Vaccine protest at the Capitol + Dem showdown in San Joaquin Valley + Quarantine pay petition

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

THOUSANDS FLOCK TO THE CAPITOL TO PROTEST VACCINE MANDATE

Via Hannah Wiley...

In the spring of 2020, protesters gathered at the California Capitol to fight COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, schools and churches.

A year and a half later, they’re still gathering en masse on the west steps. Only now, they’re focused on vaccine mandates.

On Monday, a few thousand protesters flocked to Sacramento for a public rebuke of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s vaccine requirement for school children.

More on that new rule — which will be slowly phased in as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorizes full approval of the shots — here.

Many families had pulled their children out of schools for the day in an effort to show the state what classrooms could look like if thousands of parents suddenly decided to homeschool their kids.

They cheered on speakers who blasted immunizations and mask requirements, and waved banners and signs reading “My Kids, My Choice,” and “Freedom Over Fear.”

Livermore mom of twin boys Kristine Sabal said she was “not anti-vaccine, but pro-choice.” She said she is married to a nurse who is vaccinated, but that she chose not to get inoculated out of concerns that the shots were an “experimental” product. She said she didn’t want to get her sons, who are in Catholic school, vaccinated against COVID-19 because the virus poses little risk to kids.

“My kids are vaccinated with the regular vaccines, but I’m not ok with this,” she said.

Nichole Thomas, also from Livermore, said she showed up at the Capitol with similar concerns.

“I don’t think my child should be forced to have this particular vaccine,” she said, adding that she’s not against all immunizations. Thomas said she already homeschools her young son.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children 12 and up get a COVID-19 vaccine. Each shot has been thoroughly tested for safety and efficacy. They also reduce risk of hospitalization and severe illness.

A majority of Californians support some sort of vaccine mandate for indoor spaces, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll taken before Newsom announced the school requirement.

“Parents want the right to choose to send their children to a safe school,” Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat and author of several of California’s strict vaccine laws, said on Twitter. “Parents can already decide if they wish to vaccinate their children, but they can’t take away the right of a safe school from other parents. #ivax2protect #EveryChildNeeds #CommunityImmunity.”

You can read more about the event from Sac Bee reporter Sawsan Morrar here.

RUDY SALAS JR’S BIG DAY

It’s safe to say that Bakersfield Democratic Assemblyman Rudy Salas Jr. had a big day on Monday, when he announced that he is challenging Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, for his congressional seat.

“My name is Rudy Salas and I’m running for Congress in #CA21! I have fought for the Central Valley for a decade in Sacramento, and today I’m taking that fight to Washington. Will you chip in $10 or more to help launch this campaign?” Salas tweeted Monday afternoon.

The moderate Democrat from Bakersfield is taking on Valadao, who regained his seat from former Rep. TJ Cox in 2020.

“At the end of the day, I always want to help as many people as I can,” Salas said in an interview with The Fresno Bee on Sunday. “This is my family, my friends, my neighbors, my community. So I’m just excited about it.”

As reported by the Capitol Bureau’s own Gillian Brassil, Salas has the endorsements of United Farm Workers and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta.

He’s also got the support of Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, who tweeted Monday that he and Salas “don’t always see eye to eye” but that Salas “has what it takes to uplift the people of the Central Valley in the House of Representatives.”

Salas isn’t the only established Democrat running to unseat Valadao, however, and candidate Nicole Parra, herself a former state lawmaker, isn’t about to step aside.

Parra on Monday tweeted her own host of high-profile Democratic endorsements, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, State Controller Betty Yee, State Sens. Melissa Hurtado, Susan Rubio, Steven Bradford and Bill Dodd and Assemblymembers Autumn Burke, Jim Cooper and Blanca Rubio.

Salas, Parra and Valadao and more will face off at the ballot in a primary election on June 7, 2022.

WORKER SAFETY ADVOCATES CALL FOR EXCLUSION PAY

Via Jeong Park...

For much of the pandemic, workers who self-quarantined due to their exposure to COVID-19 kept their pay and job, under Cal-OSHA’s emergency COVID workplace safety rule.

But as the standards board of Cal-OSHA works on revising its rule, such a provision may be on the chopping block, alarming worker safety advocates who have started a petition calling on the agency to keep it.

“With the recent expiration of supplemental paid sick leave, the eviction moratorium, and utility shut-offs, workers will be forced to make the impossible decision of going to work while sick or staying home without pay,” Worksafe, a worker rights advocacy group, said in its petition. “Sending essential workers home without pay for weeks is an outcome that few can absorb.”

It’s possible the Legislature when it convenes will pass a law requiring employers to pay their workers who are self-quarantining. Worksafe in its petition said the Cal-OSHA board should keep the provision itself, calling the pandemic an “ongoing disaster” that has led to “devastating losses” for the state’s frontline workers.

“Workers will fall ill, people will die, and the pandemic will worsen” without the provision, Worksafe said in its petition.

The Cal-OSHA board is expected to finalize revising its COVID workplace safety rule by the end of this year. The revisions, if approved, would be considered as part of the agency’s permanent rule to be adopted early next year.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Our legislative staff need a union. That’s all. That’s the tweet.”

“Also, don’t @ me. As a Legislator, my staff doesn’t technically work for me, they work for the institution. Also, as a Legislator I can’t organize our workers, they need to stand up, organize themselves and demand it. But… I’d be first in line to support them.”

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• California Treasurer Fiona Ma and her top deputy have charged taxpayers more for business trips to Sacramento than any other statewide elected official in the last three years, including ones who live much farther from the capital than San Francisco-based Ma, a Sacramento Bee investigation has found, via Sophia Bollag.

• Every incumbent politician’s nightmare is slowly becoming reality — prices are going up, up, up, and consumers are getting angry, via David Lightman and Lara Korte.

• A group of SEIU Local 1000 board members voted Sunday to strip the union’s elected president, Richard Louis Brown, of most of his leadership powers, introducing a major structural change at California’s largest state employee union and setting up what could be a messy fight over its control, via Wes Venteicher.