How to Save California: Outlaw Public Employee Unions

Rationalist

Rationalist

Hail Voltaire
John Yoo · Oct. 1 at 4:05pm

Like everyone else in California, I'm dismayed at the state of the state. The massive budget deficit, high taxes and runaway government spending, spreading unemployment, a hostile business climate, and unfunded future pensions are ruining a state that has every natural gift and advantage in resources, both human and natural. Everyone seems to agree that the way the state government works has a lot to do with these problems, but no one is sure how to fix it. I even taught a seminar last semester on reforming the California constitution to explore solutions (more on that another time).

Earlier this week, I was lucky to go to the annual dinner of the Lincoln Club of northern California, which is made up of Republican leaders in the San Francisco area. The Club was awarding its lifetime achievement award to Pete Wilson, the last governor who made state government work (and a proud alum of my law school) -- believe it or not, but when Wilson left office, the state had a budget surplus. Ricochet's very own Peter Robinson interviewed Wilson on how to save California. It was an amazing night: Wilson displayed an encyclopedic command of the policy challenges facing the state.

The one change that he said could restore the state's fortunes wasn't lowering taxes, cutting spending, or eliminating excessive regulations -- though these were all important. He said there was a deeper root cause: the power of the public employees unions. According to Wilson, public employee unions trigger a destructive dynamic. Public employee unions take money from their members and use them for partisan political purposes. They pressure government officials to cut them sweetheart deals, especially through things like job protections and pensions, that don't show up on the bottom line for years. They create a larger and larger interest group that demands more government spending and higher taxes, which drives out private entrepreneurship and swells their ranks even more. Reduce the power of the public employee unions, and you lower the size of government, reduce the costs of the state, and fix the looming pension problem.

So here's my idea, and it applies beyond California. There is no constitutional right for public employees to form a union and to use their dues to pressure the government for more spending and benefits. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote while a state judge, a policeman "may have the right to talk politics but he has no constitutional right to be a policeman." Unions only have this right because state government has granted it to them. So how about a one sentence ballot initiative, to amend the California constitution, that simply says that public employees cannot form unions -- and why not do this state by state.

http://ricochet.com/main-feed/How-to-Save-California-Outlaw-Public-Employee-Unions
 
From the author of the Torture Memos on the use of what the CIA called enhanced interrogation techniques.

Fascist approach to government...no human considerations.


"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru and co-author of the GOP's 'Contract with America'


When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
 
Voltaire said:
John Yoo · Oct. 1 at 4:05pm

Like everyone else in California, I'm dismayed at the state of the state. The massive budget deficit, high taxes and runaway government spending, spreading unemployment, a hostile business climate, and unfunded future pensions are ruining a state that has every natural gift and advantage in resources, both human and natural. Everyone seems to agree that the way the state government works has a lot to do with these problems, but no one is sure how to fix it. I even taught a seminar last semester on reforming the California constitution to explore solutions (more on that another time).

Earlier this week, I was lucky to go to the annual dinner of the Lincoln Club of northern California, which is made up of Republican leaders in the San Francisco area. The Club was awarding its lifetime achievement award to Pete Wilson, the last governor who made state government work (and a proud alum of my law school) -- believe it or not, but when Wilson left office, the state had a budget surplus. Ricochet's very own Peter Robinson interviewed Wilson on how to save California. It was an amazing night: Wilson displayed an encyclopedic command of the policy challenges facing the state.

The one change that he said could restore the state's fortunes wasn't lowering taxes, cutting spending, or eliminating excessive regulations -- though these were all important. He said there was a deeper root cause: the power of the public employees unions. According to Wilson, public employee unions trigger a destructive dynamic. Public employee unions take money from their members and use them for partisan political purposes. They pressure government officials to cut them sweetheart deals, especially through things like job protections and pensions, that don't show up on the bottom line for years. They create a larger and larger interest group that demands more government spending and higher taxes, which drives out private entrepreneurship and swells their ranks even more. Reduce the power of the public employee unions, and you lower the size of government, reduce the costs of the state, and fix the looming pension problem.

So here's my idea, and it applies beyond California. There is no constitutional right for public employees to form a union and to use their dues to pressure the government for more spending and benefits. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote while a state judge, a policeman "may have the right to talk politics but he has no constitutional right to be a policeman." Unions only have this right because state government has granted it to them. So how about a one sentence ballot initiative, to amend the California constitution, that simply says that public employees cannot form unions -- and why not do this state by state.

http://ricochet.com/main-feed/How-to-Save-California-Outlaw-Public-Employee-Unions
Click to expand...

