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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Michael Sainato

‘Unrig the economy for working people’: the California candidate who wrote updated labor laws

A woman walks away from a house while carrying pamphlets.
Marni von Wilpert canvasses in a neighborhood on Friday, 29 May 2026, in San Marcos, California. Photograph: Gregory Bull/AP

Legislation that would modernize federal labor law began with a handful of lawyers meeting, of all places, in an ice-cream shop.

“We wrote for hours what we would do to amend the National Labor Relations Act,” said Marni von Wilpert, a member of the San Diego city council who was then an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Bringing together “our collective experience as labor lawyers over the years, really trying to unrig the rules so that working people could have a fair shot”.

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