CLFP Helps Stop Bills Negative to Food Processing
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CLFP, along with strong opposition from the business community, has been instrumental in successfully stopping a number of bills in the first house of the California Legislature that would have had a negative impact on the food processing industry and the business climate in California. Several CLFP opposed bills subject to the first house deadline have passed to the second house. June 3 was the deadline for bills to pass the California house in which they were introduced. CLFP will continue to work to stop measures that will negatively impact the food processing industry.
CLFP bills stopped in the first house include:
?AB 2667(Thurmond; D-Richmond) Arbitration Agreements Discrimination - Would have unfairly discriminated against arbitration agreements and was, therefore, likely preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act, which would have lead to confusion and litigation, by prohibiting arbitration of Unruh Civil Rights violations made as a condition of a contract for goods or services. It fell short of votes needed to pass the Assembly.
?AB 2879 (M. Stone; D-Scotts Valley) Employment Arbitration Agreements Discrimination- Would have unfairly discriminated against arbitration agreements by prohibiting an employer from requiring an individual who is a member of the military to sign a mandatory arbitration agreement as a condition of employment. It was never brought up for a vote by the entire Assembly and therefore missed the deadline to pass the house in which it was introduced.
?AB 2757 (Gonzalez; D-San Diego) – Agricultural Worker Overtime - Would have repealed the longstanding 10-hour daily overtime requirement for agricultural employees. It fell short of votes needed to pass the Assembly.
?SB 1282 (Leno; D-San Francisco) -- Pesticides: neonicotinoids - Assumed risk from a chemical - would have reclassified it as a restricted use chemical and required product labeling before scientific studies are complete. It would have jeopardized the $3 billion citrus industry, which uses the chemical to fight Asian Citrus Psyllid pests, the same pest that decimated Florida's citrus industry.It fell short of votes needed to pass the Assembly.
The following CLFP opposed bills are moving on to the second house:
?AB 2530 (Gordon; D-Menlo Park)–Beverage Containers Labeling Requirements - Burdens beverage manufactures by requiring a specific label indicating the percentage of postconsumer recycled content in the beverage container.
?AB 2748(Gatto; D-Glendale)Environmental Disaster: Release of Claims - Eliminates incentives to settle lawsuits and instead exposed businesses to multiple rounds of litigation at great expense to the parties and the courts by creating statutory prohibitions on "release" clauses in settlements pertaining to "environmental disasters." While amendments made clarifications and narrowed the bill to apply only to the Porter Ranch area gas leak or to contamination surrounding the Exide Technologies facility, CLFP remains opposed due to the precedent that this bill would set.
?SB 1166(Jackson; D-Santa Barbara)Imposes New Maternity and Paternity Leave Mandate -Unduly burdens and increases costs of small employers with as few as 10 employees, as well as large employers with 50 or more employees, by requiring 12 weeks of protected employee leave for maternity or paternity leave, and exposes all employers to the threat of costly litigation.
?SB 1167 (Leyva; D-Chino) – Indoor Heat Illness Regulations - The bill directs Cal OSHA to adopt a regulation for indoor workers to prevent heat illness.This bill is unnecessary because current regulations already require employers to identify and address workplace hazards, including the risk of heat illness in indoor workplaces.
?SB 1317 (Wolk; D-Davis) Groundwater Extraction Permit - Substantially interferes with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act by mandating conditional use permits for groundwater extraction facilities in high and medium priority groundwater basins and restricts permits for probationary basins and those in critical overdraft.