This is absolutely the naked truth! The trouble is transitioning employees off the system and into private retirement accts. I suppose you could allow those who have say 20 years in to continue and everyone with less move their current benifits into an IRA. They could then open a second retirement going forward into a 401k. All new hires would go 401k.
 
Ice Dancer said:
This is absolutely the naked truth! The trouble is transitioning employees off the system and into private retirement accts. I suppose you could allow those who have say 20 years in to continue and everyone with less move their current benifits into an IRA. They could then open a second retirement going forward into a 401k. All new hires would go 401k.
Click to expand...

Chris Christie (Gov. - NJ) is likely to propose something along those lines in the coming days. It would be a smart move, as the pension system is unsustainable.
 
Ice Dancer said:
This is absolutely the naked truth! The trouble is transitioning employees off the system and into private retirement accts. I suppose you could allow those who have say 20 years in to continue and everyone with less move their current benifits into an IRA. They could then open a second retirement going forward into a 401k. All new hires would go 401k.
Click to expand...

The murderer Yoo is not talking about privatizing retirement plans, he is talking about banning unions.

Conservatism ALWAYS tries to create an aristocracy, plutocracy or oligarchy. This is just another clear example. Go after the little guy and crush him.

GFY
 
Ice Dancer said:
He would be just the man for the job...
Click to expand...

Christie is precisely what we need on the national stage. He talks straight with people, even when what he has to say is unpopular. Obviously, it would be great if the pensions in NJ and CA were sustainable. But this is the real world, not the fantasy world where liberals reside...

As for unions, it never ceases to amaze me how many liberals will criticize corporate power while turning a blind eye to corruption in organized labor. My father is a member of a union, and in nearly every issue of their publication there's a list of union officials who have embezzled from the pensions funds (they're required to publish the names).
 
Voltaire said:
Christie is precisely what we need on the national stage. He talks straight with people, even when what he has to say is unpopular. Obviously, it would be great if the pensions in NJ and CA were sustainable. But this is the real world, not the fantasy world where liberals reside...

As for unions, it never ceases to amaze me how many liberals will criticize corporate power while turning a blind eye to corruption in organized labor. My father is a member of a union, and in nearly every issue of their publication there's a list of union officials who have embezzled from the pensions funds (they're required to publish the names).
Click to expand...

The murderer Yoo is not talking about privatizing retirement plans, he is talking about banning unions.

Conservatism ALWAYS tries to create an aristocracy, plutocracy or oligarchy. This is just another clear example. Go after the little guy and crush him.

It is total blind ignorance that the right has NO awareness of the dangers of corporate takeover of our government. It IS the most critical issue facing this nation. The corporate world is NOT in it for America or in it for the American people. They are in it for THEMSELVES and THEMSELVES alone. They don't care about this country. They continue to outsource jobs, buy legislation that crushes families and undermines the heart of America, the middle class. The union worker IS the middle class every day family guy and gal. Unless your father is something different, that include YOU!


"Labor is the United States. The men and women, who with their minds, their hearts and hands, create the wealth that is shared in this country—they are America."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru and co-author of the GOP's 'Contract with America'
 
Bfgrn said:
The murderer Yoo is not talking about privatizing retirement plans, he is talking about banning unions.

Conservatism ALWAYS tries to create an aristocracy, plutocracy or oligarchy. This is just another clear example. Go after the little guy and crush him.

It is total blind ignorance that the right has NO awareness of the dangers of corporate takeover of our government. It IS the most critical issue facing this nation. The corporate world is NOT in it for America or in it for the American people. They are in it for THEMSELVES and THEMSELVES alone. They don't care about this country. They continue to outsource jobs, buy legislation that crushes families and undermines the heart of America, the middle class. The union worker IS the middle class every day family guy and gal. Unless your father is something different, that include YOU!


"Labor is the United States. The men and women, who with their minds, their hearts and hands, create the wealth that is shared in this country—they are America."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"We're going to crush labor as a political entity"
Grover Norquist - Republican economic guru and co-author of the GOP's 'Contract with America'
Click to expand...

So I take it you're not going to address the issue of union corruption?

http://nlpc.org/union-corruption-update?q=category/project-name/union-corruption-update

Literally every day there's another update about some union official being indicted or thrown in jail. When there's corporate corruption, that's all we hear about from the left. Why don't we ever hear about union corruption?

Also, as I noted (you conveniently ignored it), every issue of my father's union publication has a list of names of the union officials who stole from the pensions funds. Which isn't really a surprise considering many labor unions have historical ties to organized crime and, oh yes, international communism (which you claim is "conservative").
 
