Posts tagged police

    Orange County’s Police Unions Are Increasingly Electing, Unseating Their Own Bosses

    August 30, 2023 // But in both Anaheim and Santa Ana, the police unions account for some of the largest political spending on citywide elections. And in both cities, the result has been massive raises for police officers, despite concerns from some residents that such raises were fiscally irresponsible – forcing Anaheim residents to dip into their general fund reserves in 2020. At the county, big Sheriff Deputy raises created conditions where critical investments in public health couldn’t be made, an impact largely unnoticed by the public. Until the pandemic arrived.

    Police unionization looms, accusations swirl in Key Colony Beach

    August 11, 2023 // It’s been several months since the Key Colony Beach police force, a team of five, filed interest cards in early May to begin the process of unionizing. Public employees’ right to unionize is written into the Florida Constitution in its very first Article in Section 6. Since then, little has occurred to either accelerate or slow the process. However, Andrew M. Axelrad, General Counsel for the Dade County Police Benevolent Association (PBA), who is handling the union efforts, said by phone that the situation should be crystallizing soon.

    Termination risks, collecting unemployment: A look at workers rights amid a ‘summer of strikes’

    August 7, 2023 // More than 200 strikes have occurred across the U.S. so far in 2023, involving more than 320,000 workers, compared with 116 strikes and 27,000 workers over the same period in 2021, according to data by the Cornell ILR School Labor Action Tracker.

    As Florida’s new union law goes into effect, it’s ‘do or die’ time for labor

    July 10, 2023 // In the face of the double-whammy law — creating a new process for paying dues while simultaneously requiring more people to pay dues — public labor unions are launching all-out campaigns to get their numbers up. “Are we at 60%? No. I can't give you a definitive number,” said Se’Adoria “Cee Cee” Brown, the president of AFSCME Local 199. “However, I can say that there has been a push and we've signed up 700 new members since we started this whole campaign, and when folks realized, ‘Hey, this is real.’” The Local 199 chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union represents about 7,500 employees of Miami-Dade County: transit officials, animal services, staff at the Medical Examiner’s Office, administrative clerks in the court system.

    Florida teachers union sues over DeSantis’ new union restrictions

    May 17, 2023 // Under the new law, union dues will no longer be automatically deducted from paychecks. Those wishing to be a part of the union need to mail in a separate check to pay their monthly dues. Unions can also be decertified if less than 60% of eligible employees are members.

    WGA Strike Shuts Down ‘Billions’ Amid Skirmishes, Cries Of “Scabs” Outside NYC Studio; Teamsters Refuse To Cross Pickets At ‘American Horror Story’ Filming

    May 8, 2023 // Back in New York City, there also were smaller skirmishes in Brooklyn, with handfuls of picketers briefly surrounding and blocking production workers as they wheeled plastic bins filled with pieces of furniture across a cobbled street. “This is the point of a picket line,” one protestor pleaded with a middle-age woman trying to steer a bin around him with help from a private security guard. She eventually slipped through, with grudging assent from the picketers and the same “scab” refrain following her. The WGA said Wednesday that stagehands and truckers represented by IATSE and the Teamsters did not cross a picket line at another production facility, Silvercup Studios, in Queens, while protesters were on site there. It added that traffic in and out resumed once the protestors departed, in what union representatives called a work slowdown, not a full shutdown, at the site.

    Supreme Court gives New Jersey, shipping industry and unions a win in New York ports case

    April 19, 2023 // The Supreme Court ruled that New Jersey can withdraw from the Waterfront Commission Compact it had with New York to police corruption in the shipping industry in the waterways the states share. All nine of the Supreme Court’s justices voted in favor of the ruling, which dismissed arguments by New York in favor of forcing New Jersey to stay in the compact. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion.

    Police union director fired after opioid smuggling arrest

    April 10, 2023 // Joanne Marian Segovia, who was the executive director of the San Jose Police Officers' Association, was arrested last week on charges she attempted to unlawfully import valeryl fentanyl, an analogue of the synthetic opioid that has driven the overdose crisis in the United States, said the U.S. Attorney's office in a news release. The police association fired her after completing an initial internal investigation, union officials said in a statement. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison. Segovia came under investigation in late 2022, officials said in a complaint filed by the Northern District of California, U.S. Attorney's Office. Segovia was first interviewed by federal investigators in February and continued to allegedly order controlled substances after that.

    Police union executive led scheme to smuggle opioids marked ‘party favors,’ feds say Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article273770265.html#storylink=cpy

    March 31, 2023 // The executive director of a California police union faces federal charges of running an opioid-smuggling scheme, federal officials say. Joanne Marian Segovia, 64, works for the San Jose Police Officers Association, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern California said in a Wednesday, March 29, news release. A criminal complaint accused Segovia of using her home and work computers to arrange at least 61 shipments containing thousands of synthetic opioid pills to her home over the course of about seven years, the release said.