collective bargaining abuses that bleed taxpayers dry

California is facing daunting budget deficits and a potential pension crisis brought on in large part by the union bosses for government workers. Brian Calle of the Orange County Register doing yeoman's work has discovered a slew of collective bargaining abuses that bleed taxpayers dry and threaten the financial stability of the state. Among them: disclosures of $100,000 a year lifeguard jobs; $5,600 a year bonus for city motorcycle officers who clean their bikes and now he discovered that "police officers in Costa Mesa are paid an additional, guaranteed 2.5 percent of salary simply to wear uniforms on the job. According to the city's Memo of Understanding with the Costa Mesa Police Association (the officers' union), officers are given "Uniform Assignment Pay" to wear their uniforms while working." Of course these disclosures are just emblematic of the abuses but they are significant none the less. As Calle writes: Encountering pay gimmicks like these can explain why so many people have begun calling into question public-sector collective bargaining rights – because these are the fruits of organized labor's negotiations with elected officials. All the more reason collective bargaining needs reform, pronto. What complicates matters further is that law firms, such as Upland-based Lackie, Dammeier & McGill, specialize in negotiations on behalf of police unions, and they negotiate similar benefits from city to city, using the pay and benefit levels garnered in one city as leverage in others to achieve the same outcomes. In Orange County alone Lackie, Dammeier & McGill represent police unions in Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Anaheim, Brea and Garden Grove.
What does the $2.2 Billion Big Labor spent on politicians buy labor bosses?

What does the $2.2 Billion Big Labor spent on politicians buy labor bosses?

BigGovernment.com reports that $2.2 Billion was spent by Big Labor during the last two election cycles from its forced-dues fed treasuries.  This by far exceed Big Labor's $1/2 Billion 20-year cumulative political contributions found at OpenSecrets.org. The big question: What does the $2.2 Billion Big Labor spent on politicians buy labor bosses?  The list is so extensive that it deserves a blog post of its own.  Please consider commenting with your own suggestions for the list that may be added to the upcoming related blog post. From BigGovernment.com: The [Professor Anthony Davies’ series of charts] represent dollars flowing to politicians from the “Top-100” special interest donors over the last 20 years.  [In Davies' chart Big Labor spent $500 million combined over a 20-year time period.] Further investigation reveals that the money represented on this chart is only the tip of the iceberg. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Big Labor spent $2.2 Billion on political activities during the 2008 & 2010 election cycles alone — eclipsing by four times the 20-year $1/2 Billion from the chart. But, then no one should be shocked by this. You see Big Labor has special powers above all other special interests..
Teachers Aren't 'Interchangeable' in Tennessee

Teachers Aren't 'Interchangeable' in Tennessee

Intense and persistent lobbying by the National Right to Work Committee’s Tennessee members and supporters helped convince GOP legislators and Gov. Bill Haslam (R) to prohibit union monopoly bargaining in public schools. Credit: Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press Volunteer State Teacher Union Bosses Losing Monopoly Privileges This year, Right to Work proponents have scored a series of remarkable, though still mostly very tenuous, state victories over government union kingpins. In March, Wisconsin and Ohio became the first states ever to revoke government union bosses' privilege to get workers fired for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union after previously passing a law authorizing compulsory unionism. The following month, Right to Work Oklahoma passed legislation denying government union bosses the legal power to force municipal officials to recognize them as public employees' "exclusive" bargaining agents. And now Right to Work Tennessee has achieved another milestone by effectively repealing the mislabeled "Education Professional Negotiations" Act, which authorized and promoted union monopoly-bargaining control over teachers and other K-12 public school instructional employees. Union lobbyists rammed public school monopoly bargaining through the Tennessee Legislature in 1978. Big Labor puppet Gov. Ray Blanton (D) then eagerly signed the measure. As a consequence of the Blanton law, educators in 92 Tennessee school systems, roughly two-thirds of all the districts in the state, are currently forced to accept union monopoly bargaining in order to keep their jobs. The monopoly-bargaining system, now statutorily imposed on some or all state and local government employees in 36 states, hands union officials "exclusive" power to bargain over wages, benefits, and working conditions. 'We're Putting the Entire Education System at Risk' Even public employees who choose not to join a union must work under contract terms negotiated by union bosses, or quit their jobs. Independent-minded employees are stripped of any freedom to negotiate with employers on their own behalf.
Teachers Aren't 'Interchangeable' in Tennessee

Teachers Aren't 'Interchangeable' in Tennessee

Intense and persistent lobbying by the National Right to Work Committee’s Tennessee members and supporters helped convince GOP legislators and Gov. Bill Haslam (R) to prohibit union monopoly bargaining in public schools. Credit: Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press Volunteer State Teacher Union Bosses Losing Monopoly Privileges This year, Right to Work proponents have scored a series of remarkable, though still mostly very tenuous, state victories over government union kingpins. In March, Wisconsin and Ohio became the first states ever to revoke government union bosses' privilege to get workers fired for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union after previously passing a law authorizing compulsory unionism. The following month, Right to Work Oklahoma passed legislation denying government union bosses the legal power to force municipal officials to recognize them as public employees' "exclusive" bargaining agents. And now Right to Work Tennessee has achieved another milestone by effectively repealing the mislabeled "Education Professional Negotiations" Act, which authorized and promoted union monopoly-bargaining control over teachers and other K-12 public school instructional employees. Union lobbyists rammed public school monopoly bargaining through the Tennessee Legislature in 1978. Big Labor puppet Gov. Ray Blanton (D) then eagerly signed the measure. As a consequence of the Blanton law, educators in 92 Tennessee school systems, roughly two-thirds of all the districts in the state, are currently forced to accept union monopoly bargaining in order to keep their jobs. The monopoly-bargaining system, now statutorily imposed on some or all state and local government employees in 36 states, hands union officials "exclusive" power to bargain over wages, benefits, and working conditions. 'We're Putting the Entire Education System at Risk' Even public employees who choose not to join a union must work under contract terms negotiated by union bosses, or quit their jobs. Independent-minded employees are stripped of any freedom to negotiate with employers on their own behalf.

Teacher Files Brief in Wisconsin Government Unionism Reform Battle in Federal Court

From the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation press release: Public-sector union bosses file desperate lawsuit seeking to protect forced dues stranglehold over Wisconsin’s public workers and taxpayers Madison, WI (June 29, 2011) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a Kenosha teacher affected by Wisconsin’s recent public-sector unionism reforms has filed an amicus curiae brief in federal court. Kristi Lacroix, who has been a teacher for 13 years and is an English teacher at the LakeView Technology Academy in Pleasant Prairie, filed the brief Monday in favor of the reforms which sharply limited government union officials’ monopoly bargaining power over public workers and taxpayers. Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Governor Scott Walker’s government-sector monopoly bargaining reform bill, which protects the Right to Work for most government employees and bans automatic forced-union-dues seizures from public employees’ paychecks. In response, union lawyers filed a new lawsuit in federal court seeking to overturn the bill, claiming that Freedom of Association – the right of American citizens to voluntarily come together to express their opinions and petition the government – gives union bosses forced-dues and monopoly bargaining powers.