California confronts opioid crisis at work

For the first time in years, some California cities are seeing a decline in fatal drug overdoses. And some prosecutors are getting more aggressive charging drug dealers with murder if their buyers overdose. 

But a rise in fatal drug overdoses at work has public health experts, union leaders and employers sounding the alarm, write CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang and data reporter Jeremia Kimelman.

In 2021, a flooring installer who had stepped out for a short break died at a Temecula construction site from a fentanyl overdose. In Fremont, a manager found a night-shift janitor dead in the bathroom, overdosed on fentanyl. And in Livermore this year, a driver died from fentanyl and was found in his parked semi-truck as he waited to make a delivery.

The sharp increase in workplace overdose fatalities has stalled a decline in overall workplace deaths in California. In 2022, more than 110 workers died from overdoses, about 18% of all workplace fatalities.

Studies have shown that the problem hits certain industries harder, particularly with jobs involving manual labor and a high number of injuries, such as construction, trucking and warehousing.

The crisis has prompted labor groups to promote drug safety programs and to push back against the stigma of opioid addiction.

• Robert Williams, business manager of District Council 16 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades: “If there’s a death on a job site because of a safety hazard, it’s front-page news. But if there’s death by an overdose or death by suicide of a construction worker when they go home, nobody talks about that.”

Meanwhile, policymakers have been slow to address the issue. The state Department of Public Health says it is considering a study. A law passed in September also directs Cal/OSHA to draft workplace rules for the overdose reversal drug naloxone by December 2027, but no advisory committee has met so far.

Cal/OSHA refused to make an official available for an interview, and in an email to CalMatters, pointed to the broader national opioid crisis. 

• Erika Monterroza, Cal/OSHA spokesperson: “California had more than 7,000 people die from opioid-related overdose deaths in 2022. Unfortunately, these deaths happen all over our state, including in our workplaces.” 

Learn more about workplace overdose deaths in Jeanne and Jeremia’s story. And check out CalMatters’ explainer on the state’s opioid crisis.

From CalMatters economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay:

As Gov. Gavin Newsom stopped by Colusa County on Tuesday on his tour touting his region-focused jobs strategy, a new poll reinforced that Californians have mixed feelings about the economy.

While the governor projected optimism about his economic plans, he also acknowledged that not everyone has a rosy view. Asked whether he has a message for Latinos — who leaned more to the right and voted for Donald Trump in November — Newsom replied: “Take a look at what we’re doing here around economic and workforce development. We see you, you matter, we care. You’ve been included in this conversation. Now we want to make the vision real.”

Newsom’s tone reflected that he’s aware about Californians’ economic concerns: In the new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, 70% of residents said their children will be worse off financially, and 56% are expecting “bad economic times” in the next year — although that’s an improvement from recent years. Also, 52% of those surveyed think the president-elect should prioritize getting “costs and inflation under control.” (Many economists think Trump’s policies, such as tariffs and mass deportations, will do the opposite.) 

The PPIC poll of 2,344 people conducted Nov. 6-22 also found that a majority of the state’s residents — especially those with lower incomes — have a negative view of artificial intelligence, with about a third very or somewhat concerned about its effects. About half of residents polled think AI will reduce the number of jobs in their industry. 

Some concern over AI cuts “across income scales, whether it’s fast food workers or screenwriters,” Dean Bonner, PPIC’s associate survey director, said during a briefing Tuesday.

On the other hand, the latest Small Business Optimism index rose to its highest reading since June 2021, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. The association’s leaders said small businesses are hopeful about favorable tax and regulatory policies under the incoming administration.

John Kabateck, state director for the association in California, also said in a statement that some state ballot initiative outcomes will help businesses. The association applauded voters’ approval of toughening up penalties for retail theft, and their rejection of raising the minimum wage, boosting local rent-control power and lowering the voter threshold to pass bonds.

When factoring in the cost of living, the pay for California judges ranks right in the middle nationally, at 25th. Now, a group of state judges are claiming that the state has been stiffing them for years — bungling the prescribed formula that’s used to calculate wage increases.

As CalMatters deputy editor Adam Ashton explains, California judges earn at least $240,000 a year and are supposed to receive a raise every year by law. But a coalition of judges, which includes Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne Gilliard, alleges that the state is short-changing them by excluding from the formula part of the targeted raises some state workers received through their contracts.

The lawsuit calls on the state to redo its calculations, going back nearly a decade. The judges also want CalPERS — the public pension system for state employees — to recalculate their pensions. 

In a hearing last month, the state’s attorneys said the human resources department “properly calculated state employee average salary increases” and that the law doesn’t require “the inclusion of ‘all categories of increases’” when calculating salary increases.

A lot of money could be at stake: In 2015, a group of judges filed a similar lawsuit. The state lost the case, and had to fork over $15,000 per judge, totaling $40 million.

Read more about the lawsuit on judges’ pay in Adam’s story.

CalMatters pointed out in February that many new California laws require reports on how they’re working — but that 73% of 1,118 reports due in the past year were late. Has that performance improved? Find out from CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Sameea Kamal.