CAPITOL INSIDER One Half Down, One Half to Go

On June 2, the House of Origin deadline came, marking the end of the first half of the 2023 legislative session.

It’s not really halfway, since it has taken five months to reach this deadline, leaving three and a half months for the second house to review remaining bills and for the end-ofsession sprint that occurs during the first half of September.

The session started with 2,661 bills— 1,770 Assembly bills and 891 Senate bills. Of those introduced, 1,713 remain alive, having passed the House of Origin (1,055 Assembly and 658 Senate bills). This means 948 bills were introduced and did not make it to their respective house floors for consideration. Of those bills, many were placeholders and may be resurrected in January of next year. Others were held in the appropriations suspense calendar. This leaves a lot of work to be done in the second house, which with the truncated timeline, adds significant pressure to the process.

As for the grocery industry, we continue to face a barrage of legislation introduced by the UFCW seeking to impact future acquisitions, mergers, and transactions. AB 647 (Holden) and SB 725 (SmallwoodCuevas) seek to amend California’s Grocery Worker Retention law in a manner that would make the acquisition of existing grocery stores extremely unappealing by adding private rights of action, severance pay, and other penalties for acquiring parties. AB 853 (Maienschein) would allow the Attorney General to engage in certain grocery acquisitions, similar to the authority the office now has over hospital transactions. These bills, as currently drafted, would impact nearly all grocery transactions, regardless of scale. While the bills continue to move through the Legislature, CGA is making progress in narrowing potential impacts if signed into law.

Notwithstanding the potential impacts of these bills on the grocery industry, California Senate Constitutional Amendment (SCA) 7 is likely to have the greatest negative impact on all businesses in the state if approved by the voters. Titled the “Right to Organize and Negotiate Act” and publicized as enshrining an individual’s right to join a union, the words of the measure go much further. Though the amendment is brief, it could have far-reaching impacts.

“(b) All Californians shall have the right to join a union and to negotiate with their employers, through their legally chosen representative, and the right to protect their economic well-being and safety at work.

(c) On or after January 1, 2023, no statute or ordinance shall be passed, enacted, or adopted that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively over their wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and workplace safety.” You may be thinking to yourself, ‘what do these words mean?’ Often, it’s not about what they actually mean, but rather how broadly they can be interpreted. If adopted by the Legislature, this measure will be on the ballot in 2024. If it makes it to the ballot, you can expect it to become one of the most expensive fought measures in recent history. CGA will continue to be proactive at the Capitol to push the grocery industry’s priorities at every turn of the legislative process. ■