Posts Tagged ‘big labor’

Taxpayers must stop Obama’s Big Labor slush fund cover-up.  Big Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is helping cover up Big Labor slush fund contributions by not requiring Big Labor to complete union trust disclosure documents.  These reports disclose Big Labor’s taxpayer funded political operations and front groups, including ACORN and many other shadowy groups.  Taxpayers have until December 14 to share your comments with the Big Labor Department and demand greater transparency, not less.  This outrageous cover-up offers more proof why California needs the Citizen Power Campaign to stop public employee unions from using taxpayer money for special interest politics.

Demand public employee union transparency. Tell the President:

LABOR UNIONS MUST BE REQUIRED TO DISCLOSE THEIR POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS BECAUSE IT IS NECESSARY TO THE PUBLIC INTEREST, BECAUSE:
(1) MANY MEMBERS ARE FORCED TO JOIN,
(2) FORCED TO PAY DUES,
(3) FORCED TO FUND SPECIAL INTEREST POLITICS AGAINST THEIR WISHES;
(4) MOST OF THIS MONEY COMES FROM TAXPAYERS, AND
(5) NON-DISCLOSURE CREATES AN APPEARANCE OF CORRUPTION.
NON-DISCLOSURE WILL CREATE A PUBLIC BACKLASH AGAINST UNIONS THAT WILL RESULT IN STATE LAWS FORBIDDING USE OF TAXPAYER MONEY FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS.
NON-DISCLOSURE TELLS THE PUBLIC THAT THE PRESIDENT FAVORS BIG LABOR OVER TAXPAYERS AND WORKERS.
NON-DISCLOSURE WILL BACKFIRE ON THE PRESIDENT.

The public employee unions are plundering and bankrupting California and the nation.  That’s the bottom line of Steve Greenhut’s new book, Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.  KFI radio’s Bill Handel interviewed Greenhut, former editor of the Orange County Register, earlier this week to discuss the book.  (Bill Handel podcast at 15:00) The book is a necessary primer on why California state government is broken – and how to fix it.  Greenhut proves why the Citizen Power Campaign is necessary to fix California state government by stopping the use of taxpayer dollars for politics by the public employee unions.

Steve Greenhut chronicles how the public employee unions have turned state government upside down. “Government employees are supposed to work for the public- not the other way around”, says reviewer Robert W. Loewen, President of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, “Unfortunately, because of the overwhelming political influence of government unions, public employees have gained an unsustainable level of pay and benefits. … The public servants have indeed become the public’s masters.” Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association warns, “If you take high blood pressure medicine, better take a double dose before reading this book. … The good news is that Greenhut gives valuable advice at the end of the book on what we can do to turn the tide on this seemingly unstoppable socialistic encroachment.”

Greenhut proves why the Citizen Power Campaign is necessary to fix California state government by stopping the use of taxpayer dollars for politics by the public employee unions.  People forget how the public employee unions spent $148.5 million in 2005 to defeat Governor Schwarzenegger’s reforms that might have have prevented our budget mess or softened the blow .  The reforms they defeated included spending limits, a rainy day fund, and “paycheck protection” (requiring unions to get the consent of their members before spending their union dues on politics).  The Citizen Power Campaign is a necessary first step in fixing California.

The public employee unions have corrupted California state government.  They have become the most powerful special interest group in Sacramento.  As a result, California’s state and local employees are the best compensated in the country.  Californians pay ever higher taxes for ever worse services.  Now, taxpayers are fighting back by launching the Citizen Power Campaign to restore taxpayer power and end corruption.  California cannot be fixed without this reform.

The public employee unions have become the most powerful special interest group in Sacramento.  They “spent millions of taxpayer dollars in 2009 to support Proposition 1A last May, which would have increased taxes on the citizens of California by $16 Billion”.  They can do this because they have “special powers” that no other special interest group has – “the power to automatically take hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year out of the paychecks of government workers for “special-interest”politics – without having to ask for it”.  The results speak for themselves.

California’s state and local employees are the best compensated in the country.  Claremont Review of Books Contributing Editor Bill Voegeli points out that “Local government employees make 11.5% more in California than Connecticut, and 21.4% more than those in Massachusetts.  State workers in California make 13.1% more than New York’s and 19.9% more than those in Massachusetts.”

Californians pay ever higher taxes for ever worse services.  Law professor Eugene Volokh has written how Californians pay high taxes for poor services because “California spends far more of its tax dollars on transfer payments to particular groups with political clout” – notably “public employees, public employee pensions, public sector unions”.  Volokh is shocked that (low tax) Texas enjoys better “education, liveability, transportation, quality of life” than California.  This is because “scarce tax dollars in Texas are spent on priorities that have broad appeal”.  California, however, “[provides] increasingly poor services at an ever increasing cost” because “the state’s public sector is not holding up its end of the bargain.”

Now, taxpayers are fighting back by launching the Citizen Power Campaign.  The Citizen Power Campaign has filed an initiative for the November 2010 ballot to end public employee union corruption and restore political power back to its rightful owners – taxpayers and voters. Their initiative will stem the flow of corruption money by prohibiting the use of any portion of state worker’s paychecks for political purposes.  State workers will regain the right to make their own decisions about their political donations.  Public employee unions must ask for political donations – just like everyone else.

