Last week we made a special request for donations to help us fight last minute issues in the state Legislature and some responded almost immediately. Thank you!
The two big issues are now one because CFSI and a member company, Pacific Seafood, helped deliver the message to the author of AB 5 that commercial fishermen and crew should be exempt from the definition as an employee in what has become one of the biggest bills of the late few weeks of the session. “Hundreds of other occupations were not successful seeking an exemption from the bill” said Jon Gonzales of Pacific Seafood, “and because commercial fishermen receive a share of the catch, our argument carried the day with the author and her union supporters”. CFSI and Assemblywoman Loretta Gonzales Fletcher have enjoyed a professional relationship for years.
Still pending are twin draconian bills that will affect all single use packaging handled in California in an all out effort to stop litter. There are many problems with this measure that has gotten worse in the last 24 hours. SB 54 (Allen) and AB 1080 ( Gonzales- Fletcher) will give Cal Recycle ( a state agency in charge of recycling) already troubled by poor staff performance and the collapse of many recycling centers will be in charge of the recovery of 75% of all paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, aluminum and coated boxes and giving authority to impose a new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) funding source. All of this without a scoping plan in advance with a requirement that a plan be developed and submitted to the legislature for review before implementing a multi-hundred million program on industry. As amended September 5, new fees on all “single use packaging” will hit everyone in the food industry while the entire infrastructure (from manufacturer to consumer) is largely ignored.
Registration, compliance, reporting, data, are all placed on business while the haulers, cities, and consumers are left out of the bill, out of the burden to fund this misguided bill, and the monster of a bureaucracy it creates.