The California Legislative Black Staff Association (CLBSA) is a Sacramento-based, non-partisan organization focused on the professional development, retention, and advancement of employees of the California State Capitol and broader California State Government, who identify as Black, regardless of their ethnicity or country of origin. As a part of our mission, we aim to recruit, retain, and mentor Black Capitol and government employees throughout California and ensure they have access to equal employment opportunities.
CLBSA represents employees throughout all government branches and in various roles in the state Legislature. We offer professional development training in conjunction with several resources to help increase the number of Black employees in the Capitol and state government.
As an organization representing employees of a historically disenfranchised racial group, we understand that despite efforts to improve California’s equal pay and workplace protection laws, disparities remain. Racial and economic gaps persist, and the population of Black staff represented in the California legislature remains low.
Unlike other branches of state service, legislative employees lack a statutory basis on which they can form a union. This effectively poses a risk to retention rates and recruitment of legislative staff, and increases turnover in legislative offices as employees search for employment opportunities elsewhere to make ends meet.
CLBSA supports collective bargaining to combat workplace discrepancies that hinder the success of Black employees and we support safe and fair treatment in the workplace. We encourage all legislative leaders, stakeholders, and staff to work together to create a more equitable workplace environment by allowing legislative staffers the rights and protections of collective bargaining.
The CLBSA Board
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