BILL NUMBER: AJR 37    AMENDED

        BILL TEXT

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Lowenthal and Oropeza 

  (Principal coauthors:  Assembly Members Wiggins and Koretz)

(Coauthors:  Assembly Members Aroner, Calderon, Cardenas,

Chavez, Chu, Cohn, Corbett, Dutra, Firebaugh, Goldberg, Jackson,

Keeley, Kehoe, Liu, Longville, Nation, Negrete McLeod, Pavley, Reyes,

Salinas, Steinberg, Strom-Martin, Vargas, Wayne, and Wesson) 

                        AUGUST 25, 2002

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 37--Relative to 

labor negotiations by California

waterfront workers  .

        LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

   AJR 37, as amended, Lowenthal

Labor

negotiations:  waterfront workers  . 

   This measure would declare the opposition of the California

Legislature to any action by the President and the administration

that would impose a federal injunction against waterfront workers,

remove waterfront workers from the coverage of the National Labor

Relations Act, or send military personnel to west coast docks to

assist in a lockout of waterfront workers.  

   Fiscal committee:  no.

   WHEREAS, California ports are a crucial part of the global and

local economies, and the labor negotiations that concern their

operations are closely watched by businesses and governments; and

   WHEREAS, The jobs in California ports are of high quality, due to

agreements that have been negotiated over the last fifty years by the

Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and organized labor; and

   WHEREAS, The legal, established collective bargaining process,

including the right to strike, is a right of the waterfront union

members under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935; and

   WHEREAS, The Bush administration has announced, through Department

of Labor officials, that it may invoke a national economic emergency

in order to forestall a strike under the Taft-Hartley Act, or may

use the National Guard to prevent such a strike; and

   WHEREAS, The use of this power, or even the announcement of the

intentions to use it, will and has upset what has been, up until now,

a level playing field between management and labor; now therefore,

be it 

   RESOLVED BY THE ASSEMBLY AND SENATE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA,

JOINTLY  , That the Legislature of the State of California

opposes any action by the President and the administration that would

impose a Taft-Hartley injunction against waterfront unions, would

remove union workers from coverage by the National Labor Relations

Act, or would send military personnel to the West Coast docks to

assist in a lockout of waterfront union workers; and be it further

        RESOLVED  , That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit

copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the

United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to

each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of

the United States