There’s no getting away from the pension issue these days or from the fact that the state’s pension system is on the brink of disaster unless pensions for state and local workers are pared back dramatically. The only people in denial these days are the Brown administration and the state’s legislative leaders, as their response...
Earlier this week the Sacramento Bee hosted a chat on the topic “Should States Rethink Collective Bargaining.” In addition to journalists from the Bee, participants included Steve Greenhut, editor of CalWatchdog.org, and Art Pulaski, the chief officer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. During the hour-long discussion, the topic of public sector pensions came up...
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But when the imitator inverts the meaning of the phrase they’re imitating, clarification is called for. Such is the case with the esteemed Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, who has penned an essay in today’s Wall Street Journal entitled “Scott Walker’s False Choice.” According to Trumka, Wisconsin’s...
According to a Chicago Tribune story, the International Association of Machinists (IAM), has filed suit in federal district court in Charleston, South Carolina, seeking an injunction requiring Republican governor Nikki Haley and her State Director of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, Catherine Templeton, to remain neutral on labor-management affairs, particularly with regard to the unionization of...
Dick Morris, who was President Clinton’s pollster for 20 years, and has done polling for 30 Senators and Governors and 14 presidents or prime ministers in foreign countries, has just released polling data examining Wisconsin voter attitudes towards public sector unions and public sector employee compensation in that state. His findings underscore what appears to...
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed limits on public employee collective bargaining—and Republican election victories in November more generally—have uncorked a backlog of opposition from the left to criticisms against public sector unions. More complete responses to that opposition will follow this post (though Ezra Klein has already kicked out the legs from under his own...
While attention focuses on the battle in Wisconsin between a Republican Governor and public employee unions who overwhelmingly support Democrats, it is in California where the future role of public sector unions in politics is being most severely tested. Because in California, Democrats exercise nearly absolute control over the state’s political agenda, and as a...
People increasingly want answers for how California can solve its fiscal problems, but I rarely have good news to offer. Last week, I wrote about three Assembly Republicans who attended a “no more cuts” rally sponsored by the Service Employees International Union – those always-agitated, purple-shirted, bullhorn-toting activists who are ubiquitous around Sacramento. The three...
Earlier this week UnionWatch posted an analysis that estimated about two-thirds of California’s state budget covers state employee compensation expenses. This was in response to a widely quoted estimate that the number was only about 12%. Due to the huge disparity in these claims, and the implications having the correct number may have on the...
Yesterday the Detroit News, as part of its “Labor Voices” series, published a guest editorial by the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, James Hoffa, entitled “American ills not caused by unions.” In this editorial Hoffa made many statements that require a rebuttal, starting with this: “Across the country, new governors and new legislatures...
Editor’s Note: Given the sensitive nature of the conclusions herein, and based on informed criticism from many who commented and emailed in response to this post, a 2nd, more in-depth analysis was posted on this topic on Feb. 11th, entitled “What Percent of California’s State AND Local Budgets Are Employee Compensation.” In that more thorough...
In response to New York Mayor Seeks Pension Overhaul; New Jersey Governor Tells Unions “Sue Me” Over Pension Cuts I received yet another email stating a line I frequently hear, that some occupations are “special” and need protection. Here is the exact statement: “I think that teachers are special and must be separated out in...
The fact that pension finance is a relatively poorly understood area of employee compensation doesn’t let us off the hook to try to understand it. Certainly policymakers should have had a better understanding of what they were getting taxpayers into. During the bubble years of the internet and continuing right up until a couple of...
In a ruling that has surprised the skeptics, California’s Supreme Court has affirmed the right of a city to lay off municipal workers to balance their budget. In the ruling, Justice Joyce Kennard said that under California law, “a local public entity that is faced with a decline in revenues or other financial adversity may...