With Contract Negotiations at Impasse, Los Angeles Teachers Edge Closer to Strike By Stephen Sawchuk on February 23, 2015, Education Week The Los Angeles district and its teachers’ union have hit a formal impasse in contract negotiations, with pay and teacher evaluation among the top issues. The impasse means that the state’s Public Employment Relations Board...
Are private unions cooling toward Democrats? By Shannon Bream, February 17, 2015, FoxNews.com President Obama has long been a friend of organized labor, wholeheartedly supported by unions that helped boost him to victory in both his presidential campaigns.But increasingly, there now is a divide between unions in the public and private sector when it comes...
“Agent Keen, in this world there are no sides, only players.” – Raymond Reddington, played by actor James Spader, NBC’s “Blacklist,” February 12, 2015 To exemplify the intensifying battle of players regardless of sides, look no further than California’s two competitive State Senate special elections set for this March. In Orange County’s Senate District 37,...
The U.S. Senate HELP Committee recently contacted me about my experience with labor elections and my insight about how this ruling would harm businesses and employees across the country. This week, the points expressed in my original blog and documented in The Devil at Our Doorstep will be debated and voted upon, as reported in recent headlines...
Illinois Governor Acts to Curb Power of Public Sector Unions By Monica Davey and Mitch Smith, February 9, 2015, The New York Times Gov. Bruce Rauner, the newly elected Republican who has often criticized public sector unions, took his first step toward curbing their power on Monday by announcing an executive order that would bar...
There is a clamor in Sacramento for “tax reform.” But for every political pundit, politician and bureaucrat in the room, there is a different definition of “tax reform.” For fiscal conservatives, tax reform means tax cuts. The State of California takes too much of our money now and this heavy tax burden unquestionably hurts working...
Rauner says state must curb union powers, lower salaries February 3, 2015, Chicago Tribune Gov. Bruce Rauner said Monday that Illinois must curb government union powers and reduce spending on state employees’ salaries and benefits, stepping up what labor leaders said is an attempt to “vilify” workers ahead of the Republican’s first major policy speech....
Public Sector Unions Gain Power, Lose Popularity, says Economist By Nancy Thorner, January 26, 2015, Heartlander Magazine While becoming more and more powerful, public sector unions are losing favor with taxpayers, Daniel DiSalvo, author of “Government Against Itself: Public Union Power and Its Consequences,” said during a forum hosted by The Illinois Policy Institute Tuesday...
In January 2010 the California’s legislature passed into law, perhaps uncharacteristically, an excellent new law. Entitled “Public schools: Race to the Top,” SB 54 created two mechanisms for parents to exert greater control over the education of their children. There are two components: (1) The Open Enrollment Act mandates that the California Department of Education to...
Times have changed, but the SEIU’s motives, and the means and tactics used to accomplish these motives — as documented in The Devil at Our Doorstep — remain the same. The SEIU’s ultimate goal is to achieve its agenda of destroying America’s Free Enterprise system and replacing it with statism. As seen in recent actions across the...
State of the (Labor) Union: movement still counts on the White House By Jana Kasperkevic, January 20, 2015, The Guardian In his state of the union address tonight, President Obama is likely to talk about working families and their financial struggles. That means he is sure to give a nod to the nation’s labor unions, whose...
Over the past four decades, Big Labor has continued to see its membership shrink drastically as its leaders use the same failed tactics involving forced unionism. The argument that most workers are better off without unions today is supported by the fact that unions now represent approximately 11.3% of the total workforce and 6.6% of the private...
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan famously fired 11,000 air traffic controllers who went on strike. Looking back on it, one has to credit those controllers for having the courage to go on strike in the face of pay and working conditions they regarded as unacceptable. In contrast, the police in New York City, who are...
Congestion at West Coast ports is getting even worse By Andrew S. Ross, January 13, 2015, SF Gate The seasonal rush is over and federal mediators are in San Francisco to help settle a contract dispute between shippers and longshoremen. The conditions at the congested Port of Oakland and other West Coast ports should be...