Posts Tagged: collective

Opinion

The political case for unionizing the Legislature’s workers

A portion of the state code dealing with employees and independent contractors> (Photo: 7713 Photography, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Of all the bills wriggling through the Capitol’s sausage machine, my favorite is AB 1577 – the one to unionize legislative employees. It should be one of yours, too. It’s the only way to stop the Legislature from using your tax dollars to campaign for people you don’t like.

News

‘DearCAStaffers’ shuts down as quickly as it began

Illustration of DearCAStaffers account, now defunct, on Instagram. (Image: Tim Foster, Capitol Weekly)

In its brief, giddy existence, the anonymous Instagram account “DearCaStaffers” attracted thousands of followers and shared scores of secrets about lawmakers and their staff, before suddenly going dark. Beginning last week, each day brought hundreds of new followers, many of whom wrote anonymous posts about bad bosses and abusive work environments.

Opinion

‘Company unions’ deepen post-Janus threat to labor

A union supporter carries the California flag at a rally in Capitol Park. (Photo: Karin Hildebrand Lau, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: You’d be hard pressed to find a more challenging threat to America’s labor movement than the Supreme Court’s recent Janus decision—which overturned 40 years of established legal precedent and the laws of 23 states in forcing public sector unions to represent non-members for free.

News

Some anti-drought programs face cuts

A woman fills nher bottle with spring water flowing over rocks. (Photo: Wollertz, via Shutterstock)

For the past 5 years, parched Californians suffered through the state’s worst drought. Wildfires, reduced crop production, environmental damage, cities running dry – all were part of the misery. But with the drought now broken by an unprecedented wet season and snowpack, it’s possible to look back and see the positives, especially when it comes to the state budget.

Opinion

What’s next in the public pension debate?

OPINION: Ventura County citizens scored a victory earlier this month when a Superior Court Judge affirmed that any changes to the county pension plan must be made through the collective bargaining process — not at the ballot box. Actuarial analyses showed that closing the existing retirement plans and forcing new employees into risky 401k style plans would increase immediate costs to taxpayers, while forcing new employees to put their retirement security at risk in the hands of Wall Street.

Opinion

Workers, not billionaires, key to public pension parley

OPINION: Public employees have shown they are willing to do their part to help balance government budgets. We may not have liked the pension system overhaul Governor Brown signed in 2012, but once it became law our union leaders helped to implement the changes, which will amount to a reduction of more than $77 billion to public workers’ retirement and health care benefits.

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