Uncategorized | California Policy Center

Interview With Rebecca Friedrichs – Fighting for Teacher Freedom

In April 2013, the Center for Individual Rights (CIR), as noted on their website, “filed suit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of 10 California teachers and the Christian Educators Association International, challenging the constitutionality of California’s “agency shop” law, which violates the First Amendment by forcing...

By Editor

How Unions Can Adapt for the 21st Century

For years union membership has been in decline. In 2012 union membership hit the lowest percentage of the American workforce since 1916. The union business model, based largely on industrial organizing efforts from the 1930s, does not appear to carry over well for today’s educated and transient workforce. It appears unions have not evolved to...

By Vincent Vernuccio

Unions in the News – Weekly Highlights

Unions wasted millions in Wisconsin, Michigan governor races By Jason Hart, November 11, 2014, Watchdog.org Union bosses dumped more than $7.5 million into the Wisconsin and Michigan governor races only to see both states’ labor-reforming incumbents re-elected. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, both Republicans, were two of the five governors publicly...

By Editor

Californians Vote for More Taxes and More Borrowing

It has been argued that California’s voters defy their political stereotype when it comes to taxes. California’s property tax revolt in 1978 resulted in the passage of the historic Prop. 13, which limits property tax increases to 2% per year. As recently as 2009, California’s legislature joined with Gov. Schwarzenegger to place Propositions 1A through 1E...

By Edward Ring

Republican Governors Face Down Labor

Republicans began their march to dominance in statehouses around the country shortly after Barack Obama won the presidency. Running anti-Obama candidates, the GOP captured a net of eight governors’ mansions between 2009 and 2013, giving the party 29 in all. In 24 of those states, the GOP also controlled the legislature. Some of those governors ruled boldly...

By Steve Malanga

Unions in the News – Weekly Highlights

California Teachers Brace For Impact By Blake Neff, November 4, 2014, Daily Caller The expensive race for California superintendent of public instruction may have the biggest education impact of any election Tuesday. Regardless of its outcome, the race will send shockwaves across the country and set the national tone for how strong unionized teachers remain...

By Editor

Public Sector Environmentalists vs. Jobs

On October 24th I observed in the WSJ that private and public unions were increasingly in conflict this election season, particularly as left-leaning public union leaders align with members of the Democratic coalition like environmentalists, whose no-growth economic policies cost blue-collar workers jobs. One example I didn’t discuss in that piece is a campaign transpiring in California,...

By Steve Malanga

Unions in the News – Weekly Highlights

Union bosses investing in Ohio Senate Republicans By Jason Hart, October 28, 2014, Ohio Watchdog Labor groups supporting big government and mandatory union dues gave $178,867 to eight Republican incumbents in the Ohio Senate during the most recent campaign finance period. Kevin Bacon, Bill Beagle, Cliff Hite, Shannon Jones, Frank LaRose, Gayle Manning, Scott Oelslager...

By Editor

Unions in the News – Weekly Highlights

Napa County declares impasse in labor negotiations By Barry Eberling, October 21, 2014, Napa Valley Register Napa County has declared an impasse in its contract negotiations with its largest employees union and the union’s response raises the possibility of a strike, though one has not been called. Both sides issued press releases on Monday and...

By Editor

Anaheim Teachers Union Intimidates Their Members

Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher and president of California Teachers Empowerment Network, summarized it succinctly: “Ah, the commissar has spoken from on high!” The “commissar” is none other than the president of the Anaheim Elementary Education Association, Kristen Fisher, who dispatched an email to dues-paying union members on Oct. 6. It seems that Fisher...

By Private: Gloria Romero

Unions In The News – Weekly Highlights

Unions Try To Replace San José Mayor Over Pension Reform By Connor D. Wolf, October 14, 2014, Daily Caller Labor unions in San José, Calif. are overwhelmingly opposing the Democratic mayoral candidate who backed pension reforms they claim are bad for the city. Their choice is Dave Cortese, a county supervisor and former city councilman,...

By Editor

The Challenge Libertarians Face to Win American Hearts

In California, the root cause of government waste, failed programs, high taxes, debt and deficits, regulatory abuse, civil rights abuse, and even corporate cronyism is public sector unions. Their agenda is intrinsically in conflict with the public at large because any government program, any government regulation, any tax and any new debt, benefits them regardless...

By Edward Ring

Unions in the News – Weekly Highlights

Silicon Valley, Meet Organized Labor By Kevin Roose, October 7, 2014, New York Magaizne Tech companies and labor unions have never been friends. Whether union protectionism has made it tech’s enemy or, as historians have written, tech’s executive class was opposed to unions from the beginning, the fact remains that the Teamsters and other labor...

By Editor

Unions in the News – Weekly Highlights

Liberal groups critical of ALEC influencing laws, but not labor unions By Adam Tobias, September 30, 2014, Watchdog.org Stand Up to ALEC and other affiliated left-leaning groups opposed to the American Legislative Exchange Council bringing together lawmakers and private-sector representatives to draft model state-level legislation apparently don’t have any issues when labor unions participate in...

By Editor