California cannot be fixed without this reform.  Without it, these unions will stop needed reform.  Without it, Proposition 13’s Great Wall of Taxpayer Protection may crumble under the endless siege being waged against it by the public employee unions and their political cronies.  Taxpayers must join in this fight because California’s future hangs in the balance.

Everyone agrees that California needs reform to make it governable.  And there is much debate over what reforms are needed. But, there can be no meaningful reform until we first limit the corrupting influence of the overpowerful public sector unions that are bankrupting California.  This means passing effective Paycheck Protection laws to stop these unions from using taxpayer dollars to gain more taxpayer dollars.  Some OC activists are taking the lead to help pass this fundamental and essential reform.

California’s overpowerful public sector unions are a corrupting influence on state government.  As we’ve noted, these unions have become “the New Tammany Hall, a corrupt government worker union machine that buys and controls votes.  Unlike private sector unions, government worker unions are able to sit at both sides of the bargaining table by electing the politicians who control their pay.  In the 2008 election cycle, the SEIU (alone) spent $42.4 million in independent expenditures on top of $73 million in labor contributions.”

The overpowerful public sector unions are bankrupting California.  They have used their corrupt bargaining position and political power to gain better compensation, job security, health benefits, and pensions than private sector workers.  The recent attempt to spike MWD pensions, on the heels of a 20% rate increase, is but one example. California’s “too big to fail”  pension fund, CALPERS, puts “Californian taxpayer … on the hook if CALPERS cannot pay out the avalanche of promises to California’s state workers.”

We must pass effective Paycheck Protection laws to stop these unions from using taxpayer dollars to gain more taxpayer dollars.  Paycheck Protection limits unions ability to spend member dues on political activity without their consent.  (The Supreme Court has held that union members have the right to prohibit unions from using their dues for functions unrelated to collective bargaining.) While this will help, effective Paycheck Protection must go further by leveling the playing field between public sector union members and the public who employs them.

Paycheck Protection must permit the state (or any political subdivision thereof) to withhold union dues from state worker pay only for functions related to collective bargaining.  Public sector unions must be absolutely prohibited from spending member dues for political purposes (subject to the threat of criminal sanctions).

This would not be an unconstitutional abridgment of the free speech rights of public sector workers.  The Supreme Court has held that political speech may be limited to prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption.  Public sector unions have created a powerful appearance of corruption.  Yet, this law would not unduly burden state workers’ free speech rights.  They would be free to donate money to their union or any political cause.  This law would level the playing field, subjecting state workers and their unions to the same political campaign finance limits and reporting requirements as private individuals, businesses, and organizations.

OC activists are taking the lead to put Paycheck Protection on the 2010 ballot.  Hopefully, they will draft an effective Paycheck Protection initiative.  These unions spent $100 million to defeat reform in 2005.  (This money came from taxpayers pockets.) If Californians want reform then they must pass effective Paycheck Protection.  There can be no meaningful California reform until the overpowerful public sector unions are dethroned.

It was no surprise that Rep. Loretta Sanchez (CD 47) supported government-run healthcare in yesterday’s “town hall meeting” (conference call).  However, the “blue dog” Democrat’s support for socialization stands in stark contrast to her opposition to bank bailouts only one year ago.  It appears that Sanchez has been put on a leash by her Big Labor masters.

Big Labor is pushing hard for government-run healthcare.  Locally, they are employing a front group, Health Access California (HAC).  HAC’s Board includes representatives of Big Labor and the radical left (including ACORN).  Overpowerful government worker unions are well represented, including the SEIU, the California teacher unions (CTA and CFT), and the AFSCME.

HAC advocates costly state mandates that make healthcare more expensive.  HAC recently condemned the governor for vetoing costly insurance mandates, claiming that the governor was “[siding] with the insurance industry”. Of course, they cynically ignore the fact that consumers pay the cost of these mandates through higher rates.  While HAC claims they want to increase access and reduce costs, their policies do the opposite – reducing access by increasing costs.

Nevertheless, HAC is just a front for Big Labor – the New Tammany Hall, a corrupt government worker union machine that buys and controls votes.  Unlike private sector unions, government worker unions are able to sit at both sides of the bargaining table by electing the politicians who control their pay.  In the 2008 election cycle, the SEIU (alone) spent $42.4 million in independent expenditures on top of $73 million in labor contributions.

Loretta Sanchez is a big recipient of Big Labor cash.  Her Big Labor donors include several unions with multiple officers and members that “have been convicted since 2001 of felonies ranging from embezzlement, falsifying official reports to government, mail fraud and conspiracy.”  Thus, it is no surprise that Sanchez was co-sponsor of Big Labor’s “Employee Free Choice Act” (Card Check) that would have eliminated the secret ballot in union-certification elections.

Loretta Sanchez is no “blue dog”.  Instead, she is a poodle for Big Labor.