A crucial time for California workers

By Fabrizio Sasso
Executive Director, Sacramento CLC

California is heading into a high-stakes moment. As you’ve probably heard by now, Texas has decided to rig their voting maps to give Republicans more seats in Congress, which is meant to ensure that Donald Trump has no checks on his power. In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing—through a vote of the people—to change our own maps for a few years in order to neutralize Texas’ cowardly move.

This Congressional redistricting has shifted the political map, and that means some districts will see competitive races for the first time in years. One of the most closely watched will be the seat currently held by Kevin Kiley, someone whose record has been defined by siding with corporate interests over working families. We can’t afford another Congress that treats billionaires like honored guests and treats workers like an afterthought.

This Labor Day reminds us that the road ahead is shaped by what we do together. Our movement isn’t built on speeches or slogans; it’s built on generations of workers who dared to imagine something better and then organized to make it real. When we demanded the eight-hour day, they called it impossible. When we fought for job safety and health protections, they told us it would never happen. But we organized. We stood together. We won.

That’s the same spirit we need today. The wealthiest few are rewriting the rules in their favor, stripping away worker protections, and driving up the cost of living while wages stagnate. Politicians like Kevin Kiley will tell you the market will take care of everything, but we know the truth: The market didn’t give us weekends, overtime pay, or the right to organize. Workers did.

Right now, union energy is on the rise in ways we haven’t seen in decades. In hospitals, classrooms, coffee shops, warehouses and film sets, workers are staring down corporate giants like Amazon, Starbucks, Disney and Sony, and they’re winning. They’re winning contracts that raise wages, protect benefits, and give working people a real voice on the job. They’re proving that when we stick together, there’s no CEO too powerful, no politician too entrenched, to stop us.

This is more than just a fight for better pay, it’s a fight for the freedom, fairness and security that every worker deserves. It’s the belief that we shouldn’t have to choose between rent and groceries; that no one should be harassed for who they are or where they come from; that we should all be able to raise a family and retire in dignity.

That’s why every organizing campaign, every picket line and every election matters. The decisions made in Congress directly affect whether workers get ahead or fall further behind. With new district lines and a chance to unseat those who put corporate profits ahead of people, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to shape a Congress that works for us.

So this Labor Day, we celebrate what we’ve built, but we also prepare ourselves for the fight ahead. We’re going to speak up. Speak out. Organize. Knock on doors.

And come November, we’ll show the billionaires and their politicians exactly what happens when working people stand together: We win.