Golden Gate Transit District Unions Authorize Strike By Holly Quan, August 5, 2014, CBS San Francisco A coalition of 13 of Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District workers’ unions has unanimously voted to authorize a strike, though no date has been announced as both sides continue talks. Talks continued Monday and are set to start...
N.L.R.B. Ruling Holds McDonald’s, Not Just Franchisees, Liable for Worker Treatment By Steven Greenhouse, July 29, 2014, New York Times The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Tuesday that McDonald’s is jointly responsible for workers at its franchisees’ restaurants, a decision that if upheld would disrupt longtime practices in the fast-food...
Jim Righeimer was elected to the Costa Mesa City Council in 2010, where he currently serves as Mayor. In Costa Mesa, Jim has led the charge to shrink government and provide more transparency and efficiency to the Citizens of the City. Labor union leaders now say Costa Mesa is “Wisconsin in California.” Costa Mesa has...
Detroit’s Retirees Vote to Lower Pensions, in Support of Bankruptcy Plan By Monica Davey, July 22, 2014, New York Times Coming to terms with what came to be seen as inevitable, this city’s public-sector retirees have voted to lower their expected pension benefits, a crucial step in the city’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy before...
Editor’s Note: As a businessman who plays by the rules and competes with companies who don’t, Dave Bego has first hand knowledge of how poorly managed immigration of unskilled workers harm the interests of the American worker. Regardless of your stand on immigration, you can’t expect to extend a de facto preference to unskilled immigrants,...
A healthy blow to labor overreach By Ed Feulner, July 15, 2014, Washington Times As my Heritage colleagues James Sherk and Andrew Kloster note, the ruling will likely have only limited effect in the short run. Nationwide, only 100,000 home caregivers say they belong to a union. Yet the SEIU reports 600,000 dues-paying home care...
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued its decision in the matter of Harris v. Quinn. In its decision not to exempt all public workers from paying union dues, it was nevertheless apparent that workers were handed a victory over unions (see Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Challengers to Union Fees, But Avoids Broad...
Here Are 4 Lawsuits That Could Inflict More Damage on Unions After Harris v. Quinn By Andy Kroll, July 1, 2014, Mother Jones On Monday, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices on Monday defied some expectations by not decimating public-employee labor unions via their ruling in Harris v. Quinn. Given the opportunity to issue a sprawling...
Before anyone gets out the balloons and starts celebrating the Harris vs. Quinn decision too much, step back, sober up, and reflect on the scope of what happened, and where it puts us in this war. To use a WWII analogy, we just won the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe no longer dominates the skies...
On Monday, June 30, 2014 the United State Supreme Court issued its ruling in the important case of Harris v. Quinn. While the case is limited in its ruling and scope, it is a critical one where the Court boxed in the ever expansionist reach of government employee unions. Background: Mrs. Pamela Harris is the...
This website recently posted articles criticizing Fullerton’s newly passed COIN ordinance, the Fullerton Transparency and Accountability in Labor Negotiations Ordinance. The author used Supervisor John Moorlach’s earlier writing to guide his criticism of our achievement. For the sake of clarity, I use the same template to correct the record. Supervisor Moorlach’s essential elements are, in...
Monterey County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wills ruled on June 26th that the 2002 ordinance enhancing public-safety pensions was legally enacted, and therefore could not be voted on by the citizens of Pacific Grove. To put the decision in perspective, Judge Wills encouraged the citizens to Appeal his decision. His decision was based on his opinion...
Here is a postmortem on the final passage on June 17th of the Fullerton version of a “Civic Openness in Labor Negotiations (COIN) ordinance: During the council meeting a few of citizen activists tried valiantly to persuade two other Fullerton council members in addition to Council member Bruce Whitaker to reject the City of Fullerton’s...
Orange County Sheriff Union Protests County Secrecy on Billing Records By Norberto Santana Jr., June 24, 2014, Voice of OC Just as county supervisors prepare Tuesday to consider a measure seeking to make labor negotiations more transparent, Sheriff union officials are protesting efforts to keep county legal bills on negotiations secret. Under the Civic Openness...