Perspective: SB 799 supporters cheer on a brazenly “anti-business” bill
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Many Golden State self-designated “pro-business” legislators have a lot of explaining to do, remarks the OC Independent's team, after voting in favor of SB 799. The controversial bill would treat striking employees as if they were unemployed, rendering them eligible for benefits after two weeks on strike. But is it really that business-friendly to make local taxpayers reward long, gridlocked worker–employer conflicts?
Orange County’s Democratic legislators go to great pains to paint themselves a pro-business.
The end of session legislative scramble is churning up yet more evidence that when the chips are down, these self-designated “moderates” vote Left.
Example: SB 799, which makes striking workers eligible for unemployment benefits. This is the brainchild of California Labor Federation boss Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher. The backdrop is ongoing strikes by hospitality and entertainment unions are straining the finances of those unions, so they want to conscript taxpayers finance their strike battles.
Unemployment insurance’s “intent is partly to compensate a worker for loss of wages while unemployed” and is funded by taxes on employers. Strikers are not unemployed. What SB 799 does is transforms the practically bankrupt unemployment insurance trust fund into a taxpayer-funded strike fund. It literally forces employers to subsidize union strikes against employers. It is the definition of anti-business legislation.
Not a single OC Democrat voted against SB 799. Here’s roll call of yesterday’s Assembly vote...
This article originally appeared in the OC Independent. Read the whole thing here.
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