Sunday morning of the CCE conference in Costa Mesa included a presentation by CFT Legislative Representative Mitch Steiger, who told the attendees that going to the health and safety workshop and hearing about the dangerous indoor heat and workplace violence they dealt with, as well as attending the Active Violence Emergency Response Training, made him realize the risks that classified professionals deal with every day. 

Steiger went on to talk about bills the CFT is working to pass in Sacramento. Sadly, one that was meant to get classified workers more hours (so, for example, you could have one person working 36 hours rather than two people working 18 hours) hasn’t gotten the governor’s signature yet. Another disappointment is a pending bill to get workers injured on the job medical care during working hours, since, as Steiger pointed out, doctors don’t usually work at 8 p.m. on Wednesday night or on weekends. It still hasn’t passed. 

Steiger says they are looking at about 16 bills and researching which ones to focus on. A priority, he says, is passing legislation to stop outside contractors from coming in to do classified work. 

“You may have someone who’s been working a classified job for a long time, making a certain grade, and all of a sudden, an (outside) contract worker comes in making $10 an hour more, working alongside someone who has more experience, is better at the job, and in some cases is showing the person making $10 an hour more how to do their job,” Steiger said. “It’s hard to think of something less fair than that.”

After Steiger spoke, baskets were raffled off and attendees played a trivia game, Kahoot, on their phones, answering questions on pop culture, science, and union knowledge.

And as the conference wrapped up those in attendance were ready to put the theme of the gathering in action in the coming year: Classified Standing Strong: Yesterday, Today, and Always.