{"id":197406,"date":"2026-08-22T02:30:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/197406\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T02:30:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:30:48","slug":"gavin-newsoms-extreme-record-of-giveaways-to-unions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/197406\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Newsom’s extreme record of giveaways to unions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend recently told me he was impressed that Gov. Gavin Newsom was standing up to California\u2019s public employee unions by requiring state workers to return to the office<\/a> at least four days a week.<\/p>\n

But if he thought that meant Newsom had generally been tough on California\u2019s powerful unions<\/a>, I told him there was a lot more to the story \u2014 and he was about to get a lesson in seven years of union favors he wouldn\u2019t forget.<\/p>\n

Start with the California Teachers Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Soon after taking office, Newsom signed AB 1505 and AB 1507, strengthening traditional school districts\u2019 power over charter schools.<\/p>\n

A friend recently told me he was impressed that Gov. Gavin Newsom was standing up to California\u2019s public employee unions by requiring state workers to return to the office at least four days a week. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Mike Gipson speaks at a press conference to announce a historic UC unionization effort with SEIU Doctors United at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (2026 Getty Images) Getty Images for SEIU Doctors United<\/p>\n

CTA called it a \u201chistoric win after 27 years.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Then came COVID.<\/p>\n

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As schools around the country reopened, California\u2019s teachers unions continued demanding extraordinary conditions before returning to classrooms. Newsom spent months unwilling to seriously confront them while California children remained home.<\/p>\n

By the time Newsom and the unions came to terms, California was among the last states in the country to fully reopen its public schools.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today.<\/p>\n

As schools around the country reopened, California\u2019s teachers unions continued demanding extraordinary conditions before returning to classrooms. Newsom spent months unwilling to seriously confront them while California children remained home. MediaNews Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Beginning next year, the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit will provide taxpayers up to a $1,700 federal tax credit for contributions to scholarship organizations. States must opt in.<\/p>\n

As of this month, 29 states have elected to participate.<\/p>\n

California isn\u2019t one of them \u2014 a win for the CTA, which opposes directing scholarship dollars toward private-school alternatives to unionized public schools.<\/p>\n

Newsom still can opt us in. I wouldn\u2019t hold my breath.<\/p>\n

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Then there are the state employees themselves.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Newsom negotiated contracts covering most of California\u2019s rank-and-file workforce estimated to cost taxpayers nearly $5 billion over three years.<\/p>\n

Roughly 100,000 SEIU Local 1000 employees received 3% general raises in 2023, 2024 and 2025, along with numerous special salary adjustments and additional benefits.<\/p>\n

When California\u2019s budget problems forced Newsom back to the bargaining table in 2025, SEIU still protected that final raise. Workers accepted a temporary payroll reduction in exchange for additional leave, while Newsom suspended their retiree health-care contributions and temporarily paused his return-to-office policy through July 1 of this year.<\/p>\n

California isn\u2019t one of them \u2014 a win for the CTA, which opposes directing scholarship dollars toward private-school alternatives to unionized public schools. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Newsom also signed the Public Employee Health Protection Act, requiring government employers to continue providing health insurance to public employees and their families while those employees are on an authorized strike.<\/p>\n

So government employees can stop working because they\u2019re striking against the government \u2014 and taxpayers keep paying for their health insurance.<\/p>\n

Newsom hasn\u2019t just rewarded existing union members. He has expanded organized labor\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n

He gave roughly 40,000 family child-care providers collective-bargaining rights with the state, expanded farmworker organizing, and last year created a path for more than 800,000 California rideshare drivers to organize and collectively bargain.<\/p>\n

His generosity toward organized labor doesn\u2019t stop with public employees.<\/p>\n

Remember AB 5?<\/p>\n

Newsom signed the disastrous 2019 assault on independent contracting that attempted to push enormous numbers of Californians into traditional employer-employee relationships \u2014 exactly the workforce model organized labor prefers.<\/p>\n

The backlash was immediate. Sacramento carved exemption after exemption into the law, and voters passed Proposition 22.<\/p>\n

Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press event to welcome back students to a new school year at the Schafer Park Elementary School in Hayward, California, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. The event highlighted transformational education reforms. (2026 Anadolu) Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Newsom also signed major SEIU priorities establishing a $20 fast-food minimum wage and putting healthcare workers on a path toward $25 an hour.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a governor who occasionally happened to sign something unions liked.<\/p>\n

This is a record.<\/p>\n

And the unions themselves keep score.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the California Labor Federation gave Newsom an 88% rating on its legislative priorities. In 2025, it celebrated a \u201cbanner year\u201d after Newsom signed all but one of its key priority bills.<\/p>\n

Of course, I told my friend, all of this matters even more because California is in the middle of a very real affordability crisis.<\/p>\n

Richer government contracts and expanded public employee benefits don\u2019t come from nowhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They land on taxpayers \u2014 the same taxpayers already staring down the nation\u2019s highest gas prices, some of the steepest home insurance increases in the country and a cost of living that keeps pushing people out of the state entirely.<\/p>\n

Maria Nicholas, president of the Associated Administrators of LA\/Teamsters, speaks during a press conference announcing UTLA, SEIU and AALA strike authorization against Los Angeles Unified School District at the L.A. County Federation of Labor in Los Angeles on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. Nicholas said it will be the first time in AALA\u2019s 45-year history that they may strike. (MediaNews Group RM) MediaNews Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Higher mandated labor costs work the same way in the private sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Sacramento raises the wage floor for an entire industry or hands a new class of workers collective-bargaining leverage, those costs don\u2019t vanish \u2014 they show up in the price of a burger, a rideshare, a hospital visit.<\/p>\n

Californians pay either way: once as taxpayers, once as consumers. And they\u2019re paying both bills at exactly the moment they can least afford either one.<\/p>\n

What matters is the direction of the record.<\/p>\n

One fight doesn\u2019t erase seven years of history.<\/p>\n

After I finished, my friend paused.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh wow,\u201d he said. \u201cI guess Newsom sucks after all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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