Nonpartisan Union Reform | California Policy Center

California is world-leader in traffic; Caltrans engineers get raises

Gov. Jerry Brown has often expressed his vision of California as America’s – maybe the world’s – leader in technology, climate change, anti-smoking campaigns, environmental protection, health care for the poor. But California is inarguably the leader in one category: Two California cities are among the world’s worst for traffic congestion. Los Angeles ranked No....

By Edmund Pine

Does Berkeley’s Teachers Union Support Free Speech to Suppress Free Speech?

“There is no free speech for fascists. They do not have the right to organize for genocide.” – Yvette Felarca, as reported by Frances Dinkelspiel writing for Berkeleyside, Nov. 2, 2016 Most anyone who follows current events is familiar with the riots at UC Berkeley that stopped a planned February 1st appearance by Breitbart editor and...

By Edward Ring

Questions for Someone Who Supports Superior Benefits for Government Workers

“Without disputing the figures, Monique Morrissey, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., said the findings are misleading because they do not compare specific classes of employees or account for differences in education levels and total hours worked.” California Is Golden State For Public Employees, by Michael Carroll, AMI Newswire, Jan. 31,...

By Edward Ring

Friedrichs 2.0? Supremes May Get a Second Chance to Free Teachers from Forced Unionism

In a case that will cheer education reformers, four Pennsylvania teachers today sued their unions, school districts and district officials for making union membership a condition of their employment. “Teaching is my calling, but I fundamentally disagree with many teachers’ union stances on personnel and political issues,” said lead plaintiff Gregory J. Hartnett, an art...

By Will Swaim

California Agricultural Labor Board Has New Chairman – Union Control Remains Absolute

LRemoving all doubt that the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board is a Marxist tool for unionization, William B. Gould IV, Gov. Jerry Brown’s appointed Chairman of the board, announced his resignation Friday, in a cranky letter complaining that farm workers don’t want to join the United Farmworkers Union. Gould’s resignation also proved that he never was an...

By Katy Grimes

Analysis of 2001 Bush Executive Order Allowing Federal Funds for Project Labor Agreements

In early 2001, President George W. Bush issued two executive orders related to a prohibition on federal funding for construction contracts that included a requirement for contractors to sign a Project Labor Agreement with trade unions. The first executive order – Presidential Executive Order 13202, signed on February 17, 2001 – received national news coverage and Congressional attention....

By Kevin Dayton

Environmentalism Provides Moral Cover for New Taxes to Fund Pensions

There are two intertwined themes that define unionized government in California. First, funding government retiree pensions will soak up every new source of tax revenue they will ever collect. Second, cloaking new taxes and fees – and new agencies – in the virtuous raiment of environmentalism will deflect criticism and demonize critics. Here’s why: Now...

By Edward Ring

Will Taxpayers Be Mugged by Unionized Government?

Governor Brown has just released his spending proposal for 2017-18 and taxpayers should not be blamed if they feel like they are walking down a dark alley in a high-crime neighborhood. While the governor’s proposed budget has been described as austere, it still represents a spending boost of five percent, a rate of increase only...

By Jon Coupal

Public Sector Pay Continues to Increase Thanks to Union Power

Editor’s Note: Back in the early years of the 21st century, when California’s tech sector had collapsed and the stock market was down sharply, local government budgets were so strapped that they started closing their offices on Fridays, and applied “furloughs” to their employees to save money. But no public worker took an actual pay...

By Jon Coupal