Citizen Awareness Stops Project Labor Agreement in Orange County, California
Citizen Awareness Stops Project Labor Agreement in Orange County, California
Stopping the union political agenda on the state and local level in California entails the grinding, boring mundanity of ordinary grassroots organizing. It’s unglamorous. It’s not financially rewarding. And it certainly doesn’t enhance the professional or community reputation of anyone doing it. But it often works, as shown on May 15, 2013, when the elected...
By Kevin Dayton
Election Gains for California Unions in 2012 Drive Push for Project Labor Agreements
Election Gains for California Unions in 2012 Drive Push for Project Labor Agreements
The explosion of Project Labor Agreements on government projects in California since the November 6 elections is not surprising to long-time observers of labor union initiatives at local governments. In the six months after the November 2008 Presidential Election, emboldened and confident construction trade unions won Project Labor Agreements at eleven local governments in California. It...
By Kevin Dayton
Exposing the Plot Behind Project Labor Agreement for California Bullet Train
Exposing the Plot Behind Project Labor Agreement for California Bullet Train
Documents obtained on April 29, 2013 through a request under the authority of the California Public Records Act reveal behind-the-scenes maneuvering for a government mandate that construction companies sign a Project Labor Agreement with the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California as a condition of building California’s High-Speed Rail. Getting these records was not a simple task....
By Kevin Dayton
Persistent Pressure Compels San Diego to Spit Out Project Labor Agreement
Persistent Pressure Compels San Diego to Spit Out Project Labor Agreement
For five months, the City of San Diego refused to give the public a Project Labor Agreement negotiated for its planned $520 million convention center expansion. This union agreement was reportedly the result of a backroom deal involving top union leaders, but multiple requests for it under the authority of the California Public Records Act failed to dislodge it. But today (April 23,...
By Kevin Dayton
Union Influence in the California Democratic Party’s 2013 Convention Resolutions
Union Influence in the California Democratic Party’s 2013 Convention Resolutions
Can you guess which special interest group influenced many of the resolutions approved at the California Democratic Party convention on April 14, 2013? That’s right, unions. Here’s my annotated collection of the 2013 resolutions and the clean version of the resolutions on the California Democratic Party web site. (As the party web site says, “Click...
By Kevin Dayton
Orange County Project Labor Agreements: One Advances, One Gets Jammed
Orange County Project Labor Agreements: One Advances, One Gets Jammed
Within three days last week, elected boards of two of the four community college districts in Orange County, California voted on proposals to require their construction contractors to sign Project Labor Agreements with construction trade unions as a condition of work. 1. Rancho Santiago Community College District: Anaheim Hills, Garden Grove, Irvine, Orange, Santa Ana,...
By Kevin Dayton
To the Public Sector Unions, California is now the model for America
To the Public Sector Unions, California is now the model for America
Ever since California’s voters approved the Prop. 30 sales-and income-tax increase on the November ballot, liberal commentators have been gloating about the resurgence of the Golden State after many years of predicted doom and gloom. Their evidence: Higher taxes seem to have cleared up the state’s budget deficits. As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote recently,...
By Steven Greenhut
Businesses Can Make a “Social Impact Bond” with Unions
Businesses Can Make a “Social Impact Bond” with Unions
Unions were supporting a bill. This meant taxpayers were about to give unions more money. That’s what I thought when I saw this notice for a press conference at the California State Capitol on the morning of March 19, 2013: Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and others announce legislation to “foster increased business and industry investment...
By Kevin Dayton
Opponents of CEQA Reform Cite New Study with Union Connections
Opponents of CEQA Reform Cite New Study with Union Connections
A broad coalition opposing any changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) held a press conference today (March 12, 2013) that included the findings of a newly-released study, The Economic and Environmental Impact of the California Environmental Quality Act. The study was written by a University of Utah professor with a long history of academic...
By Kevin Dayton
God Gave Us Rain and You Figured Out How to Tax It
God Gave Us Rain and You Figured Out How to Tax It
On Tuesday, March 5, the residents of Los Angeles went to the polls to vote on Proposition A, the PERMANENT half cent increase that will raise our sales tax to a whopping 9½%, one of the highest rates in the nation. This ballot measure, rushed to the ballot in less than two weeks without any...
By Jack Humphreville
With Senate Bill 7, California Unions Advance Plot to Neuter City Charters
With Senate Bill 7, California Unions Advance Plot to Neuter City Charters
More than 30 California cities are likely to defy top union officials by asking their citizens in 2014 to vote on enacting a “home rule” charter for local control. Cities want to free their purely municipal affairs from costly union-backed state mandates, for reasons revealed in these recent articles: Unions Rise to Defense of “Prevailing Wage” Rates Jeopardizing...
By Kevin Dayton
How Unions Artificially Inflate Costs for Infrastructure
How Unions Artificially Inflate Costs for Infrastructure
Inquiring minds are watching an excellent video on The Kudlow Report between Larry Kudlow and David Harkin. Harkin is the author of a study on US infrastructure and a professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. Partial Transcript Kudlow: President Obama wants to spend another $50 billion on repairs to our infrastructure. Do we...
By Mike Shedlock
CEQA Debate Rule No. 1: Do NOT Mention Union “Greenmail”
CEQA Debate Rule No. 1: Do NOT Mention Union “Greenmail”
“Here’s the plan: pretend that unions aren’t exploiting the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as a tool to obtain labor agreements. Maybe no one will notice.” Supporters and opponents of CEQA reform are straining to avoid this uncomfortable subject as influential Democrats in the California State Senate prepare to introduce an alleged reform of CEQA...
By Kevin Dayton
Another Year Brings New Project Labor Agreements for Education Construction
Another Year Brings New Project Labor Agreements for Education Construction
Another year brings another rush of costly union construction monopolies to K-12 school districts and community college districts in California. Consider that voters in 2012 authorized 115 California educational districts to borrow a grand total of $15,266,651,190 ($15.3 billion) by selling bonds to investors, and you can see why schools are such an alluring target for special...
By Kevin Dayton