Posts tagged Public Employees
The Supreme Court’s Janus v. Afscme Sequel?
August 25, 2023 // Alaska’s courts have blocked Mr. Dunleavy’s plan from taking effect. In a May ruling, the state Supreme Court said that “neither Janus nor the First Amendment required the State to alter the union member dues deduction practices set out in the collective bargaining agreement.” This is a crabbed view of free speech and free association. Although Janus involved a union nonmember, Alaska tells the U.S. Supreme Court in its petition that “the decision applies to all involuntary fees and has clear application to members and nonmembers alike.” Consider the devious policies that make canceling a paycheck deduction into a “byzantine process,” Alaska says. In California, “certain public employees cannot stop their dues unless the union receives a signed revocation letter ‘postmarked’ precisely ‘between 75 days and 45 days before’ the employee’s ‘annual renewal date.’” The point is to trap workers and keep that dues money coming. The authorization form for the Alaska State Employees Association was even stricter, making union dues irrevocable except during a magical 10-day window each year, though the petition says the union eventually promised not to enforce it after the state sued.
California proposes paying unemployment benefits to striking workers
August 24, 2023 // One of the main sponsors of the bill, state Sen. Anthony Portantino, said, “I think there’s more of a recognition that hardworking men and women need to have a seat at the table to discuss economic expansion.” He added, “It is embarrassing for California that we don’t have unemployment insurance for striking workers.” The deadline for California lawmakers to introduce new bills was in February, but state legislators can still rework unrelated bills, in a move called “gut-and-amend,” to circumvent the missed deadline and include the new language. The last-minute legislative push is backed by the California Labor Federation, which is led by former state Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez. When Gonzalez tried to pass a similar bill in 2019, it eventually passed both chambers but was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
This group says it keeps federal unions accountable to their members
August 14, 2023 //
When California’s public workers go on strike
August 11, 2023 // On Tuesday, thousands of city workers across Los Angeles, including staff at LAX and Van Nuys airport, City Hall, animal shelters, public swimming pools and other facilities, walked off the job for a 24-hour strike, reports the Los Angeles Times. There have been some efforts in the Legislature to expand strike rights for public workers. State Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat from Santa Ana, has proposed a constitutional amendment that would enshrine every worker’s right, including public sector employees, to join a union and negotiate with their employers “to protect their economic well-being and safety at work.” Another measure, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes of San Bernardino, would protect public employees from disciplinary action if they join a sympathy strike, refuse to cross a picket line or refuse cover work for striking co-workers.
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.
4,500 SJ city employees begin vote on whether to strike. Here’s a look at service impacts, demands
August 3, 2023 // "I know City of San Jose employees that are homeless. I know City of San Jose employees that are living in their cars. I know others that choose to commute to San Jose, live in their car overnight for a couple of days because they can't afford to commute back and forth," Rovetto said. ABC7 News spoke with Mayor Matt Mahan ahead of the strike vote. He said city council is expected to have a closed-session later Tuesday to discuss any movement possible. "I do not want the city to be in position where we overextend ourselves and have to do lay-offs or cut services later," Mayor Mahan said. "It's not fair to workers and it's not fair to residents."
Opinion: An educator is leading NC’s battered ranks of teachers to unionize
July 31, 2023 // After two years of pushing unionization as a volunteer, Mangrum has taken a part-time, paid consulting role with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s second largest teachers union with 1.7 million members. Her job is to explore the union’s potential to organize a significant share of the state’s 94,000 public school teachers. “We have members across the state,” Magnum said. “Two years ago we didn’t have any.” Just how many, she wouldn’t say, but she allowed that it’s more than 100
‘Employees come second’: Why California’s legislative staffers hope to unionize
July 21, 2023 // Unlike other state workers, legislative staff are banned from unionizing to advocate for better working conditions. That could soon change under a bill making its way through the State Capitol. Assembly Bill 1, authored by Assembly member Tina McKinnor (D—Inglewood), would provide a framework for legislative staff to form a union. California’s over 200,000 other public employees are able to unionize. But legislative staff are notably excluded from the law, the Dills Act, that established those rights in the 1970s. AB 1 is the fifth attempt in recent years to change that.
New Orleans collectively bargains, sets up showdown with state commission
July 13, 2023 // Union supporters swamped the City Council meeting, where “many workers cheered the ordinance, rising one by one to speak in support of it” and “donned T-shirts emblazoned with the logos” of public unions. While New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has the opportunity to veto the ordinance, she is not expected to. The Louisiana chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which claims to represent 300 public employees out of 4,000 total public employees in the city of New Orleans, called it a major victory for unions.
How California’s Firefighter Union Could Get Guaranteed Raises, Forever
July 5, 2023 // “Firefighters are already among the best-paid government workers in the state,” said Will Swaim, president of California Policy Center, an advocacy group that is critical of California public employee unions. “No one else in California gets that deal,” he said. Michael Genest, the former finance director under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, also called promises of future raised “irresponsible.” “Governors and legislators always regret having made such promises when our budget goes out of balance,” he wrote in an email. “The wise move is to make decisions about the allocation of state revenues each year and even then to be careful not to spend more on anything than is prudent.”