(March 25, 2026)
When Gavin Newsom stood before a room of economic elites in New York last December and derided a “single labor leader” pushing a tax on California billionaires, he never said his name. He didn’t need to.
Everyone in California politics knows of Dave Regan, the legendarily combative health care union chief who has spent decades wielding California’s ballot initiative system against the health care industry.
But his newest mission is on a scale orders of magnitude larger.
The push to put a billionaire tax to a popular vote in blue California has exposed deep divides on the left, even as Democratic politicians across the country rally around calls for the wealthy to pay more. The issue is pitting the populist mood of the public against many Democrats’ fears that the measure will push the ultrawealthy to join a broader exodus from the state and take their tax dollars with them.
(June 25, 2026)
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West President Dave Regan refused to back down on the billionaire tax.
(January 12, 2026)
The conversations, reported here for the first time, have occurred intermittently for months as SEIU-UHW’s ballot initiative targeting billionaires migrated from the backrooms of California politics to the center of a raging debate about Silicon Valley and income inequality, sparking tech titans’ wrath and vows to move out of state.
“We’ve been at this for four months,” Newsom said in an interview with POLITICO, describing an “all-hands” effort that has included him meeting one-on-one with SEIU-UHW’s leader, Dave Regan.
A compromise does not appear imminent. A union official cast doubt on the possibility of a deal, saying the two sides do not currently have another meeting scheduled and framing a ballot fight as an inevitability.
Our solution: The California Billionaire Tax Act
We’re calling on California’s billionaires to step up and pay a one-time, emergency 5% tax to prevent the collapse of California healthcare and help fund California public K-14 education and state food assistance programs. This would protect healthcare jobs and ensure working people and families can get the care they need. The tax would be paid only by Californians worth more than $1 billion — which is about 200 people who hold a combined wealth of $2 trillion.
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Visit the campaign website.
Electoral reforms are necessary but insufficient. The deeper problem is not the ballot — it is the collapse of the organized civic life that once connected voters to the institutions that govern them. Rebuilding that infrastructure is not a workaround. It is the most important work we can be doing today, not just for California but for America.
(May 26, 2026)
A California ballot initiative that will be put to voters in November would tax just 5 percent of billionaires’ fortunes over five years. This trailblazing wealth tax would be a small (for the ultrawealthy) but important (for everyone else) step toward raising needed tax revenue and curbing the state’s runaway inequality.
The billionaire class in California includes roughly 250 households, a mere 0.001 percent of the state’s families. Yet its wealth now amounts to more than half of California’s entire annual economic output.
This means that if these billionaires spent all of their wealth, they could buy more than half of the goods and services produced in a year in the entire state.
The holiday, also known as International Workers’ Day or Labor Day, marks the struggles and achievements of workers and the labor movement around the world. Thousands of people are expected to attend rallies and demonstrations calling for stronger protections for workers, higher wages, greater equality and more.
MPs, trade unionists, celebrities and other public figures sign open letter calling on British government to end participation in Iran war
How it Works
Paid only by Californians worth more than $1 billion—about 200 people who together hold $2 trillion in wealth, most of which will never be taxed in their lifetimes due to loopholes in state and federal tax laws.
Raises about $100 billion to replace lost federal dollars and protect essential services. Directs 90% of funds to healthcare and 10% to public K-14 education and state food assistance programs.
No new taxes on the middle class, small businesses, or homeowners.
What it does for Californians
Keeps hospital ERs, clinics, nursing homes, and home care open and staffed in every community.
Stabilizes premiums and coverage, so families can see a doctor when they need one.
Protects healthcare jobs and the middle-class economy they support.
Funds public K-14 education to keep classrooms staffed, protect programs, and ensure every child gets a quality education.
Funds state food assistance programs to keep millions of Californians from losing access to food and support school nutrition programs.
What we want is simple
Protect our fragile healthcare system from collapse so our families can get the care we need.
Billionaires doing their part to support California and contribute to the social safety nets and public infrastructure that enabled their wealth accumulation.
A state with a strong middle class where everyone can thrive.
