Three That Stand Out in the Stack : Wilson should sign sweatshop, coast panel and battered women bills

As Gov. Pete Wilson whittles down the stack of bills on his desk, here are three that deserve his signature:

“STITCH AND DITCH”: Widespread labor violations continue in local sweatshops. Thousands of seamstresses work for a pittance--often just $2 an hour--to support California’s $6-billion garment industry. Most are undocumented immigrants too frightened to demand higher wages.

Some garment manufacturers invite these abuses by subcontracting with sweatshop owners at rates that can’t possibly cover minimum wages. The industry is riddled with so-called “stitch and ditch” subcontractors who disappear once the job is done, leaving their employees unpaid. In addition, some sweatshops operate on cash, so the state loses payroll tax revenue. That hurts everyone in California.

AB 1542 would make garment manufacturers jointly liable for their subcontractors’ violations of state laws on wages, working conditions and occupational health and safety. The bill should prompt manufacturers to better screen their subcontractors. By itself, it wouldn’t erase the abuses, but it would make the system more accountable.

COASTAL COMMISSION: AB 3459 would bar private communications between members of the California Coastal Commission and developers. Impetus for this reasonable bill grew from the indictment earlier this year of former Coastal Commissioner Mark L. Nathanson on federal felony charges of attempting to extort money from businessmen seeking Coastal Commission permits.

The commission is a quasi-judicial body; its mission is to apply the law on coastal development to individual parcels and plans. For the commission’s decisions to be credible, the commissioners must be rigorously fair and impartial. Private communication between commissioners and those affected by their decisions taints the appearance of impartiality and can taint the outcome as well.

BATTERED WOMEN: AB 2373 would create a commission on domestic violence and the battered woman syndrome to advise Wilson as he considers applications for sentence commutation from battered women convicted of murdering their abusers.

Murder is the most heinous of crimes, but some women, battered severely and repeatedly, allege that they murdered their husbands or boyfriends in self-defense. In their view, they had to kill or be killed. Therefore they believe that their sentences should be commuted to time served. Wilson currently has 21 such applications before him; he has taken no action on them since April and he will receive more soon.

The issues involved in these cases are complex. This panel merely would set guidelines so the governor could make just decisions in these painful and difficult cases.