Senate Standing Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement

Committee on Labor, Public Employment, Retirement will come to order. Good morning again. The Senate continues to welcome the public in person and via the Teleconference service. For individuals wishing to provide public comment, today's participant number is 877-226-8196, and the access code is 610141. Each side will be permitted an equal amount of time. Lead witnesses will have two minutes each, and there is no reserving time for other witnesses. All others wishing to testify must limit their comments to their name, affiliation, and position on the measures.

Testimony taken via the Teleconference service will be limited to a total of 20 minutes. We're holding our committee hearings here in the O Street Building. I ask all Members of the committee to be present in room 2200. I believe we can establish a quorum to begin our hearing. We have one Bill on today's agenda, and before we hear that Bill, let's establish a quorum. Assistant, please call the role.

Senator Cortese. Here. Cortese. Here. Senator Wilk? Present. Wilk. Present. Senator Durazo? Senator Laird? Laird here. Senator Smallwood Cuevas. Smallwood Cuevas. Here. We have a quorum.

All right, thank you so much. I'm going to hand things over to our Vice Chair, Vice Chair Wilk, so that hopefully he'll allow me to present SB 332.

I need the gavel.

I know that.

Are you going to do it from there?

I can go down whatever you want.

I don't care.

All right. I'll do it from here and make up some of that tardy time.

Welcome Senator Cortese, and whenever you're ready, please present.

All right, thank you so much, Vice Chair Wilk and Members, thank you for the opportunity to present Senate Bill 332. Today Senate Bill 332 reflects months of negotiations and an agreement between Minor League Baseball players and their union, MLBA and Major League Baseball, MLB, to reach the first ever nationwide collective bargaining agreement for minor league players that would be effective here in California. There are nine California minor league teams comprised of approximately 362 Minor League Baseball players.

SB 332 would exempt them from certain wage and overtime, rest period, record keeping, and meal periods as long as there is a valid CBA in place. SB 332 ensures minor league baseball players across the country will see a significant new increase in regular season salary and benefits, and that would include spring training and offseason pay. As included in the CBA, the Bill protects Major League Baseball from any civil action brought against them as the employer against a claim of a meal, overtime, or rest break violation.

Given the nature of baseball employment, SB 332 recognizes that applying wage and hour statutes to my League baseball would be very infeasible and directly impact how players are utilizing, how games are played in California. In the sport. With us to testify today is Greg Campbell on behalf of Major League Baseball.

Mr. Campbell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members Greg Campbell. On behalf of Major League Baseball, the five Major League Baseball teams in California, and the nine Minor League Baseball teams in California. Strong support of SB 332. Want to thank the chairman, his committee staff, his personal staff, the Governor's Office, and the California Labor Federation for working with us on this Bill. As he said earlier this year, it was the first collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the Players Association.

Worked on things like wages, benefits, meal, rest periods, housing, meals per diem. Very excited about all the benefits that it brought. As part of that, there was an agreement to work with the Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League Baseball to come to the Legislature and ask for a very narrow carve out of exemption from certain California labor laws. We think this Bill nails that, and we urge your vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in the room in support? Seeing none. Do we have any witnesses here in opposition? Seeing none. We're going to move to the phones. Moderator, are you there?

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Okay, at this point, please prompt any individuals waiting to testify in either support or opposition to SB 332, and let's go ahead and begin.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to express support or opposition to this Bill, please press one, then zero. At this time, Mr. Chair, no one has signaled that they wish to speak.

Thank you so much for your service today. All right, having taken all testimony, we'll pull it back to the committee for questions, comments, concerns, my favorite TV star. Senator Laird. Go ahead.

He's referring to the fact that I have a moment on the screen in the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary, and so he has seized on that and run with it.

Look as good today as you did back then, and I just said that.

Was just more of a tribute to your deteriorating eyesight than any change with me. Last year, we had a Bill on this, and we were really waiting for this. We were really waiting for the court decision and the negotiations. And what this really does is sort of bring it home after that. And I salute the author for taking this to the right place. And it's rare that you have both sides say this is not a bad thing. And it was after there were negotiations that addressed a lot of the issues that we talked about last year. And so at the appropriate time, I'll be ready to move the Bill.

Thank you for that. Any other Members seeing none. We have a motion from Senator Laird. Mr. Cortese, you may close.

I want to thank the committee for convening this morning and hopefully getting this done. And, of course, let me just acknowledge my staff and all the folks that were mentioned by Mr. Campbell in his know, who put a lot more effort in this than it probably sounds like with a brief presentation. And I do want to say I need to say this.

I feel like I need to say this, that these kinds of exemptions are not taken lightly by this committee or by the Legislature or by any of us who work hard to protect those guarantees that are in statute. But this particular business model, a couple other ones we've seen in California from time to time, really can only work with this kind of a statutory scheme. And of course, the collective bargaining agreement, although previously negotiated, can't be enabled. It can't go anywhere without this Bill.

So we've given light treatment to the kinds of benefits and things that minor league baseball players have really never experienced before in terms of overall compensation that, according to the Players Association, has been negotiated out. So I think we should all be very proud of that. And I think it's clearly historic and something that, frankly, the foundation was set by AB Five and some other prior work even before last year. I know Senator Laird knows that. So kudos to everyone who worked toward this point. And I'm glad to have been part of the vehicle to get this done. And with that, I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, sir. Clerk please call the roll.

File item number one, SB 332. The motion is that the Assembly amendments be concurred in. Senator Cortese. Aye. Cortese, aye. Senator Wilk? Aye. Wilk, aye. Senator Durazo? Durazo, aye. Senator Laird? Aye. Laird, aye. Senator Smallwood Cuevas, aye. Smallwood Cuevas, aye. The amendments are concurred in five to zero.

Yeah. Where am I starting? I should have flipped to this earlier. Oh, well, you already said that. Okay. The amendments are concurred in. Want to thank everybody for coming here this morning and see everybody on the floor. Oh, sure. I like the big one at the podium on the floor better. It.