California Billionaire Tax Act
A statewide ballot initiative to enact an emergency tax on billionaires to save California’s healthcare system from collapse
Massive cuts to federal healthcare funding are driving California towards a healthcare collapse. The federal funding cuts will strip roughly $100 billion from California healthcare over the next five years, leading to:
Short-staffed shifts: Skeleton crews left on the front lines as 145,000 healthcare jobs disappear
Higher costs and lost coverage: Insurance premiums go up for everyone, and millions of Californians lose coverage altogether.
Facility closures and reduced services: Hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and home care will be forced to reduce services or close down.
Our solution: The California Billionaire Tax Act
(October 24, 2025)
The proposed initiative would tax the 2025 net worth of billionaires residing in California, allowing them to pay off the obligation over five years. The revenue would go into a special fund with 90% reserved for health care spending and 10% reserved for K-12 education spending.
It needs 874,641 signatures to be placed before voters on the 2026 ballot, a number that the groups are confident they can reach. Getting voters to ultimately approve the tax, however, could be a hard sell.
(January 12, 2026)
The conversations, reported here for the first time, have occurred intermittently for months as SEIU-UHW’s ballot initiative targeting billionaires migrated from the backrooms of California politics to the center of a raging debate about Silicon Valley and income inequality, sparking tech titans’ wrath and vows to move out of state.
“We’ve been at this for four months,” Newsom said in an interview with POLITICO, describing an “all-hands” effort that has included him meeting one-on-one with SEIU-UHW’s leader, Dave Regan.
A compromise does not appear imminent. A union official cast doubt on the possibility of a deal, saying the two sides do not currently have another meeting scheduled and framing a ballot fight as an inevitability.
Jeremy Corbyn
Laura Smith
Ayoub Khan
Shockat Adam
Louise Regan
Riaz Khan
Sue Moffat
Fadel Takrouri
Mohammed Azam
Dawn Aspinall
Cath Davis
Hannah Hawkins
Noor Jahan Begum
Tahir Mirza
Jo Rust
Michael Mulquin
Jenn Forbes
Terry Deans
Cassi Bellingham
Chelley Ryan
Monique Mosley
Ismail Uddin
Maria Donnellan
Anwarul Khan
Ian Spencer
Myra Shoko
Graham Jones
Megan Clarke
Riccardo La Torre
Solma Ahmed
Candi Williams
Mark Gage
Grace Lewis
Zarah Sultana
Michael Lavalette
Max Shanly, CEC candidate for South East England
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
Chris Saltmarsh
Sophie Wilson
Chloe Braddock
Haifa Alkhanshali
Anahita Zardoshti
Mel Mullings
Italian dockworkers and the Union of Base Trade Unions (USB) vowed that they would respond with strikes and class struggle in the event of an attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla, and they delivered. On October 3, Italy exploded in a day of “wildcat” strike actions across many sectors.
Despite intimidation from the authorities, who declared the strike illegal and deployed heavy repressive operations, the USB and the dockworkers managed to get Italian workers across sectors to stop and take to the streets, forcing the bureaucracy of the main labor union (CGIL) to call for a strike and demonstrations. Following the important day of struggle on September 22, over two million workers demonstrated and walked off the streets on Friday, especially in the metalworking, logistics, and education sectors.
According to the CGIL union, 300,000 people marched through the streets of Rome alone, while the national average participation in the general strike stood at around 60%, halting all the main services in key sectors including transportation and schools.
Als Reaktion auf die gewaltsame Kaperung der Gaza-Hilfsflotte »Global Sumud Flotilla« durch das israelische Militär sind am Freitag überall in Italien Hunderttausende auf die Straßen gegangen. Allein in der Hauptstadt Rom waren es nach Angaben der Organisatoren 300.000 Menschen. In mehreren Städten blockierten Demonstranten Bahnhöfe und Autobahnen – und stießen dabei auf Zustimmung. So etwa in Brescia, wo Autofahrer in Solidarität hupten und applaudierten.
