A good friend lately instructed me he was impressed that Gov. Gavin Newsom was standing up to California’s public worker unions by requiring state employees to return to the workplace at least 4 days a week.

But if he thought that meant Newsom had usually been robust on California’s highly effective unions, I instructed him there was a lot more to the story — and he was about to get a lesson in seven years of union favors he wouldn’t overlook.

Start with the California Teachers Association.

Soon after taking workplace, Newsom signed AB 1505 and AB 1507, strengthening conventional faculty districts’ energy over constitution colleges.

A good friend lately instructed me he was impressed that Gov. Gavin Newsom was standing up to California’s public worker unions by requiring state employees to return to the workplace at least 4 days a week. Anadolu via Getty Images

Assemblymember Mike Gipson speaks at a press convention to announce a historic UC unionization effort with SEIU Doctors United at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (2026 Getty Images) Getty Images for SEIU Doctors United

CTA called it a “historic win after 27 years.”

Then came COVID.

As colleges around the nation reopened, California’s academics unions continued demanding extraordinary situations before returning to lecture rooms. Newsom spent months unwilling to significantly confront them while California youngsters remained residence.

By the time Newsom and the unions came to phrases, California was among the last states in the nation to absolutely reopen its public colleges.

Fast ahead to right this moment.

As colleges around the nation reopened, California’s academics unions continued demanding extraordinary situations before returning to lecture rooms. Newsom spent months unwilling to significantly confront them while California youngsters remained residence. MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Beginning next yr, the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit will present taxpayers up to a $1,700 federal tax credit score for contributions to scholarship organizations. States must choose in.

As of this month, 29 states have elected to take part.

California isn’t one of them — a win for the CTA, which opposes directing scholarship {dollars} toward private-school options to unionized public colleges.

Newsom still can choose us in. I wouldn’t maintain my breath.

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Then there are the state workers themselves.

In 2023, Newsom negotiated contracts masking most of California’s rank-and-file workforce estimated to value taxpayers almost $5 billion over three years.

Roughly 100,000 SEIU Local 1000 workers obtained 3% normal raises in 2023, 2024 and 2025, alongside with quite a few particular wage changes and extra advantages.

When California’s finances issues compelled Newsom back to the bargaining desk in 2025, SEIU still protected that ultimate elevate. Workers accepted a momentary payroll discount in trade for extra depart, while Newsom suspended their retiree health-care contributions and briefly paused his return-to-office coverage through July 1 of this yr.

California isn’t one of them — a win for the CTA, which opposes directing scholarship {dollars} toward private-school options to unionized public colleges. REUTERS

Newsom also signed the Public Employee Health Protection Act, requiring authorities employers to proceed offering medical insurance to public workers and their households while these workers are on an licensed strike.

So authorities workers can cease working because they’re hanging against the authorities — and taxpayers maintain paying for their medical insurance.

Newsom hasn’t just rewarded present union members. He has expanded organized labor’s attain.

He gave roughly 40,000 household child-care suppliers collective-bargaining rights with the state, expanded farmworker organizing, and last yr created a path for more than 800,000 California rideshare drivers to arrange and collectively discount.

His generosity toward organized labor doesn’t cease with public workers.

Remember AB 5?

Newsom signed the disastrous 2019 assault on unbiased contracting that tried to push monumental numbers of Californians into conventional employer-employee relationships — precisely the workforce mannequin organized labor prefers.

The backlash was speedy. Sacramento carved exemption after exemption into the regulation, and voters handed Proposition 22.

Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press occasion to welcome back college students to a new faculty yr at the Schafer Park Elementary School in Hayward, California, on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. The occasion highlighted transformational schooling reforms. (2026 Anadolu) Anadolu via Getty Images

Newsom also signed main SEIU priorities establishing a $20 fast-food minimal wage and placing healthcare employees on a path toward $25 an hour.

This isn’t a governor who often occurred to signal something unions preferred.

This is a file.

And the unions themselves maintain rating.

In 2022, the California Labor Federation gave Newsom an 88% ranking on its legislative priorities. In 2025, it celebrated a “banner year” after Newsom signed all but one of its key precedence payments.

Of course, I instructed my good friend, all of this issues even more because California is in the center of a very actual affordability disaster.

Richer authorities contracts and expanded public worker advantages don’t come from nowhere. 

They land on taxpayers — the same taxpayers already staring down the nation’s highest gasoline costs, some of the steepest residence insurance coverage will increase in the nation, and a value of dwelling that retains pushing individuals out of the state completely.

Maria Nicholas, president of the Associated Administrators of LA/Teamsters, speaks during a press convention asserting UTLA, SEIU and AALA strike authorization against Los Angeles Unified School District at the L.A. County Federation of Labor in Los Angeles on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. Nicholas said it will be the first time in AALA’s 45-year historical past that they may strike. (MediaNews Group RM) MediaNews Group via Getty Images

Higher mandated labor prices work the same method in the personal sector. 

When Sacramento raises the wage flooring for an complete business or arms a new class of employees collective-bargaining leverage, these prices don’t vanish — they present up in the worth of a burger, a rideshare, a hospital go to.

Californians pay either method: once as taxpayers, once as customers. And they’re paying both payments at precisely the second they can least afford either one.

What issues is the route of the file.

One combat doesn’t erase seven years of historical past.

After I completed, my good friend paused.

“Oh wow,” he said. “I guess Newsom sucks after all.”

Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com