Union Watch Highlights

By Editor

09/17/2013

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. BART, unions meet at negotiation table By Heather Ishimaru, September 17, 2013, ABC San Francisco Both sides in the BART dispute said on Monday evening...

Orange County Pensions At Risk – Unions Just Call Critics “Extremists”

By Edward Ring

09/17/2013

“Just as the overseer of Detroit lied to the public about Detroit’s unfunded pension liability, these extremists are likewise lying to the taxpayers of Orange County, and they’re following his playbook.” – Jennifer Muir, Communications Director, Orange County Employees Association We’re not lying, Jennifer. We’re not even stretching the truth. What government union spokesperson Muir...

TAGS: OCERS, Orange County Employee Retirement System, Public sector pensions, unfunded contribution, unfunded liability

Teachers can receive a $300 – $400 ‘rebate’ for CTA’s political spending

By Larry Sand

09/17/2013

Although California is not a right-to-work state, public school teachers have the ability to receive a yearly rebate of $300 – $400 from the California Teachers Association. Teachers have these options because the United States Supreme Court has held that a union can’t force a non-union member to pay for the union’s political and other activities unrelated...

TAGS: agency fee payer, California Policy Center, California Teachers Association, California Teachers Empowerment Network, CTA

California Construction Unions Circumvent Public Scrutiny of Project Labor Agreements

By Kevin Dayton

09/17/2013

A common and enduring complaint of the political Left is that constitutional structures established in the country’s republican form of government hinder progress and subvert the democratic will of the people. According to such thinking, those constitutional structures need to be reformed and modernized so that government can be more “democratic.” A few astute political observers...

TAGS: California high speed rail, California High-Speed Rail Authority, New Sacramento Kings Arena, Project Labor Agreements, San Diego Convention Center Expansion

Union Sponsored AB 857 Calculated to Destroy Initiatives in California

By Jon Coupal

09/17/2013

Editor’s Note: California state ballot initiatives that begin collecting signatures before 12-31-2013 MIGHT be exempt from AB 857, which, if signed by Gov. Brown, will take effect January 1st. But it takes about 60 days to get ballot initiatives approved for circulation. That window is closing, and with it, the hope for anyone who isn’t...

TAGS: Jon Coupal

How Should Technological Advances Affect the Role of Government?

By Edward Ring

09/16/2013

“Robots will steal your job, but that’s ok.” Federico Pistono Anyone who has recently driven through Mountain View, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is likely to have had the memorable experience of sharing the road with a car that has nobody inside. Google’s “autonomous cars” are being tested there, and apparently they drive better...

Unionized Emergency Response Agencies – Featherbedding vs. Saving Lives?

By Richard Rider

09/16/2013

I’ve been advocating for 2 man fire/emergency response teams since the tragic 2003 San Diego “Cedar” brush fire, when I first became interested in firefighting operational reforms. It’s simple — two 2-man teams properly stationed apart in one fire station’s “district” = shorter response times than one 4-man team. Because over 80% of the calls are...

CPC Study Finds Orange County Pension Plan Contributions Grossly Inadequate

By California Policy Center

09/13/2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sacramento, California, September 13, 2013 Contact: press@calpolicycenter.org Saddled with a massive debt on what is needed to meet its pension obligations to County workers and other participants, the Orange County Employee Retirement System (OCERS) added more than $100 million to that debt in 2012 because it chose to underfund its so-called “catch-up”...

Tough Commute? Scrap Davis-Bacon Act

By Mike Shedlock

09/11/2013

Liz and I traveled this past Labor Day weekend. We drove from Crystal Lake, Illinois to a golf resort in Manistee, Michigan. Traffic was bad in the Chicago area as expected, but exceptionally slow traffic continued all the way through Indiana, and even into Michigan, all along I-94 until we reached Michigan 31. M-31 breaks off from...

Union Watch Highlights

By Editor

09/10/2013

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. Indiana’s Anti-Labor Law Declared Unconstitutional By Aviva Shen, September 10, 2013, Think Progress On Monday, the state Superior Court judge ruled Indiana’s so-called “right-to-work” law...

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