Last edited:
Voltaire said:
So I take it you're not going to address the issue of union corruption?

http://nlpc.org/union-corruption-update?q=category/project-name/union-corruption-update

Literally every day there's another update about some union official being indicted or thrown in jail. When there's corporate corruption, that's all we hear about from the left. Why don't we ever hear about union corruption?

Also, as I noted (you conveniently ignored it), every issue of my father's union publication has a list of names of the union officials who stole from the pensions funds. Which isn't really a surprise considering many labor unions have historical ties to organized crime and, oh yes, international communism (which you claim is "conservative").
Click to expand...

THAT is NOT what the murderer Yoo is calling for. He wants to OUTLAW unions. We tried that in America, it was called the Gilded Age. It was a nightmare for the working man.

The very reasons unions were created and NEEDED will never go away, because it is deeply seeded in human nature and human foible. It is not a coincidence that the death of unions has led to death of the middle class.

Corruption will always exist, whether it is union corruption or corporate corruption. But WHICH one causes harm to the greatest number of people? In regards to the law...the question is...WHO IS the law? Educate yourself ...


How Thuggish Federal Prosecutors Destroyed My Family

by Bill Barnwell

lewrock.gif


http://truthinjustice.org/barnwell.htm

It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.
Albert Camus
 
Voltaire said:
So I take it you're not going to address the issue of union corruption?

http://nlpc.org/union-corruption-update?q=category/project-name/union-corruption-update

Literally every day there's another update about some union official being indicted or thrown in jail. When there's corporate corruption, that's all we hear about from the left. Why don't we ever hear about union corruption?

Also, as I noted (you conveniently ignored it), every issue of my father's union publication has a list of names of the union officials who stole from the pensions funds. Which isn't really a surprise considering many labor unions have historical ties to organized crime and, oh yes, international communism (which you claim is "conservative").
Click to expand...


Unions have outlived their purpose and public employee unions are antithetical of a republic.
 
NigelTufnel said:
How so?
Click to expand...

Now before you get your nigey nappies in a bunch-there is nothing that I disagree with in the following article(s). I have used it for convenience. Why reinvent the proverbial wheel as it were-

Public Employee Unions Should Be Made Illegal

Unions by their very nature are the antithesis of efficiency. With their onerous work rules, the inability to readily fire for cause or ineptness, and seniority rules that protect the status quo and make it difficult to hire new blood with new ideas, unionization results in costs that far exceed those in comparable non-unionized areas.

Added to the above, public employee unions have saddled the taxpayers with benefit packages that far exceed those of the vast majority of citizens and burdened our children with billions in unfunded benefits. Those benefits are driven by the ability of these unions to hold the citizens hostage, and demand never ending increases from politicians that use OPM (other peoples money) to buy support, both campaign funding and votes from the union hierarchy.

Public employee unions should be made illegal.

Excerpt:
For the large majority of our history, public employee unions have been illegal. It is only since the 1960s and 1970s that they have been allowed. Currently, they are legal in roughly half the states. The United States has carried on a four-decade experiment in legalization, and the results are in: public employee unions are a cancer on our country.

Public employee unions flourish because government is, by its nature, a monopoly. Thus, there is no need for unionized government units to compete against non-unionized units. Moreover, public officials who negotiate with public employee unions generally lack the same incentives that private employers have to keep costs down. The result has been a fiscal disaster, with numerous states and municipalities now going over the waterfall of bankruptcy.

Enough is enough. Legalization of public employee unions has been a disaster. It is time to end the experiment and make them illegal once again, at both the federal and state levels. I expect that this will become one of the great political issues of the next decade.


And more recently

In New York, sanitation workers have reported that their union ordered them to sabotage the city's blizzard cleanup efforts. If that claim is true, the union may be responsible for at least one death. Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to investigate.

It remains to be seen what will come of this particular controversy, but the broader point is coming into ever-clearer focus: it is time to ban public employee unions.

For the large majority of our history, public employee unions have been illegal. It is only since the 1960s and 1970s that they have been allowed. Currently, they are legal in roughly half the states. The United States has carried on a four-decade experiment in legalization, and the results are in: public employee unions are a cancer on our country.

