Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary

Today's participant number is 877-226-8216. In the access code is 621-7161. We're holding our committee hearing today in the O Street Building.

I ask all members of the committee be present in room 2100. So we can establish a quorum. We've got a quorum.

We're going to call in a second so that we can begin our hearing. We only have one Bill on today's agenda. That's SB 41 by Senator Cortese, who is here before we begin the presentation.

Madam Secretary, if you would call the role.

Umberg here. Umberg, here. Wilk. Present. Wilk. Present. Allen. Allen, here. Ashby? Here. Ashby, here. Caballer? Here. Caballero, here. Durazo. Durazo, here. Laird. Min? Niello. Niello, here. Stern. Weiner. You have a quorum.

Thank you. We note a quorum. I want to note that for each Bill, we'll allow two witnesses in support and two witnesses in opposition.

Each witness will be permitted to speak for two minutes after the support and opposition witnesses have spoken. We'll have those who are in the hearing room here to provide what we know as MeToo testimony. Then we'll turn to the phone.

For MeToo testimony, you give us your name, your affiliation and your position. Afterwards, we'll have a 15 minutes limit on phone testimony for each side. Again, please limit your testimony in the MeToo mode to your name, your affiliation and your position.

If you wish to further provide information on the Bill, you may submit a letter to the Committee and we'll read it. Contrary to some commentators, we actually can read. So Senator Cortese, you're here.

If you would like to begin, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Mr. Chair and Senators, thank you for allowing me to present SB 41 to you today. I do appreciate you convening today, and I really want to thank sincerely the Chair and the Committee staff for working with us on amendments taken in the Labor Committee. I felt there was just a tremendous good faith discussion that went back and forth that resulted in us being here today.

This Bill reflects months of negotiations and an agreement between commercial airlines and cabin crew labor representatives and has no opposition. The Bill exempts certain flight crew employees from California's Labor Code provisions regarding meal and rest breaks. Compliance with the California Meal and Rest break statute for inflight cabin crews is impossible, from my perspective, for commercial airline flights longer than two and a half to 3 hours because the FAA requires these same employees to remain on duty at all times during a flight, including during meal and rest periods.

Under California's meal and rest break law, employees must be off duty during meal and rest breaks. Further, the statute requires an employee must be able to leave the premises, which is really not possible for employees who are in flight. This Bill provides a course correction for incompatible state law and federal regulations.

SB 41 would exempt California based cabin crews from the meal and rest periods only if there is a collective bargaining agreement that provides for breaks or appropriate compensation. The Bill will protect any settlement agreement or final judgment of any civil action brought by a cabin crew employee against an employer on a claim of a meal arrest break violation. With me today to testify is Matt Hedditch, the legislative and political representative from Transport Union Workers of America, as well as Kathy Van Austin on behalf of United Airlines.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Senator Cortese. Mr. Hettich, you'd approach the microphone right here. Right there.

All right. Well, good afternoon, and thank you for this opportunity to provide comments on SP 41 and the need for an alternative meal and rest break framework for California based flight attendants. My name is Matt Hettich.

I'm a political and legislative rep for my union, the Transport Workers Union of America TWU. I've been a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines for more than 22 years, based out of Oakland, California, and our organization represents approximately 25,000 flight attendants at Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways and allegiant airlines. I speak today on the issue of meal and rest break periods for flight attendants and the need for urgent passage of SB 41.

In 2021, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals extended Labor Code 512 to protect flight crews based in California as part of a lawsuit brought by Members of a nonunionized flight attendant workforce at Virgin America. This case represented a victory for flight attendants, and the case was affirmed last year when the US. Supreme Court refused to grant cert on an appeal brought by air carriers for flight attendants.

Based in California. The state standard now applies the 30 minutes meal period, and ten minute rest break periods apply to flight attendants. However, this meal and rest break structure can be difficult to apply to the duty day and the unique work schedule of flight attendants.

The current law provides employees with the right to leave the shop floor and be relieved from duty when taking scheduled meal and rest breaks, an option that is not physically feasible for a flight crew. Implementing this requirement would dramatically change a flight attendant's workday, adding additional aircraft ground time, longer duty days, and increased aircraft changes, adding length to already long duty periods. By and large, flight attendants don't want more ground time or aircraft changes.

And TW collective bargaining agreements incentivize efficient utilization of flight crews and provide greater compensation to flight attendants when the aircraft is airborne. When flight attendants are performing their safety and security duties, and when they're providing care for customers they serve, other workers and industries with unique work environments receive exemptions from the hard and fast meal and rest break structure. Workers in certain construction fields and utility workers have alternative meal and rest break arrangements.

Mr. Hettich, if you could wrap it up that would be great.

Okay, sounds good. I urge an aye vote on SB 41. These are protections that protect flight attendants and afford us collective bargaining agreements.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Ms.. Van Austin.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Members. I will keep it short. I appreciate your comment.

You can read, and I think the Bill has been well described. I represent Kathy Van Austin. I represent United Airlines.

We have about 15,000 employees in California. Major hubs are San Francisco, LA. And San Diego.

