Does labor have as much clout as governor says?

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/23/5 | Mark Martin

[SmithL]

Sacramento -- At an April 13 meeting of a state Assembly budget subcommittee, two executives with California's prison guards union enjoyed an unusual vantage point as the committee discussed the state's corrections department.

Instead of sitting in the audience or at a table where bureaucrats or interest groups typically sit to testify, the members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association were positioned on the raised dais -- spots normally reserved for lawmakers.

Department of Corrections administrators found themselves looking up at the union representatives, who sat alongside the assemblyman running the meeting.

In the push and pull among Capitol interests for a spot at the table when decisions are made, sometimes it seems like labor unions have the best seat in the house. Union clout isn't always subtle.

Labor lobbyists bully lawmakers. And unions representing narrow interests can derail legislation that has nearly universal support.

That clout is at the heart of the political brawl that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has stoked this year that will come to a head on Nov. 8. That's when voters will decide, among other things, Proposition 75, which would make it more difficult for unions to make political contributions; and Proposition 76, which would give the governor the power to override the school funding formula that the teachers union fiercely protects.

Supporters of the propositions argue that labor has a vise-like grip on Sacramento that must be reduced.

[EagleUSA]

Yes, because labor sleeps with the socialist-controlled legislature. Real simple actually.

[radar101]

Do GOVERNMENT employee Unions have a grip on the legislature?
YES.
As a former State Worker who is not for this idea, my former agency had an office in Headquarters titled " Office of Special Representataive".Run by a Lieutenant, with a Sergeant and four officers. Their job was simply to "advocate the Department's position" Translation: Kiss Legislature's A**.

[Publius6961]

Does labor have as much clout as governor says?

Of course they do; All a normal person needs to know, if he is willing to look, is the amounts, in the tens of millions, that the unions are spending to defeat all the proposed Propositions, all of which are designed to control obscene out of control costs.
The question that should be asked (and never is) is should the addicted spenders be allowed to continue defining reduced annual increases as "cuts"?
Let's take another example: the so-called "save our schools" proposition of many years back which fraudulently convinced voters that money was the cause of all our schools' woes and that annual increases without limit, and without justification, was necessary. What part of the annual budget does that take? 40%? It may be more now, and that sort of hit on the budget without regard of the overall state fiscal health has got to change. It was a huge mistake.

Automatic increases, forever, for anything is horrible and fatal economic policy.
Finally, a reminder: in a free society wages are determined by the demand for the work done. Unions deftly transform that into legalized extortion. No state activity, not even education, justifies that.

[Publius6961]

I have better horror stories, but am unable to describe them without identifying the location of the fiscal horror stories. Suffice to say we're talking of tens of millions$ literally wasted, and the administrators responsible over the last 10-15 years (that I know of) just keep on traveling along the promotion bureaucratic assembly line.

A most persuasive argument for zero-base budgetting.

[oldbrowser]

Labor lobbyists bully lawmakers.

I think they've gone way beyond "bully", closer to "subjugate".

[CyberAnt]

Not only that .. they helped Donna Frye in San Diego when she started a write-in campaign which turned the Mayoral election upside down. However, some of those who were told by the unions how to vote, ended up not filling out their write-in ballot correctly, and her overwhelming vote count (which meant she would have been Mayor) was stopped in a court of law.

If the judge had determined that just writing her name was sufficient, and that those who didn't fill in the circle in front of her name still counted as votes, we would have been stuck with her as Mayor.

She's running again this time, and a lot of her shady stuff is coming out into public view. Right now she quite a few points behind the other candidate. But .. it does show you how the unions operate. They got behind her and tried to force her on us. This is exactly what the democrats do with the unions.

But .. San Diego still has a 100,000 Repub advantage over the democrats and finally they are starting to take advantage of these things.

But during the recall, we had union thugs who would show up and physically attack people who supported the recall. We even got a lot of it on tape - and I believe that video did a lot to help get the recall through.

Don't ever underestimate the power of a union. Of course, this is just my opinion.

[traviskicks]

hmmm... pretty fair article. Take home lesson is that the power of government needs to be reduced. If government cant legally do anything for these special interests, then the special interests would stay home.