In a ruling that has surprised the skeptics, California’s Supreme Court has affirmed the right of a city to lay off municipal workers to balance their budget. In the ruling, Justice Joyce Kennard said that under California law, “a local public entity that is faced with a decline in revenues or other financial adversity may...
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While much analysis has been forthcoming on the impact of the November 2010 election on the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, it is harder to get compiled information on how that election affected political control of 50 states. An excellent source for this much larger body of data comes from the American Legislative...
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There is an excellent summary of the definition of “right-to-work” vs. forced unionism, posted today, on the website Labor Union Report entitled “Fighting to Free Workers’ Paychecks from Union Bosses: Advancing the Right to Work.” Here they are: “A “Right-to-Work” state that forbids workers from being fired for non-payment of union dues or fees.” “A...
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Last week former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich wrote a commentary entitled “Someone Has to Stop This Shameful Attack on Public Employees,” which was published on Business Insider. Reich’s comments, which essentially attribute these “shameful attacks” to an assortment of “Republican tricks,” invite a rebuttal, especially since he claims “the right’s argument is shot through...
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One of the greatest misconceptions on the left may be the suggestion that “us” refers to workers (hopefully unionized workers), along with government programs and regulations, and “them” refers to big business, their friends on Wall Street, and their puppets in government. At the risk of merely presenting an opposing paradigm that is equally over-simplified,...
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An article in the Canada Free Press published earlier this week provides an extraordinarily articulate and passionate summary of the destructive power of public sector unions. To read the entire article, click on this aptly descriptive title “Who Will Protect the People from the Unions?” Rather than paraphrase author Steven Greenhouse’s inimitable prose, here are...
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For many years I’ve participated as a volunteer at annual beautification days at a public high school near my house. Gradually our efforts have resulted in a campus that is graced with a lovely canopy of trees. What I didn’t realize is these volunteer efforts are endangered by union work rules. A few years ago...
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A report posted online on December 27th, 2010 in the Chicago-based Southwest News Herald entitled “Organized Labor Battlefront Building In Illinois” offers a glimpse into what Democratic politicians in functionally bankrupt blue states are willing to consider. As author Rich Miller puts it, “The same unions that pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Senate...
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In a process that is repeating itself nearly everywhere in the United States, public sector unions are being confronted by incoming Governors and state legislators who have correctly identified them as the principal cause of inefficiency, corruption, and looming insolvency. Alabama’s current Republican Governor Bob Riley has just signed game-changing anti-corruption legislation that will, among...
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U.S. House Resolution 6484, the “Public Employee Pension Transparency Act,” will finally require public employee pension funds to adhere to the same regulations that govern private pension funds. The reason for this is clear enough – by not reporting sufficient information about the financial status of these massive funds, there is greater potential for them...
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It should come as no surprise that principled Democrats are realizing that public sector unions, through relentless demands for ever higher compensation and benefits for public employees, are crowding out the social programs and infrastructure projects that Democrats love. And it is no coincidence that in the cities and counties across America where Democrats still...
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Tim Pawlenty is the latest governor to take on unions, public sector unions in particular, as evidenced by his Wall Street Journal commentary of December 13th entitled “Government Unions vs. Taxpayers.” While it is important to note that Republicans are only somewhat immune to the agenda of public sector unions, the fact that Republicans took...
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UnionWatch recently commissioned a survey of 800 voters in California to explore public support for measures to rein in the power of public employee unions. Here are the principal findings and conclusions. The interviews were conducted between September 29th and October 5th, 2010. The margin of error associated with the results is +/- 3.5%. To...
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As part of a continuing trend towards recognition by liberals alongside conservatives that public sector unions do not act in the public interest, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a democrat, has delivered a blistering attack on the union representing public school teachers in Los Angeles. Joe Matthews in Fox & Hounds Daily has published the...
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