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...
This is my first opportunity to compare an excellent law, the Costa Mesa Ordinance on Civic Openness in Negotiations (C.O.I.N.) vs. the Fullerton Draft C.O.I.N Ordinance. Costa Mesa’s Civic Openness in Negotiations ordinance was designed to make public employee salary and benefit negotiations open and transparent to the public and to all members of the city council as...
Eight years ago, then Orange County Register reporter Norberto Santana opened his piece, “The Art of the O.C. Deal (Orange County Register, August 6, 2006),” with the following observation: “When people see the board of supervisors vote on a labor deal, what they don’t know is that most often, an agreement has already been reached...
Jerry Brown Gets His Budget, Teachers Unions Get a Wake-Up Call By William Bradley, June 17, 2014, Huffington Post Governor Jerry Brown got another on-time California state budget with nearly everything he wanted, a regular occurrence since he exercised a first-in-history budget veto three years ago, when the state legislature voted on Sunday. And a...
IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18) Union Boss d’Arcy is planning a massive demonstration at 11 a.m. on Tuesday in front of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s downtown headquarters to protest City’s Hall’s “assault on collective bargaining” and “war on workers” and is urging other unions throughout the City to support...
California court rules teacher tenure creates unequal conditions By Lyndsey Layton, June 10, 2014, Washington Post A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that tenure, seniority and other job protections for teachers have created unequal conditions in public schools and deprive poor children of the best teachers. In a case that could have national...