Santa Clara Community Members Call on Newsom to Sign Worker’s Protection Bill

Students and workers rally together on campus to push action on ignored bill

More than 20 years after Gavin Newsom walked on Santa Clara’s campus, students gathered in front of the university’s iconic mission church to invoke the Jesuit values he learned during his time as a Bronco. 

A group of around 12 students, hospitality workers and union organizers rallied together in front of the mission this past Tuesday to push the Santa Clara Alumnus and California Governor to sign bill AB 3216, a proposition which seeks to protect long-time hospitality workers that have been laid-off.

Bill AB 3216 established the right of recall protections for workers in wake of the mass layoffs due to coronavirus shutdown and steep decline of many industries. This requires businesses to offer jobs to their laid-off employees as well as prioritize seniority once they start hiring again. It gives promise to workers suddenly cut off from their places of long-term hope that they will be included as industries recover and reopen. 

The bill seeks to avoid some of the dynamics already happening with the reopening of businesses across the state, such as hiring new employees or returning workers with the least seniority. These dynamics keep workers in a vulnerable position and allow businesses to pay lower wages. 

Though the bill was passed in August by California’s legislature and presented to Newsom on Sep. 15, Newsom didn’t respond to calls on him to sign it. One group active in battling his inaction was hospitality workers. 

Aided by the Local 11 Chapter of the international labor union Unite Here, hospitality workers have been gathering outside the Capitol Building in Sacramento to put pressure on Newsom to sign the bill. 

One of Newsom’s staffers came outside to receive a letter from Unite Here delivered on Sep. 22 among staffed supporters of the issue. The Local 11 Chapter represents over 30,000 workers in the hospitality industry across Southern California and Arizona. 

“Since March, tens of thousands of service workers have been out of work,” Unite Here highlighted in a press release. “Despite substantial PPP bailouts given to the hospitality industry, many laid off workers have no assurance of being able to go back to their jobs when the industry is able to reopen”

Newsom’s silence on the bill, designed to protect vulnerable unemployed workers, has drawn criticism from its contrast to his Jesuit teachings he experienced at Santa Clara. 

First, over 50 members of the Jesuits West province signed a letter calling for action on Sept. 24. Next, Santa Clara University members moved to echo their call. 

The letter, released on Sept. 26th, appeals to Newsom’s position as a member of the Santa Clara University community and experience of a holistic Jesuit education, one that stresses the importance of social justice and caring for the whole person. The letter received over 200 signatures from students, alumni, staff and faculty members at Santa Clara.

Students met with laid off hospitality workers from nearby hotels on Sep. 29 to announce the total amount of signatures and to send a delegate to the State Capitol to deliver the letter to Newsom's office.  

With masks on, the group represented the much larger support from the Santa Clara community and commitment to hospitality workers across the state.

“We look with pride toward the meaningful and crucial work you do to represent our community on the national stage,” the letter to Gov. Newsom reads. “We trust that our education, which calls us to respect the dignity of human labor, has guided you in your duties.”

As night fell on the expiration date of Newsom’s ability to sign the bill into law, the efforts of student, worker, and union activists went unacknowledged by Newsom’s office. AB 3216 was vetoed on Wednesday night. There is no legislative guarantee these long time employees of the hospitality industries will ever return to their jobs.