Massive protests erupted across Italy as unions and dockworkers launched a nationwide strike against Israel’s war in Gaza. Demonstrators blocked major ports in Genoa, Livorno, and Trieste to stop arms shipments to Israel, while violent clashes broke out with police at Milan’s central station and Naples’ railway hub. Tear gas, riot police, and arrests marked a tense day of unrest as thousands marched in solidarity with Palestinians.
DRM News provides live coverage of Italy‘s general strike on September 22, 2025, as thousands rally in solidarity with Gaza and demand an end to arms shipments to Israel. Witness disruptions in Rome, Genoa, and beyond, with union leaders calling for sanctions and humanitarian corridors.
(video)
Unions and pro-Palestine activists in Italy are holding a nationwide strike to protest Israel‘s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Organisers of the day of action on Monday condemned the Italian government and European Union‘s complicity in the atrocities carried out by Israel against Palestinians in the besieged Strip.
They also voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is attempting to break Israel‘s blockade on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the territory.
The strike was called for by the Autonomous Dockworkers Collective (CALP) and the Basic Union (USB) – a national grassroots trade union confederation known for its militant platform – as well as the Global Movement to Gaza Italy, a solidarity network backing the flotilla‘s mission
Em fala emocionante no evento do lançamento dos barcos italianos no Porto de Gênova, representante de estivadores afirma que se perderem contato com a flotilla, “mesmo que por apenas 20 minutos”, paralisarão toda a Europa.
A cidade italiana é conhecida pelo ativismo político à esquerda e por um forte movimento anti-fascista. Este mês uma campanha de arrecadação de alimentos coletou mais de 300 toneladas de ajuda humanitária para Gaza. No sábado, mais de 40.000 pessoas participaram de uma marcha com tochas pelas ruas em apoio à missão.
Palestina livre do rio ao mar!
(September 2, 2025)
The Global Samud Flotilla has set sail to break the siege on Gaza, under threat of interception and repression by the Israeli state. In response, Italian dockworkers have announced that they are prepared to shut down the dock of Genoa, should Israel stop the flotilla from delivering aid to Gaza.
(September 2, 2025)
Speaking at a procession in the port of Genoa – one of Italy’s two largest commercial ports – on behalf of the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), a syndicate of various grassroots unions in Italy and thought to be the largest of its kind, the dockworker said: “If we lose contact with our boats, with our comrades – even for just 20 minutes – we will shut down all of Europe.”
“Our young women and men must come back without a scratch, and all this cargo, which belongs to the people and is going to the people, must reach its destination, down to the very last box.”
The Histadrut, the country’s main labor federation, said Monday that it would not join a general strike called for August 17 to protest the continuation of the war and the government’s approval of a plan for a military takeover of Gaza City. However, the labor union said it would support workers planning to participate in a protest rally that day.
Meanwhile, much of Israel’s private tech sector declared that it would back the general strike action next week, as did the Israel Bar Association.
Black Lives Matter Grassroots demands:
– The immediate release of Chris Smalls and all captured activists.
– The immediate end to the engineered famine and deliberate starving of the people in Gaza.
– An end to labor complicity with genocide.
We are asking all workers and people who believe in working class power to:
– Call the state department and demand the release of all those captured on the Freedom Flotilla.
– Email your Congressmembers asking them to demand the release of our people.
– Actively boycott pro-Israel companies.
– Pass resolutions and make official statements calling for an end to the genocide in Palestine.
– Raise awareness to the deliberate mass starvation, engineered famine, and genocide by making posts, engaging in political education, and disrupting spaces of complicity.
Meanwhile, there’s not a peep from mainstream media in the U.S.
(July 21, 2025)
Amazon Labor Union leader Chris Smalls is on the ‚Handala‘, the 37th ship to challenge Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza. Amazon has invested billions in intelligence like the Nimbus project, used for the surveillance and targeting of Palestinians.
Chris shares that “…an injury to one is injury to all,” calling on labor unions worldwide to fulfill their responsibility: to be the shield for the working class, which includes protecting Palestinian people, and urges unions to stop their shipments of arms to Israel, fuelling their genocide in Gaza.
“We come with baby food, toys, medicine, and hope — not just for Gaza, but for the future of our children in America back at home. The world is watching.”
