Hollywood star Annette Bening has slammed California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) as “reprehensible” for his decision to veto a bill that would have provided unemployment pay to striking union workers.
In November, Newsom vetoed California’s SB799, which the Democrat-controlled state legislature had passed with flying colors at the height of the Hollywood strikes. The bill would have put California taxpayers on the hook for unemployment benefits to striking Hollywood actors and writers, who had walked off the job to protest the major studios and streamers.
Annette Bening spoke about the bill in a recent Vanity Fair interview to promote her Netflix movie Nyad.
Actress Annette Bening joins members and supporters of SAG-AFTRA and WGA on the picket line at Fox Studios on August 08, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)
“We pay into our unemployment—although as you know, the striking workers could not gather unemployment,” the actress said, erroneously conflating unemployment with going on strike.
“Gavin Newsom famously didn’t go along with that [bill]. I find that reprehensible. I think that if we have paid into something and we’re on strike as actors, as writers, as show business people, then we have a right to collect our unemployment.”
California Republicans condemned the legislation, saying it would have forced California taxpayers to subsidize labor activism.
“This is the most crazy thing I have ever seen,” State Sen. Brian Dahle (R) said according to a report in The Sacramento Bee. “This is a labor dispute, not an unemployment dispute… This is a horrible bill. This is a bad idea.”
Bening was recently named board chair of the Entertainment Community Fund, a charity helping those in the entertainment industry who have fallen on hard times.
Newsom’s veto comes as California faces a $32 budgetary deficit for 2023 — an amount that is likely to grow worse in coming years.
The state is facing a dramatic fall-off in tax revenue as residents and businesses flee in the face of soaring crime, massive illegal immigration, and onerous taxes. Last year, California became the first state to offer free health care to illegal aliens, under a budget deal by Newsom and Democrats.
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