Jack Dean is editor of PensionTsunami.org, formed to monitor developments in all three pension spheres nationwide — public employees, corporations and social security. PensionTsunami, like UnionWatch, is a project of the California Public Policy Center. Dean is a former newspaper editor and a past executive director of the Reason Foundation. He has been active in politics for more than three decades and currently serves as president of the Fullerton Association of Concerned Taxpayers.
How Illinois’ Governor sold out the state to AFSCME Editorial, October 4, 2011, Chicago Tribune Selling out Illinois. We used that headline a year ago when news broke that Gov. Pat Quinn had cut a craven deal with AFSCME, the state’s largest employees union. The governor agreed that the state, though it faced massive debts,...
By Jack Dean
Pension wars: Take retirement benefits off bargaining table? By Teri Sforza, September 27, 2011, Orange County Register Some 30 states allow collective bargaining by public workers, but only a handful allow retirement benefits to be a chip on the bargaining table — and California is one of them. “Last week the auditor general of Rhode...
By Jack Dean
Obama’s sellout to unions staggers the economy By Michael Barone, September 20, 2011, Boston Herald Barack Obama has been at pains to convince voters that he cares about jobs. It seems to be a hard sell. But he certainly can demonstrate that he cares about certain jobs — the 7 percent of private-sector jobs and...
By Jack Dean
Raft of labor-backed bills are a challenge for California Gov. Jerry Brown By David Siders, September 12, 2011, Sacramento Bee As the Legislature finished in a flurry early Saturday and left town, it left Gov. Jerry Brown in a jam. Among the raft of bills approved in the final hours of the legislative session were...
By Jack Dean
Across U.S., public unions under fire this Labor Day By David Shepardson, September 5, 2011, Detroit News Washington Bureau Across America on this Labor Day, public employees whose job security once seemed iron-clad are defending their jobs, pay, benefits and bargaining rights. “This is a tough moment for public employees,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor...
By Jack Dean
Majority of Michigan Leaders Say Unionized Workers Have Had a Negative Effect on Their Community’s Fiscal Health By Kathy Barks Hoffman, August 29. 2011, Detroit News A majority of local leaders in Michigan question whether union workers are causing their communities more financial harm than good, according to a survey conducted amid an ongoing debate...
By Jack Dean
Illinois likely site of next fight over public employee pensions and benefits By Kevin McDermott, August 22, 2011, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Unionized public employees are once again clashing with state leaders who want to roll back benefits and weaken collective bargaining to shore up a government budget. And this time, the threat isn’t coming in...
By Jack Dean
Largest New York State Employees’ Union Accepts Wage and Benefits Concessions By Thomas Kaplan, August 16, 2011, New York Times Members of New York’s largest union of state employees, in a begrudging acknowledgment of the increasingly hostile mood toward public workers, have agreed to accept major wage and benefits concessions sought by Gov. Andrew M....
By Jack Dean
Lost Angeles: The City of Angels goes to hell By Joel Kotkin, Summer 2011, City Journal Those “emperors” are the leaders of L.A.’s public sector. As business retreated, power in Los Angeles, largely by default, shifted toward the government and its workers. Through the long decline that started in the 1990s and accelerated after 2005,...
By Jack Dean
AFSCME’s War on Workers & Taxpayers: A Look Inside The AFSCME Playbook By LaborUnionReport, July 26, 2011, RedState.com Last year, when Larry Scanlon, the Director of Political Operations for one of the nation’s largest government unions, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), stated “the more members coming in, the more dues...
By Jack Dean
California’s Gov. Brown vetoes union-sponsored legislation By Paresh Dave, July 25, 2011, Sacramento Bee Gov. Jerry Brown today vetoed a union-sponsored measure that would have mandated the make-up of local civil service commissions. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was the source of Assembly Bill 455 by Assemblywoman Nora Campos, D-San Jose, which...
By Jack Dean
The states ban union political bid-rigging; Obama demurs Editorial, July 19, 2011, Wall Street Journal One benefit of the squeeze on state and local budgets is that politicians are finally having to confront their sweetheart deals with labor unions. The latest reform movement is moving against project labor agreements, or PLAs, that limit bids on...
By Jack Dean
Teachers union to defend educators in cheating scandals By Greg Toppo, July 12, 2011, USA Today The head of the USA’s second-largest teachers union on Monday said local affiliates will defend the rights of teachers caught up in cheating scandals, including the one now unfolding in Atlanta. But she said cheating “under any circumstances is...
By Jack Dean
Vice President Biden woos teachers union; slams GOP hostility to public union contracts By Brian Slodysko, July 4, 2011, Chicago Tribune Raising the specter of labor fights picked by Republican governors with public workers unions across the country, Vice President Joe Biden lambasted what he called an increasingly union-hostile “new” Republican Party in remarks delivered...
By Jack Dean
a new form will got here