In a later update, the union said Huertas—a veteran labor leader whose union represents over 45,000 janitors, airport workers, security guards, and other property service workers—had been released from the hospital where he received treatment for injuries sustained during his arrest, but that he remained in custody.
The union included remarks from Huertas, who said, „We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice. This is injustice.“
„This is about something much bigger“ than his own arrest, said Huertas. „This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice.“
“They have woke us up,” Tia Orr told me Saturday morning. She’s the executive director of the 700,000-strong Service Employees International Union California, of which Huerta is a part, and the first African American and Latina to lead the organization.
“And I think they’ve woke people up across the nation, certainly in California, and people are ready to get to action,” she added. “I haven’t seen that in a long time. I don’t know that I’ve seen something like that before, and so yes, it is going to result in action that I believe is going to be historical.”
(March 30, 2023)
The strike on Monday of Israel‘s largest worker‘s union, the Histadrut Labor Federation, was coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s inner circle, a senior member of the coalition confirmed on Thursday.
According to the report, one of Netanyahu‘s spokespersons, Yonatan Urich, contacted senior Histadrut officials on Monday morning urging them to launch a strike, in order to give the prime minister a decisive reason to announce that he was postponing the legislation, against the wishes of Justice Minister Yariv Levin.
Histadrut labor union chief Arnon Bar-David warns that he won’t sit idly if the government doesn’t abide by High Court rulings after ministers dismissed the injunction issued by the top legal body. However, Bar-David doesn’t explicitly say that he’ll launch a labor strike if the government ignores the High Court, but …
So here‘s a fresh question: What would you think if a million workers said they would be willing to back a new political effort?
One million names on a petition would show that the effort has a far wider reach than a fringe group or a self-promoter. One million names would signal to the political actors that there is mass support for building a new working-class political home. One million names might even push some Democrats to support pro-worker legislation.
Mobilizing a petition drive would cost relatively little and could start with a few progressive unions circulating one that read: …
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions issued the call in a Facebook post to its 1.1 million members, saying the strike would start Wednesday at 9 a.m. local time and would last until the president‘s „regime“ abolished martial law and the president stepped down.
An umbrella labor union has announced a general strike of indeterminate length, saying the strike will continue until President Yoon Suk Yeol resigns.
The central executive committee of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU) announced the decision Wednesday morning in a press conference at its office in Seoul, saying the labor union will fight alongside the people for the end of the Yoon administration.
The bill was attacked during the debate in the plenum by Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi, who retweeted a statement by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) arguing that its purpose was “to regulate the discourse in schools and to harm teachers whose statements and worldview do not coincide with those of the education minister and the political parties controlling the Education Ministry.”
“The purpose of the law is to threaten teachers and principals of Arab schools, to mark them and make them a target for surveillance and persecution,” the rights group stated, arguing that the tools already at its disposal before the current law were “adequate and sufficient.” “The law severely violates the rights to expression, employment and pedagogical autonomy of teachers and administrators,” it added. The teachers’ unions also opposed the bill.
To Our Guild Leadership and Staff:
We are proud rank-and-file union and trade association members from every corner of our industry — working on screen, stage, set, and in the field — united in solidarity with the global call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a just, lasting peace. As artists and storytellers, we cannot stand idly by as our industry refuses to tell the story of Palestinian humanity.
Following SAG-AFTRA’s statement in sympathy with Israel regarding October 7, many SAG-AFTRA and sister guild members have watched in horror as the Israeli government wages a war of collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza — killing over 40,000 Palestinians, injuring over 90,000 more, forcibly displacing 2 million people, and openly targeting members of the press and their families. As the IDF continues its assault on “safe zones,” schools, and hospitals, and as civilians in Gaza die from starvation, dehydration, and lack of medical supplies and fuel, major human rights groups have labeled these acts as war crimes, human rights atrocities, and even genocide. The UN has described Gaza as a “graveyard for children” — and estimate that by mid-July “half of the population — more than a million people — could face death and starvation.” As of now, there is no end in sight — only escalation, death, and destruction.