Pension Battle Shifts to San Jose, San Bernardino, Stockton

By Mike Shedlock

12/05/2013

Now that a federal judge in Michigan has properly ruled pension obligations are not sacrosanct (see Lesson for Union Dinosaurs) the spotlight is once again on union dinosaurs in California. Bankrupt San Bernardino foolishly did not attempt to shed pension obligations in bankruptcy, but perhaps it can now reconsider. What about Stockton and Vallejo? On April...

TAGS: defined benefit pensions, Public sector pensions, San Bernardino bankruptcy, San Jose pension reform, Stockton bankruptcy, Vallejo bankruptcy

Union Watch Highlights

By Editor

12/03/2013

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 Sue Board Over “Illegal” Labor Contract Negotiations By Lisa Fernandez and Cheryl Hurd, December 3, 2013, NBC San Francisco BART’s two largest unions...

Desert Hot Springs, California, Fights Bankruptcy – Average City Employee Makes $144,329 Per Year

By Edward Ring

12/03/2013

While today’s municipal bankruptcy news focuses on Detroit, where a judge has just ruled the city can proceed with its bankruptcy filing, tonight a small California city holds a council meeting to try to avoid the same fate. Desert Hot Springs isn’t on the national radar, but its situation is hardly unique. With only 27,000...

TAGS: Desert Hot Springs, unionized government

Michigan: One Year Later

By Larry Sand

12/03/2013

Teachers union is desperate to hold onto every last unwilling member. A year after Michigan became the country’s 24th right-to-work state, teachers are finding that their union resembles a Roach Motel – it’s real easy to get in, but getting out can be a mother. Just ask Miriam Chanski, a 24 year-old Kindergarten teacher who...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Bob Chanin, collective bargaining, George Orwell, Larry Sand, Mackinac Center, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, National Labor Relations Board, Right to Work, teachers union

How Regulations Favor Monopolies and Big Government

By Hunter Lewis

12/02/2013

Before discussing how Big Food operates today, let’s take a moment to look back at how agriculture operated in the US South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Viola Goode Liddell, daughter of a cotton salesman, described the system: When an Black Belt farmer sent his cotton down river to Mobile, he . . . had to take what he...

Ideological Battles Divide Both of America's Major Political Parties

By Bill Frezza

12/02/2013

To our progressive friends, it seemed like a century of advocating for government-sponsored universal health care reached fruition when the Affordable Care Act became the law of the land. But triumph turned to tragedy when Progressivism’s signature accomplishment blew up on the launch pad. Not only did this make a shambles of our wounded president’s...

TAGS: affordable care act, Democrats, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, Obamacare, Tea Party

Public Sector Unions Want to Gut Prop. 13 Taxpayer Protections – Voters Disagree

By Jon Coupal

12/02/2013

Editor’s Note: As Jon Coupal explains in detail, Prop. 13’s “coattails” are alive and well in California. In a special election a few weeks ago in Southern California, Susan Shelley, a moderate Republican whose sole message was “protect Prop. 13” has lost by a margin of less than 1%, in a district where Democrats outnumber...

TAGS: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Jon Coupal, Prop. 13, property taxes, public sector unions

Why Raising Minimum Wages Does More Harm Than Good

By Mike Shedlock

12/02/2013

On Friday, Salon reported Breaking: Massive Black Friday strike and arrests planned, as workers defy Wal-Mart. Defying the nation’s top employer and a business model that defines the new U.S. economy, Wal-Mart employees and allies will try to oust shopping headlines with strike stories, and throw a retail giant off its heels on what should be its happiest...

TAGS: Minimum Wage, seiu, Wal-Mart

Same Old SEIU, Same Tired Attacks

By Dave Bego

12/02/2013

Never a group to let an opportunity go to waste, the SEIU planed to disrupt travelers at major airports all over the country, and to attack retailers such as Wal-Mart during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Their plotting is all in the name of “social justice,” which is no more than a code name for forced...

TAGS: card check, Neutrality Agreement, seiu, Wal-Mart

Ways to Grow California's Economy: A Checklist for Discussion

By Bill Fletcher

11/27/2013

There is no substitute to growing California’s private sector economy. Growing the economy has substantial benefits: The private sector economy is the only source of jobs and tax revenues. It’s better for everyone to raise tax revenues by growing the economy rather than through tax rate increases and new taxes. A growing private sector economy also...

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