Public employee unions flourish because government is, by its nature, a monopoly. Thus, there is no need for unionized government units to compete against non-unionized units. Moreover, public officials who negotiate with public employee unions generally lack the same incentives that private employers have to keep costs down. The result has been a fiscal disaster, with numerous states and municipalities now going over the waterfall of bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, public employee unions have become perhaps the dominant force in our political life. They extract dues from their members which go to fund the candidacies of politicians who will pay public employees even more money. The unions' ill-gotten clout has created a vicious cycle; at the same time that government units are going broke, public employees are now far better paid than their private sector counterparts, while enjoying better benefits and ridiculous job security.

Enough is enough. Legalization of public employee unions has been a disaster. It is time to end the experiment and make them illegal once again, at both the federal and state levels. I expect that this will become one of the great political issues of the next decade.
 
Ice Dancer said:
Now before you get your nigey nappies in a bunch-there is nothing that I disagree with in the following article(s). I have used it for convenience. Why reinvent the proverbial wheel as it were-

Public Employee Unions Should Be Made Illegal

Unions by their very nature are the antithesis of efficiency. With their onerous work rules, the inability to readily fire for cause or ineptness, and seniority rules that protect the status quo and make it difficult to hire new blood with new ideas, unionization results in costs that far exceed those in comparable non-unionized areas.

Added to the above, public employee unions have saddled the taxpayers with benefit packages that far exceed those of the vast majority of citizens and burdened our children with billions in unfunded benefits. Those benefits are driven by the ability of these unions to hold the citizens hostage, and demand never ending increases from politicians that use OPM (other peoples money) to buy support, both campaign funding and votes from the union hierarchy.

Public employee unions should be made illegal.

Excerpt:
For the large majority of our history, public employee unions have been illegal. It is only since the 1960s and 1970s that they have been allowed. Currently, they are legal in roughly half the states. The United States has carried on a four-decade experiment in legalization, and the results are in: public employee unions are a cancer on our country.

Public employee unions flourish because government is, by its nature, a monopoly. Thus, there is no need for unionized government units to compete against non-unionized units. Moreover, public officials who negotiate with public employee unions generally lack the same incentives that private employers have to keep costs down. The result has been a fiscal disaster, with numerous states and municipalities now going over the waterfall of bankruptcy.

Enough is enough. Legalization of public employee unions has been a disaster. It is time to end the experiment and make them illegal once again, at both the federal and state levels. I expect that this will become one of the great political issues of the next decade.


And more recently

In New York, sanitation workers have reported that their union ordered them to sabotage the city's blizzard cleanup efforts. If that claim is true, the union may be responsible for at least one death. Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to investigate.

It remains to be seen what will come of this particular controversy, but the broader point is coming into ever-clearer focus: it is time to ban public employee unions.

For the large majority of our history, public employee unions have been illegal. It is only since the 1960s and 1970s that they have been allowed. Currently, they are legal in roughly half the states. The United States has carried on a four-decade experiment in legalization, and the results are in: public employee unions are a cancer on our country.

Public employee unions flourish because government is, by its nature, a monopoly. Thus, there is no need for unionized government units to compete against non-unionized units. Moreover, public officials who negotiate with public employee unions generally lack the same incentives that private employers have to keep costs down. The result has been a fiscal disaster, with numerous states and municipalities now going over the waterfall of bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, public employee unions have become perhaps the dominant force in our political life. They extract dues from their members which go to fund the candidacies of politicians who will pay public employees even more money. The unions' ill-gotten clout has created a vicious cycle; at the same time that government units are going broke, public employees are now far better paid than their private sector counterparts, while enjoying better benefits and ridiculous job security.

Enough is enough. Legalization of public employee unions has been a disaster. It is time to end the experiment and make them illegal once again, at both the federal and state levels. I expect that this will become one of the great political issues of the next decade.
Click to expand...

Let us know how that works out.
 
Ice Dancer said:
Now before you get your nigey nappies in a bunch-there is nothing that I disagree with in the following article(s). I have used it for convenience. Why reinvent the proverbial wheel as it were-

Public Employee Unions Should Be Made Illegal

Unions by their very nature are the antithesis of efficiency. With their onerous work rules, the inability to readily fire for cause or ineptness, and seniority rules that protect the status quo and make it difficult to hire new blood with new ideas, unionization results in costs that far exceed those in comparable non-unionized areas.

Added to the above, public employee unions have saddled the taxpayers with benefit packages that far exceed those of the vast majority of citizens and burdened our children with billions in unfunded benefits. Those benefits are driven by the ability of these unions to hold the citizens hostage, and demand never ending increases from politicians that use OPM (other peoples money) to buy support, both campaign funding and votes from the union hierarchy.

Public employee unions should be made illegal.

