周四, 8月3日, 2023, ATA President Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo sent a letter to the California Senate Appropriations Committee on behalf of the ATA 永利最新网址 Committee urging legislators to oppose AB 1032, which is seeking to amend the Trial Court 翻译 Employment and Labor Relations Act. You can read the full bill text 在这里.
AB 1032会做什么?
如果通过并签署成为法律, AB 1032 would put language access at risk by lifting certain restrictions on the use of non-certified interpreters, legitimizing the employment of untested interpreters, 创造冗余, 需要的位置. It would also allow the courts to hire untrained relay interpreters to serve on staff in California’s courthouses, even though some Indigenous languages have over 40 variants and t在这里fore, hiring one or two staff interpreters would necessarily only cover a handful of variants and leave many limited English proficient Indigenous language court users unserved. It would also threaten to weaken binding arbitration staff interpreters use to resolve bargaining disputes.
永利登录网址为什么要这样做?
The ATA 永利最新网址 Committee opted to support two broad coalitions of expert California court interpreters in their calls to oppose this bill because, 简单地说, 这是糟糕的政策. 就像它的姐妹法案AB 432一样， 在委员会中被否决了 感谢永利登录网址的声音, AB 1032 threatens interpreter pay and working conditions and risks harming the limited English proficient people served by the judicial system, 即使在它被修改之后. Guided by 73 current and former union and non-union court employees and contractors and five Indigenous-language contractors in their calls to oppose this bill, ATA felt it was important to lend our voice and encourage the legislators on the Senate Appropriations Committee to oppose the bill. You can read the letter from the Coalition of Working California 翻译s 在这里 and the letter from the Mayan language interpreters 在这里.
ab1032的状态如何?
Bills can either be passed by the Appropriations Committee or placed on the 悬念文件. Some legislators have described the 悬念文件 as a kind of purgatory for bills because they have to pass a closed-door hearing with high-ranking legislators without public debate. The committee chair and leaders of each chamber can choose whether or not to advance the bill based on fiscal impact or simply preference in the final weeks of the legislative session.
8月14日, 2023, AB 1032 went on the 悬念文件, which means it could be raised at any time in the final two to three weeks of the legislative session—or die in suspense. As of the writing of this update, it has yet to be raised. We hope legislators have heard the concerns voiced by a broad swath of California’s diverse interpreter community and chose not to advance this bill.
采取行动，产生影响
We encourage all ATA members in California to contact your legislators now to tell them why this bill will not work for court interpreters in your state using the talking points in the three letters linked in this post. Click 在这里 to find out who your legislators are and write to their offices, 打电话给他们的员工, and set up a meeting to explain why this bill will not help interpreters in California. This is especially true if your state senator serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Support ATA 永利最新网址, Become an ATA Member
To support ATA’s mission of advocating on behalf of the profession and the important work of the all-volunteer ATA 永利最新网址 Committee, 今天就成为ATA会员.