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Union In The News – Weekly Highlights

Gerawan Farming settles 2013 labor charge with UFW By Robert Rodriguez, October 24, 2016, Fresno Bee Gerawan Farming, the United Farm Workers union and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board have entered into a settlement agreement over a 2013 charge that the Fresno County farming company violated state labor law. The Fresno County tree fruit grower has...

By Sean O’Striker

Election Integrity and the Power of Unions

During the 2004 Presidential election there were allegations of voter fraud; the 2000 Presidential election was alleged to have been “stolen” by the Republicans. If you go further back in history, you can point to evidence the Democratic machine in Chicago manipulated election results to throw the 1960 Presidential election victory to Kennedy. A close...

By Edward Ring

Local Governments Rigging Elections – Again

With all the state and local taxes on the November ballot, one would think that government at all levels in California was starved for revenue. But even a cursory review of the Golden State’s “tax machine” reveals that the tax burden is already too heavy for many to bear. California has the highest income rate...

By Jon Coupal

Union In The News – Weekly Highlights

The state government pension crisis: You will be made to care By Chuck Devore, October 11, 2016, Washington Examiner California Gov. Jerry Brown just signed SB 1234, a bill that establishes the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust, a state-run retirement fund for 7.5 million Californians. All firms with more than four employees will be...

By Sean O’Striker

How Unionized Government Enables the Iron Law of Oligarchy

“Political Parties,” published by the German political theorist Roberto Michels in 1911, is a relatively obscure book. But in this book, Michels offers a concept that has increasing relevance today, the “Iron Law of Oligarchy.” This law is summed up reasonably well in its Wikipedia entry: “According to Michels all organizations eventually come to be...

By Edward Ring

Union In The News – Weekly Highlights

Marin unions appeal pension ruling to state Supreme Court By Richard Halstead, October 4, 2016, Marin Independent Journal Four Marin labor groups have appealed a state appeals court decision that some say could radically alter the ability to reduce the retirement benefits of public employees who are still on the job. The plaintiffs — the Marin...

By Sean O’Striker

The Government Union Political Class: Today California, Tomorrow America

Government unions in California collect and spend over $1.0 billion per year. That’s just government unions. That’s just California. They use a small fraction of this money to engage in collective bargaining. They use about a third of it to engage in politics – that’s nearly $700 million per election cycle. The rest, well over...

By Edward Ring

Union In The News – Weekly Highlights

Gap Co-Founder Doris Fisher Is Behind the Charter School Agenda By Joel Warner, September 27, 2016, Capital & Main As co-founder of the Gap, San Francisco-based business leader and philanthropist Doris Fisher boasts a net worth of $2.6 billion, making her the country’s third richest self-made woman, according to Forbes. And she’s focused much of...

By Sean O’Striker

Union In The News – Weekly Highlights

Pot shop vote in LA? By Debbie L. Sklar, September 20, 2016, MyNewsLa.com Will you get to vote to keep and permit pot shops in Los Angeles? Proponents of a measure to repeal Proposition D, a city ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, say they have turned in more than 100,000 signatures to the City Clerk’s...

By Sean O’Striker

Freedom Foundation Serves Notice in California with Union Opt-Out Ads

The Freedom Foundation – which last year expanded into Oregon after spending a quarter century fighting for free markets and limited, accountable government in neighboring Washington – will take its first formal plunge into California this week by unveiling a series of TV ads targeting unionized caregivers. Much like ads that have run successfully in...

By Will Swaim

Down Ballot Measures Could Cost You Big Bucks

Election month is rapidly approaching. That’s right, “election month” because, since 2002, California voters have been freed from casting ballots in person on the official Election Day, which this year is November 8. Voting by mail begins October 10. Polls show that many voters are disenchanted with the coming election because the major candidates for...

By Jon Coupal

Anaheim Awards Biggest Tax Subsidy in City History to Disney, Unions Silent

There’s evidence of a very California coup in the city of Anaheim, where an unusual alliance of city officials, government union leaders and developers is advancing its own financial interests at the expense of everyone else. Their near-term goal: a July 12 vote by the Anaheim City Council to offer major corporations, including Disneyland, the...

By David Schwartzman

Union In The News – Weekly Highlights

Agriculture reacts to California’s new overtime law By Todd Fitchette, September 13, 2016, Western Farm Press California Gov. Edmund Brown doesn’t need to please farmers anymore as he will be termed out of office in a couple years and someone new, with probably the same penchant for over-regulating the state’s farmers, will take his place...

By Sean O’Striker