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Gerawan Farming just filed a motion with the ALRB to disqualify former Sen. Isadore Hall from making any decisions related to their pending cases. And for good reason. Not only does Sen. Hall have no experience in or relatedto agriculture,Hall even voted for the “farmworker overtime bill”to force morefarming employersinto United Farm Workers union contracts.
The California newspapers, television and radio have been going gaga over the “farmworker overtime bill” since the Legislature passed it August 29. They love it because it is more of the economic and social justice racket. But they are not telling you the entire story about Assembly Bill 1066.
Authored by the ethically bankrupt, union stooge, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, AB 1066, is bad on so many fronts. But the underlying reason for the bill is to force more farming employers into United Farm Workers union contracts.
Most other states do not have overtime wage requirements for any business, much less farming, so California businesses trying to compete under the state’s hefty overtime wage rules will likely not be able to compete across state… Read More
Two Republicans in the California State Legislature are now voting for legislation sponsored by the state’s construction unions, following several years of unified, principled caucus resistance to such schemes. One might think that former Republican legislators Brett Granlund, Anthony Pescetti, and Ken Maddox are back from term-limited exile, in disguise.
Union leaders and lobbyists are thrilled! They can now label their costly, self-serving bills as “bipartisan” while labeling their more principled critics as “extremist.”
A Bipartisan Attack on Constitutional Rights, Local Control, and Fiscal Responsibility
Most prominent among the union-backed bills with Republican support is Senate Bill 7. This bill would withhold state funding for any of the state’s 121 charter cities that exercise their right under the state constitution to set their own government-mandated wage rate policies for purely municipal construction.
SB 7 undermines the principle of local control over local funds and the fundamental structure of constitutional federalism. It also punishes fiscally responsible cities that recognize how state-mandated… Read More
Since 2009, the City of San Diego has been planning a major expansion of its downtown convention center. It is expected to cost $520 million, or more than $1 billion if interest payments to bond investors are included in the total cost.
The city’s downtown business and civic leaders are eager to expand the convention center to maintain trade shows such as Comic-Con and attract new trade shows.
That eagerness presented the devious union leaders of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council with an opportunity to establish themselves as the chief opponents and obstacles to the proposed project. Opposition could be withdrawn – for a price.
After exploiting the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and filing a lawsuit to challenge the financing plan, unions were able to obtain several economic and political benefits through the office of former Mayor Jerry Sanders. In exchange for these payoffs, the unions withdraw their obstacles and committed to end their opposition and support the convention center expansion.
I’m still convinced that the business coalition supporting reform of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) made a strategic decision to join State Senator Michael Rubio (D-Bakersfield) in never addressing – or even acknowledging – how unions have perfected the widespread and pernicious abuse of CEQA to win labor agreements and block non-union competition.
If Republicans in the legislature buy into this strategy, www.FlashReport.org publisher Jon Fleischman will be right when he tweeted this prediction:
