The dust has cleared from the state legislature’s traditional last-minute lawmaking marathon, and organized Labor emerged with a fistful of notable wins that would provide unemployment benefits to striking workers and raise minimum pay for health care and fast food workers.

The bills’ passage on Thursday, the last day of the legislative session, comes at a time when labor has been flexing its muscles nationally with worker strikes on the rise, notably the ongoing walkouts by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA in the entertainment industry and, starting this week, the United Auto Workers stoppage against the Big Three U.S. automakers. Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Oct. 14 to sign the bills into law.

“It was probably the most productive session we’ve had,” said Jean Cohen, executive officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council in San Jose, adding that lawmakers moved 13 of their sponsored bills to the governor’s desk.

But it remains to be seen how much of labor’s wish list will gain the blessing of a Democratic governor who also is a business owner with presidential ambitions.

David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University, said labor has shifted from a defensive posture of blocking legislation that workers oppose to getting measures it wants passed, putting new pressures on the governor who needs union support.

“They’ve put a lot of points on the board this last year that in some ways is going to challenge the previous approach we’ve seen from Newsom and other Democrats,” McCuan said. “The governor comes from a place of supporting well-to-do interests while portraying himself as progressive. Labor is delicately trying to see if his rhetoric is where his policy positions are. This is a governor who doesn’t like to disappoint. He has his eye on higher office but has time on hands.”

Lawmakers on Thursday passed SB 799, which would make California the third state — behind New York and New Jersey — in which workers on strike can receive unemployment insurance. Unemployment would be available to workers on strike two weeks or more.

“As workers continue to stand in solidarity to win better, fairer contracts, this measure will aid everyone who needs to pay bills and buy groceries while they are on strike,” said Kate Shindle, president of the Actors’ Equity Association, representing more than 51,000 actors and stage managers in live theater nationally.

But business groups including the Bay Area Council, Los Angeles County Business Federation and New California Coalition are urging Newsom to veto the bill, calling it “misguided legislation” that would “unfairly extend unemployment benefits to workers who voluntarily leave their jobs to strike.”

Political experts said of all the recently passed labor bills, unemployment insurance for strikers is most likely to give Newsom pause.

“Newsom knows that he would have to win a Democratic primary before he can be in a general election, so being pro-labor is an immense asset,” said political analyst Dan Schnur. “But he also knows that governors who run deficits get into trouble, which explains his hesitation on the cost of the unemployment benefit bill.”

Among those who’ll be closely watching Newsom is Ismael Armendariz, president of the Oakland Education Association that represents teachers in Oakland Unified School District, who went on a weeklong strike in May.

“Teachers know first-hand how difficult it can be to go on strike,” Armendariz said. “The financial impact for strikers and their families can be serious. Allowing for workers to file for unemployment during a prolonged strike is something we whole-heartedly support. As we all work together to raise standards and working conditions, no one making the difficult decision to go on strike should have to wonder if they will be able to pay their rent or put food on the table.”

Lawmakers also passed SB 525, which would raise the minimum hourly wage for health care workers to $25 by 2026. Thousands of Kaiser health care workers represented by SEIU-UHW have voted to go on strike if a new contract is not reached by Sep. 30.

And the legislature endorsed AB 1228, aimed at resolving an ongoing battle over fast-food industry working conditions and a state law last year that would create a regulatory council over them. Last year’s law has been on hold since restaurants qualified a referendum next year to repeal it.

The bill represents a deal between labor and fast food representatives that would modify the regulatory provisions in last year’s law to address industry concerns in exchange for withdrawing the referendum and raising the hourly minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees to $20 starting in April.

That’s good news for Ramona Martinez, 53, of San Jose, who is trying to support her daughter and her husband on the $17 an hour she’s paid as a cook at a Carl’s Jr. In August she joined some 200 fast food workers in a one-day strike over working conditions such as a lack of security and broken air conditioner.

“Here in California, the cost of living is too high, and we finally have been heard after sharing our stories about what happens inside the fast food industry,” Martinez said in Spanish through a union translator. “With the salary I have, it’s not enough. With the new minimum, it will help. But there’s so much more we’ll continue to fight for.”