Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, and the first woman and first person of color elected to lead the federation, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast as part of the Labor 132 series presented by the Blue Cross Blue Shield National Labor Office.
She discussed her father's journey from Mexico to San Diego County's strawberry fields as a farm worker and bracero descendant, her mother's 40-year nursing career at Tri-City Medical Center, which included witnessing retaliation against co-workers who tried to organize, and the summer job providing community services to striking workers that shaped her view of what organized labor actually means. She walked through the landmark legislation she authored as a California Assembly member. It included statewide paid sick leave starting at three days and expanding to five; farmworker overtime protections that brought agricultural workers to the same standard as every other worker in California; and the strongest worker misclassification laws in the nation, including making wage theft a criminal offense.
Finally, Gonzalez discussed the 125th anniversary of the California Labor Federation, the growing presence of women in California's building trades and labor leadership and the current surge in public support for unions, which she said carries a special responsibility to stay earned.
- Gonzalez's personal history runs directly through both the struggle for healthcare worker organizing and the immigrant farmworker experience. Her father came from Mexico as a teenager to work in North San Diego County's strawberry fields, following her grandfather, who was a bracero. Her mother worked as a nurse for 40 years at Tri-City Medical Center. She supported multiple unionizing attempts and witnessed employer retaliation firsthand. She was finally able to vote in support of joining the California Nurses Association during her 40th year of work. Gonzalez said her mother never worked under a union contract, but made clear to her children what unionization means and why it matters.
- As a California Assembly member, Gonzalez authored three landmark pieces of legislation. Her success included creating statewide paid sick leave, which California became the first state in the nation to enact, starting at three days and later expanding to five; farmworker overtime protections requiring time-and-a-half pay after eight hours and double time after seven consecutive days, bringing agricultural workers in line with the standard applied to every other California worker; and the strongest worker misclassification laws in the nation, alongside legislation making wage theft a criminal offense punishable by jail time rather than only a civil penalty. This final piece of legislation addressed a pattern of employer behavior with roots stretching back more than a century to when employers first tried to use worker classification to avoid workers’ compensation obligations, she said.
- Gonzalez said the current surge in public support for unions, which she described as a 50- to 60-year high in Gallup polling, carries a special responsibility. Past generations also enjoyed positive numbers, and union density grew before declining. The task now is to stay front-facing and fighting for young people under 45, who she said are the strongest believers in the labor movement. That effort includes taking on the big fights against AI-driven job displacement and billionaire political power.
A Father in the Strawberry Fields, a Mother in the Hospital
Lorena Gonzalez grew up in North San Diego County. Her early years were shaped by two labor stories running in parallel. Her grandfather came to the United States as a bracero. Her father followed as a teenager, working in the strawberry fields of North San Diego County as a farm worker without the opportunity to join a union. He came, as she described it, to feed the country and support his family. Her mother was a nurse who spent 40 years at Tri-City Medical Center, a hospital in San Diego County. Her mother supported multiple union organizing attempts over those decades, witnessed employer retaliation against workers who tried to form a union, and in her 40th year of work, was able to cast a vote in support of joining the California Nurses Association. She never worked a day under a union contract. But she made sure her children understood the difference between having one and not having one, Gonzalez said.
A family that lived the immigrant farmworker experience and the healthcare worker organizing struggle simultaneously is the foundation of Gonzalez's opinion about union labor.
A Summer Job That Made It Real
Her first real experience with organized labor came through a summer job working with a man named Jerry Buckwitz at the community services arm of the San Diego Labor Council. Buckwitz went on to lead the Labor Council. That summer, Gonzalez watched him provide services to out-of-work union members, and then, when she thinks it was the Carpenters' Union that went on strike, she helped fill food pantry bags and hand them out to striking workers and their families.
She grew up never having to cross a picket line, but did talk to workers who were forced onto one. She saw how much risk they were taking, how brave they were to put their livelihoods on the line for better working conditions, not just for themselves but for the workers who would come after them. It confirmed for her that policy matters, but that individual worker courage is what actually changes things.
From Law School to Labor Council to the Legislature
After law school, Gonzalez worked briefly for California's lieutenant governor on environmental law. She found that environmental and worker issues frequently overlap and that there are ways to use tools such as the California Coastal Act and the State Lands Commission to protect workers on job sites. She returned to San Diego as political director of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council. Eventually, she would lead that council as the first woman and first person of color to do so. She then ran for the California State Assembly with the explicit goal of waking up every day thinking about how to help workers obtain better contracts, how to help unorganized workers join unions, and how to raise wages and standards for everyone.