Excerpt:
For the large majority of our history, public employee unions have been illegal. It is only since the 1960s and 1970s that they have been allowed. Currently, they are legal in roughly half the states. The United States has carried on a four-decade experiment in legalization, and the results are in: public employee unions are a cancer on our country.

Public employee unions flourish because government is, by its nature, a monopoly. Thus, there is no need for unionized government units to compete against non-unionized units. Moreover, public officials who negotiate with public employee unions generally lack the same incentives that private employers have to keep costs down. The result has been a fiscal disaster, with numerous states and municipalities now going over the waterfall of bankruptcy.

Enough is enough. Legalization of public employee unions has been a disaster. It is time to end the experiment and make them illegal once again, at both the federal and state levels. I expect that this will become one of the great political issues of the next decade.


And more recently

In New York, sanitation workers have reported that their union ordered them to sabotage the city's blizzard cleanup efforts. If that claim is true, the union may be responsible for at least one death. Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to investigate.

It remains to be seen what will come of this particular controversy, but the broader point is coming into ever-clearer focus: it is time to ban public employee unions.

For the large majority of our history, public employee unions have been illegal. It is only since the 1960s and 1970s that they have been allowed. Currently, they are legal in roughly half the states. The United States has carried on a four-decade experiment in legalization, and the results are in: public employee unions are a cancer on our country.

Public employee unions flourish because government is, by its nature, a monopoly. Thus, there is no need for unionized government units to compete against non-unionized units. Moreover, public officials who negotiate with public employee unions generally lack the same incentives that private employers have to keep costs down. The result has been a fiscal disaster, with numerous states and municipalities now going over the waterfall of bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, public employee unions have become perhaps the dominant force in our political life. They extract dues from their members which go to fund the candidacies of politicians who will pay public employees even more money. The unions' ill-gotten clout has created a vicious cycle; at the same time that government units are going broke, public employees are now far better paid than their private sector counterparts, while enjoying better benefits and ridiculous job security.

Enough is enough. Legalization of public employee unions has been a disaster. It is time to end the experiment and make them illegal once again, at both the federal and state levels. I expect that this will become one of the great political issues of the next decade.
Click to expand...


There's a lot in there that I disagree with, but there isn't anything to support the notion that public employee unions are antithetical to a republic.

Why do you think public employee unions are antithetical to a republic? You've mentioned it several times and I don't understand what you mean by it.
 
Voltaire said:
So I take it you're not going to address the issue of union corruption?

http://nlpc.org/union-corruption-update?q=category/project-name/union-corruption-update

Literally every day there's another update about some union official being indicted or thrown in jail. When there's corporate corruption, that's all we hear about from the left. Why don't we ever hear about union corruption?

Also, as I noted (you conveniently ignored it), every issue of my father's union publication has a list of names of the union officials who stole from the pensions funds. Which isn't really a surprise considering many labor unions have historical ties to organized crime and, oh yes, international communism (which you claim is "conservative").
Click to expand...


It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.
Albert Camus

The National Legal and Policy Center
Front_groups_badge.png


National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is a front group and industry funded conservative political and policy lobbying organization.

According to its website, NLPC "promotes ethics in public life through research, investigation, education and legal action." However, NLPC is selective. For example, though they track and critique government bailouts of companies like AIG and Citigroup, they are complicit with other forms of corporate corruption. Although NPLC targets the occasional republican, such as former Senator Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young of Alaska, it is issues they are silent on which are conspicuous. This includes the Iraq war, corporate crime, human rights abuses, executive compensation, animal welfare, environmental issues and government policies which favor and subsidize industry. NLPC targets labor unions, health care reform, environmentalism, animal rights, activists, liberal and reform oriented politicians.

Funding

NLPC’s predominate sources of funding are the Scaife Foundations

The Scaife Foundations consist of the Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation, the Carthage Foundation, the Allegheny Foundation and the Scaife Family Foundation. All four have been heavily involved in financing conservative causes under the direction of reclusive billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, whose wealth was inherited from the Mellon industrial, oil, uranium and banking fortune.

The Mellon fortune is built on at least 5 pillars; the family's ownership of Gulf Oil Corporation, the family's monopoly ownership of Alcoa and Alcan going back to 1891, ownership of Koppers and Carborundum corporations, and their participation in the uranium cartel.
sourcewatch
 
NigelTufnel said:
There's a lot in there that I disagree with, but there isn't anything to support the notion that public employee unions are antithetical to a republic.

Why do you think public employee unions are antithetical to a republic? You've mentioned it several times and I don't understand what you mean by it.
Click to expand...

How about you just guess nigey~
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top