Melancholy, negativity, general malaise — gone forever.

“From today let us resolve to be aggressive in protecting the energy of our homes from anger and unhappiness.

“We will fill our homes with good spirits, beautiful music, positive thinking, patience and understanding, sanctity and prayer, and kindness and hospitality like never before.

“There’s no place like home — enjoy it!”

We are all members of an extended family, and UFCW 8-Golden State is a home we all call our own.
It is a home built on the foundations of hope and solidarity.

Solidarity Works!