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Community Corner

East Bay Area Steelworkers and Community Groups at State Capitol to Say "Don't Play Politics with Our Safety and Jobs"; Urges No Vote on SB 54

SB 54 will put thousands of local workers out of a job and endanger communities

SACRAMENTO --- Today, steelworkers who work at local refineries, Communities for a Better Environment, Richmond Progressive Alliance and community groups held a press conference on the steps of the State Capitol urging the State Senate to oppose SB 54 (Hancock) that will force about 60 percent of steelworkers to lose their jobs while placing communities’ safety at risk. SB 54 is a last minute power play using an insidious legislative tactic known as a “gut and amend” that amends an unrelated bill.

“We stand in opposition to last minute legislation that is being jammed through the State Legislature and are disappointed that power politics triumphed in the State Assembly today – endangering workers’ and communities’ safety and putting at risk nearly 5,000 workers’ jobs,” said Robert LaVenture, District 12 Director for United Steelworkers. “We urge State Senators to support our workers. This legislation has been attempted in other venues and it has been continually rejected, as it does not improve safety -- it ousts known, skilled, qualified workers who need a steady paycheck to provide for their families and put a roof over their heads.”

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The guise of this legislation is the idea that a new so-called safety curriculum, which does not exist, coupled with current trade apprenticeship programs will improve safety at refineries. However, the reality is that the current workers far exceed the standards of existing trade apprenticeship programs due to their extensive refinery-specific, on-the-job experience and training.  Along with their craft specific experience, they also participate in additional rigorous, refinery-specific safety training.

 “We have strong safety standards in place and we have seasoned USW workers in place who know how to keep California refineries safe,” added LaVenture.

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SB 54 fails to allow equal educational access for non-trade workers and fails to recognize equivalent training programs that currently exist.  The legislation will solidify the building trades sole control of all training and certification apprenticeship programs in the state, for the work that USW members currently do, without allowing our represented workers equal access to apprenticeship programs.

The legislation is expected to be voted in the State Senate this week.

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