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...
The three Assembly members who joined with Democrats at a union-sponsored rally to oppose government cuts to In-Home Supportive Services — Jim Silva of Huntington Beach, Brian Nestande of Palm Desert and Paul Cook of Yucca Valley — didn’t betray their conservative principles. They never had any such principles. But they did betray the GOP...
Best wishes to Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak who is still justifiably after firefighters over fraudulent sick leave. Please consider Sisolak calls for investigation of firefighter sick leave: In 2009, Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak began looking hard at Fire Department costs. He had received a deluge of angry calls and e-mails from constituents wondering...
Governor Brown has a budget shortfall of $28 billion. He seeks to get $12.5 billion from spending cuts. That is 44.6% of what needs to be done. Please consider California’s Brown Unveils $12.5 Billion in Spending Reductions California Governor Jerry Brown’s budget will cut spending by $12.5 billion, including as much as a 10 percent...
Last week former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich wrote a commentary entitled “Someone Has to Stop This Shameful Attack on Public Employees,” which was published on Business Insider. Reich’s comments, which essentially attribute these “shameful attacks” to an assortment of “Republican tricks,” invite a rebuttal, especially since he claims “the right’s argument is shot through...
One of the greatest misconceptions on the left may be the suggestion that “us” refers to workers (hopefully unionized workers), along with government programs and regulations, and “them” refers to big business, their friends on Wall Street, and their puppets in government. At the risk of merely presenting an opposing paradigm that is equally over-simplified,...
Here is a story of a laid-off firefighter blaming the wrong thing for his woes. Meet Jason Pickering begging for money. “We took an oath to save people’s lives … and the city just threw us to the curb,” Jason Pickering told WGN-TV. The 34-year-old Pickering, a 10-year department veteran and one of 34 Gary...
U.S. House Resolution 6484, the “Public Employee Pension Transparency Act,” will finally require public employee pension funds to adhere to the same regulations that govern private pension funds. The reason for this is clear enough – by not reporting sufficient information about the financial status of these massive funds, there is greater potential for them...
Please watch this CBS 60 Minutes interview on the crisis that states face. I have been talking about this for several years while most bloggers and nearly all of mainstream media have ignored the story. It is no longer possible to ignore the story. State Budgets: Day of Reckoning – CBS 60 Minutes Unlike the...
Cincinnati, like every union-plagued city in the country is having huge budget problems over untenable union wages and pension benefits. Big problems call for big actions. I am pleased to report that several thinking members on the Cincinnati City Council proposed to outsource the entire police department to the local sheriff’s association. Unfortunately, the mayor...