Pension cost liability vexes Humboldt County By Daniel Mintz, April 21, 2015, Mad River Union With the county’s budget in a state of recovery, supervisors are considering ways to put a dent in a $220 million pension funding liability. The impacts and options for addressing the county’s unfunded California Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) liability...
California’s politics remain polarized, but not just via the traditional division of Republicans vs. Democrats. As reported here two months ago in the post “Issue of Government Unions Divide Candidates More Than Party Affiliation,” there were two California State Senate contests that remained unresolved after the November 2014 election. One of them, pitting Republican John Moorlach...
Summary: The National Labor Relations Board is poised to scrap the long-held legal definition of a joint employer, which has allowed business sectors—including the franchise industry—not only to thrive in recent decades but also to bounce back more quickly from the Great Recession than other segments of the economy. Given the employee turnover in many...
Steve Glazer, Blazing a Trail By Joel Fox, April 14, 2015, Fox&Hounds A Democrat will be elected in the Senate District 7 special election next month but depending on which Democrat is elected the result could change the course of California political history. Steve Glazer, the Orinda mayor and former Jerry Brown advisor is a...
“His idea of pension reform is, you sign up for one pension system, we’re going to change it now in mid career, and now you’re going to get something different.” Lou Paulson, President, California Professional Firefighters (ref. CPF Video, April 1, 2015) The biggest problem with Mr. Paulson’s comment is the double standard he applies. Changing pension...
California teachers unions face new legal challenge over dues By Emma Brown, April 7, 2015, Washington Post Four California teachers are suing their unions over the use of member dues for political activities, opening a new legal front against unions that are already facing a separate challenge to their ability to collect dues from all...
Because of Proposition 13, the unions representing California’s government employees — employees that are the highest paid in all 50 states according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — have a huge stake in who is elected to the state Legislature. While most Californians are aware that Proposition 13 limits increases in property taxes —...
Editor’s Note: Nearly everything described in this lengthy expose on the perilous financial condition of the City of Chicago, and the ways it has been obscured for so long, also neatly applies in many if not most of California’s large cities. Also directly applicable to California’s cities are the author’s descriptions of how the unions representing...
On March 31, 2015, President Obama vetoed the Congressional Bill that would have reversed the Rogue NLRB’s Ambush Election Rule. Unbelievably, and likely in support of unions, this was not reported on national media. This could create havoc for businesses, who will be unprepared for the mass onslaught of unionization when this rule goes into effect...
Republicans take aim at union ‘official time’ for federal employees By Josh Hicks, March 31, 2015, Washington Post House and Senate Republicans have introduced bills to bar federal employees from performing union work on the government’s dime, a practice that has been allowed since 1978 under the Civil Service Reform Act. The measures, introduced by...
It didn’t take long for “the brotherhood” of status quo politics to pile on. Within hours of former Assembly member Joan Buchanan having lost her election bid for Northern California’s 7th Senate District seat in last week’s special election to fill the vacancy, she endorsed labor-embraced and fellow Democratic Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord. Together, they...
Union-backed bill would mandate up to 10 weeks of family leave, at higher pay By Allen Young, March 24, 2015, Sacramento Business Journal Workers would receive higher wages and up to 10 weeks off when they leave work to care for sick family members or to bond with a newborn, under a California bill that...
Labor union indoctrination is seeping into our schools before our very eyes. Teacher union intrusion into the lives of children is not new. Via anti-child work rules like tenure and seniority, unions have been making their influence felt for years. Additionally, as labor expert Kevin Dayton points out, they have been angling to promote their...
Voter turnout in California is low. Just three weeks ago, the election held in Los Angeles saw an embarrassing 10 percent turnout. And, of course, the statewide turnout just last November was almost as bad.Irrespective of political affiliation, the immediate reaction among those of us who are politically engaged is that low voter turnout is...