We are grateful we tried to come to some solution last year, as Senator Cortesi had mentioned, we weren't able to get there. And I'm pleased to say, and we're very grateful that the flight attendants union AFA, which is our flight attendants, actually brought us to the table, and we were able to work out a deal. And I think it's something that is beneficial for the cabin crew in that they can negotiate their best optimal deal.

We want our crew, our crews, to be rested and fed. This isn't about not having that happen. It is about having flights longer than two and a half hours out of California.

The other thing I want to do is just obviously thank our author. He's been fantastic. And, Senator, Umberg, thank you and your staff.

They have worked very hard to make this Bill workable for both committees. And so we really appreciate that. Our optimal goal here is we need to comply with federal law, and we are in a contrary position with the California statute as it is.

So we have about 80% of flight attendants in California are represented. Those that are not represented have the right to go forward and file claims. I just want to wrap up.

Thank you very much. And we, again really appreciate the effort of you and your staff. All

right. Thank you, Ms.. Van Austin.

All right, here in the hearing room, others in support. If you'd approach the microphone, give us your name, your affiliation, and your position. Mr.

Chair Member Sarah Flocks, the California Labor Federation, in support. Thank

you. Good

afternoon, Mr. Chair Members, Ruben Saragosa, state and local affairs Director for Southwest Airlines, and we're here in support of that Bill. Thank you. Thank

you, chair Members, Alicia Priego, here on behalf of the California Agent Chamber of Commerce in support. Thank you. Hi,

Mr. Chair. And Senators Taylor Mackler with Samson Advisors, on behalf of Alaska Airlines. In

support. Thank

you. Blamia

Sato, representing Hawaiian Airlines, in full support. Thank you. Good afternoon, chair Members, Kate Bell, on behalf of American Airlines. Co sponsor and support. Thank

you. Thank you. Chris Rose, on behalf of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, in support.

Thank you.

Alex Torres, on behalf of the Bay Area Council. In support. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Ashley Hoffman, on behalf of the California Chamber of Commerce. In support. Thank you.

All right. Moderator let's turn to the vote lines for those who wish to testify in support of SB 41.

Thank you. If you're in support, you may press one and then zero again. That is one and then zero in one moment.

We do have one in queue. And again, that is one and then zero for support. Let's see.

We will go to line number nine. Your line is open.

Hi, this is Sarah Nelson with the association of Flight Attendants, and I am the President of the association of Flight Attendants, and we are in support of urgent passage of SV 41.

Thank you. Moderator anyone else on the phone line in support?

We have no one else in line.

All right, let's turn to opposition. Opposition witnesses, if you're in opposition, please approach the microphone. Seeing no one approaching the microphone.

Moderator if there's anyone on the phone line in opposition to SB 41, if you would queue them up.

Thank you. If you're in opposition, you may press one and then zero again. That is one and then zero for opposition.

Mr. Chair, we have no one in opposition at this time.

All right, let's turn to the committee. Questions? Comments? Senator Weiner moves the Bill. Senator, yellow question.

Comment? Go ahead.

Senator Cortese. I can support this Bill for sure, but from my perspective, it's too narrow. The meal and rest break rule in California is one that is very difficult for a lot of businesses to comply with, which is a reason why it's subject to lawsuits.

Not because employers are irresponsible, but because violations are, unfortunately, very easy to come by. They're so strict. There are other businesses for whom I would argue it is impossible to comply.

So while I'll vote yes for this Bill, I wonder if you might join with me to discuss how we might be able to apply a legislative fix to a broader spectrum of businesses in California.

Senator, Cortese.

The door is always open for such conversations.

Very good.

Thank you. All right, thank you. Other comments, questions? Seeing none.

Oh, I'm sorry. Senator Caballero

Thank you so much. Well, I just wanted to congratulate you on a Bill that it's not always this easy, but to have no opposition and to have the conflicting sides in support, I think it's a great testament to keeping everybody at the table and working this out. And so I'm really pleased to be supporting it today.

Thank you. All right, well, thank you for this Kumbaya moment. This doesn't actually reflect the amount of work and angst that went into getting to this point.

And I'm quite proud of our staff, judiciary staff, Tim Griffiths, Margio Strata, who worked very hard to help get us to this point, and the various stakeholders who negotiated in good faith to arrive here. It's a weird situation where, with the flight attendants, there are actually two different entities that represented the self same folks. And we got all that resolved, so it wasn't pretty necessarily along the way.

But we're here, and it's done. And thank you. With that, I'll ask Madam Secretary to call the role.

This is SB 41. The motion is due pass, but first be re referred to the Committee on Appropriations.

Umberg? Aye. Umberg, aye. Wilk? Aye. Wilk, aye. Allen? Allen, aye. Ashby? Aye. Ashby, aye. Caballero? Aye. Caballero, aye. Durazo? Durazo, aye. Laird? Aye. Laird, aye. Min? Aye. Niello? Aye. Niello, aye. Stern? Weiner? Weiner, aye.

You have ten to zero.

All right, that concludes today's hearing. We will keep the roll open here for a few moments to allow Senator Stern to vote. Senators? Never mind.

We're going to close down. All right, so the Bill is out. We'll be adjourned to the call of chair.