Three Laws That Changed California
Gonzalez described three pieces of legislation she authored that she considers defining achievements.
The first was statewide paid sick leave. California became the first state in the nation to require paid sick time for every worker. The initial law provided three days. It was later expanded to five. Gonzalez said the impetus was simple: she had heard too many workers describe the moment they finally got a union contract and realized they could stay home when they or their children were sick without losing their job or their paycheck. That should not be a benefit that only union members can access. It should be a floor for every worker.
The second law was farmworker overtime. California's eight-hour day is a point of state pride, and California is one of the few states where overtime is calculated on a daily rather than weekly basis. But farmworkers were excluded from those protections for decades. Gonzalez helped change that, requiring time-and-a-half pay for farmworkers after eight hours in a day and double time for any day worked as a seventh consecutive day. She described the exclusion of farmworkers from standard labor protections as a deliberate political choice embedded in how New Deal labor law was written. Fixing it was a matter of basic consistency, she said. There is no principled reason why a person picking food should have fewer rights than the person processing it.
The third change addressed worker misclassification. Gonzalez placed the current fight over gig work and independent contractor classification in a historical frame that goes back more than a century. When states first began requiring employers to provide workers’ compensation, some employers argued their workers were not employees at all but independent contractors or separate small businesses. They used the classification as a tool to avoid legal obligations. Early court battles over those arguments, including the 1911 case Ives v. South Buffalo Railway Co. in New York, struck down that state's workers' compensation law as unconstitutional. It also led states to restructure their workers' compensation systems to survive constitutional challenges. The question was not fully resolved until the U.S. Supreme Court upheld mandatory workers' compensation under state police powers in 1917 in New York Central R.R. Co. v. White. More than a century later, the same instinct to reclassify workers to avoid obligations drives the gig economy model. California passed what Gonzalez described as the strongest worker misclassification laws in the nation. The state also made wage theft a criminal offense, meaning an employer who fails to pay workers what they are owed, whether through intentional misclassification or simple wage withholding, can face jail time rather than just a civil penalty.
California's 125th Year as a Labor Federation
Gonzalez noted that the California Federation of Labor is celebrating its 125th year in 2026. The federation's construction department, which became part of the state AFL-CIO structure, is also marking its 125th anniversary with an event on Sept. 16. She described California's labor movement as militant and pro-worker, one that has changed the landscape of the West.
Women in California's Building Trades and Labor Leadership
On the question of women in the trades, Gonzalez said California leads in ways uncommon elsewhere. The state has two local building trades business managers who are women, one in San Diego and one in Kern County. The California Labor Federation and the building trades jointly host an annual women's conference that brings together women in the trades and across labor fields to support one another and develop leadership. Gonzalez said the conference is one of her favorite events of the year because it helps women see other women in leadership. They then have mentors to call who understand what the trade-offs and sacrifices look like and who have each other’s backs.
She reflected on her own experience as the first woman and first person of color to lead the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council. She actively recruited women to the executive council of that organization because she saw it as male-dominated. Some of the women she brought in are still labor leaders in California today. She named Bridget Browning, now head of the San Diego Labor Council and president of Unite Here Local 30, as an example of the kind of committed, capable women leadership that the California movement has developed.
When she was recruited and elected to lead the California Federation of Labor in 2022, she again became a first. But the landscape is different now, she said. California's labor movement has close to parity in leadership. Latina, Black, Asian and white women are all in positions of leadership and are accessible to younger workers looking for mentors. The loneliness she felt as a first is not the experience of women coming into leadership in California today.
The Surge in Public Support and What It Demands
Gonzalez addressed the current moment for organized labor with a combination of genuine optimism and a clear-eyed warning. Public support for unions is at levels not seen in 50 to 60 years, according to Gallup polling. Support among people under 45 is especially strong. That is good news, she said.
But she said past generations also enjoyed positive numbers. Union density grew and then fell. The surge in support does not sustain itself. What sustains it is the labor movement staying front-facing and fighting for the people who believe in it, taking on the big fights against AI-driven job displacement and billionaire political power. The movement has to be what people think it is. That means showing up for young workers, being visible and being willing to fight the fights that matter, even when they are hard.
More information on the California Federation of Labor Unions is available at calaborfed.org.
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