Baby Bumps and Teacher Benefits: Dispelling CTA Myths About Maternity Leave
Baby Bumps and Teacher Benefits: Dispelling CTA Myths About Maternity Leave
Last month, the California Teachers Association posted on Instagram: “This #WomensHistoryMonth, let’s fix a broken system that leaves educators without any paid disability related to pregnancy!” The fix, California’s largest teachers union asserts, is Assembly Bill 2901, authored by Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters). If passed, the state would require school districts and community...
By Sheridan Swanson
The Role of Unions in a Perfect World
The Role of Unions in a Perfect World
The optimal public policy regarding unions may not be realistic in states like California, but that shouldn’t prevent us from performing an occasional what-if. For anyone even slightly right-of-center, what unions have done to this state is a catastrophe. And even for those to the left-of-center, many are realizing, for example, that California’s failing system...
By Edward Ring
Temecula Teachers Want Education, Not Indoctrination
Temecula Teachers Want Education, Not Indoctrination
Many teachers in California are fed up with the political activism of their teachers’ union that is not aligned with the interests of educators and students — and often disrupts and derails classroom instruction in favor of political agendas. A case in point is the United Educators of San Francisco, which recently issued statements calling...
By Andrew Davenport
California Teachers Association is Losing Members
California Teachers Association is Losing Members
California’s political landscape is changing, and that’s cause for celebration. In 2018, the Supreme Court’s Janus ruling prohibited the collection of union dues from public employees as a condition of employment. Before that ruling, with few exceptions, no dues meant no job. By protecting a worker’s right to choose to financially support a union, Janus...
By Chris LaBella
AB 5 Update
AB 5 Update
Editor’s note: There’s so much misinformation about the state of AB 5, that we asked Karen Anderson, founder of Freelancers Against AB 5, for an update. AB5 has not been overturned. It is still the law and continues to wreak havoc across a vast swath of professions and sectors in California—everything from performing arts, event...
By Karen Anderson
The Butler Did It
The Butler Did It
In appointing Laphonza Butler to take Dianne Feinstein’s still-warm U.S. Senate seat, Gov. Gavin Newsom has picked his twin, someone of Cirque-du-Soleil-level flexible morality and connections to wealthy donors on all sides of most issues. In that regard, at least, she’s a perfect representative of California politics. She is “simply the best person that I...
By Chris LaBella
A Happy Anniversary for Workers’ Rights
A Happy Anniversary for Workers’ Rights
Five years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the First Amendment right of government workers to opt out of their unions. In Janus vs AFSCME, decided on June 27, 2018, the Court ruled that public-sector employees have the right to opt out of union representation and cannot be forced to pay union dues....
By Houston Reese
Teachers beat San Diego union in remarkable rematch
Teachers beat San Diego union in remarkable rematch
Take a break from doom scrolling California stories to celebrate the victory of charter school teachers over the union that came to crush them. Teachers at Gompers Preparatory Academy, a public charter school in the Chollas View neighborhood of San Diego, have successfully voted to remove San Diego Education Association (SDEA) union bosses from their...
By California Policy Center
SCOTUS confirms unions can be sued for property damage
SCOTUS confirms unions can be sued for property damage
In an important ruling last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held that unions can be sued in state court for damages if striking workers intentionally destroy their employer’s property. The decision is a victory for employers that puts unions on notice that there are consequences for their reckless actions during strikes. In Glacier Northwest v....
By Houston Reese
Oakland Teachers’ Union Puts District’s Most Vulnerable Students Last
Oakland Teachers’ Union Puts District’s Most Vulnerable Students Last
The Oakland Education Association — the teachers union in Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) — is at it again. Last week, the union announced that 88 percent of its members voted in favor of authorizing a strike. The strike is scheduled to begin May 4th, unless the district and union come to a last-minute agreement....
By California Policy Center
AB 421: SEIU’s Bid to Gut California’s 112-year-old Referendum and Initiative Laws
AB 421: SEIU’s Bid to Gut California’s 112-year-old Referendum and Initiative Laws
In the devil’s workshop we call the state legislature, government union leaders are hard at work — destroying another of California’s democratic institutions. Fresh off the shutdown of Los Angeles Unified schools and the overthrow of their own elected president — and facing steep declines in membership and revenue — Service Employees International Union (SEIU) activists are...
By Will Swaim
SEIU Faces Steep Declines in Membership and Revenue
SEIU Faces Steep Declines in Membership and Revenue
SEIU Local 99’s massive strike in LA Unified ended last week with union leaders bragging that the strike showcased the union’s strength. But the reality is more stark for the union: SEIU is facing steep declines in membership and revenue, and the strike appears more like an act of desperation. According to internal LAUSD documents,...
By Jackson Reese