Union Watch Highlights

By Editor
06/25/2013
Here are links to the top stories available online over the past week reporting on union activity including legislation, financial impact, reform activism, etc., from California and across the USA.  A little-noticed internal divide threatens liberalism By Michael Lind, June 25, 2013, Salon The debate over affirmative action reveals a split among liberals: the charity...

Employee Freedom Week – Know Your Rights

By Edward Ring
06/25/2013
California is a forced unionism state, meaning that once a collective bargaining unit is recognized by an employer, it’s pretty hard for any employee to avoid paying union dues. But even in forced unionism states, employees have rights. “National Employee Freedom Week” was initiated in Nevada last year by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, and...

TAGS: agency fee payer, Association of American Educators, Christian Educators Association International, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

Collect Them All: Environmental Objections of California Unions in 2013

By Kevin Dayton
06/25/2013
Attendees of the annual leftist “Netroots Nation” conference in San Jose, California on June 20-23, 2013 had ample opportunities to learn how to use the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to advance the labor union political agenda. They could have attended a June 22 panel (CEQA: An Example of Linking Environmental and Labor Movements) on how...

TAGS: Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE), Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local Union No. 1184, Laborers Union (LIUNA) Local No. 783, Santa Clara-San Benito Building and Construction Trades Council

Red – and I Do Mean Red – Herrings of the Left

By Larry Sand
06/25/2013
June – Father’s Day, Flag Day, weddings … and loopy ideas on poverty. Last September I wrote about those who believe that poverty causes ignorance and how we must “fix” poverty before we can fix education. I suggested that maybe, just maybe, a good education is the best antidote to poverty and that school choice...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Chicago Teachers Union, Friedman Foundation, Greg Forster, Illinois Policy Institute, Karen Lewis, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, school choice, socialism, teachers unions, vouchers

Preserving America's Middle Class

By Edward Ring
06/24/2013
To say America’s middle class is threatened is a common refrain. But there is no malevolent force operating to shrink America’s middle class. America’s middle class is challenged by the momentum of history. Technology automates jobs at the same time as the capacity of foreign manufacturers continuously improves. At the same time, American taxpayers confront...

How Unionization Helped Turn the IRS into a Weapon of Partisan Politics

By Dave Bego
06/24/2013
It is largely accepted that President Obama’s re-election was in a large part due to the efforts of big labor and its foot soldiers (see Romney and GOP Steamrolled by Big Labor Corporate Campaign. Apparently, the number of union foot soldiers utilized in big labor’s overwhelming ground game was even greater than initially realized. The National Treasury...

TAGS: seiu

Merge Social Security and Public Sector Pensions

By Edward Ring
06/23/2013
When solutions to the challenge to provide retirement security to American citizens in the 21st century are considered, they typically address either social security or public sector pensions, but rarely focus on both of these systems together. But when considered together, as systems that each have unique strengths and weaknesses that might be combined in...

Americans Should Know They Have Choices In The Workplace

By Larry Sand
06/23/2013
In the summer of 2012, the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Las Vegas, initiated a campaign to let local teachers know that they could opt out of their union, the 12,000 member Clark County Education Association, by submitting written notice between July 1 and July 15. The reaction was dazzling....

TAGS: California Teachers Association, National Employee Freedom Week, Nevada Policy Research Institute, Right to Work

How Interest Rates Affect the Federal Budget

By Edward Ring
06/22/2013
The relationship between stagnant economic growth and high levels of total market debt should be clear to anyone trying to manage a household where their home mortgage payment consumes 50% or more of their entire household income. Similarly, the relationship between economic growth and the ability to borrow should be clear to anyone who has...

How Big Are California’s State and Local Governments Combined?

By Edward Ring
06/21/2013
June 21, 2013 By Bill Fletcher and Ed Ring SUMMARY:  California’s local governments and agencies spent far more in FYE 6-30-2011, $316 billion, when compared to spending for direct state government operations, $49 billion. Similarly, using realistic assumptions regarding the value of unfunded retirement pension and healthcare obligations, the amount of long-term debt carried by...