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NBA Players Association Releases Report On Union Director

For example, the report noted problems of self-dealing—such as when Hunter accepted $1.3 million from the union for vacation time that was not adequately tracked—and nepotism—notably his hiring of his daughter and other relatives.

The NBA players should continue digging into their executive director’s activities—or at least announce that being their union executive director is the greatest job in the world.

The president of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 5, Ron Lind, is the newest board member of CalPERS, the state agency that handles state employee pensions. Lind is the sixth board member, out of a total of 13, who is a current or former government union employee. Lind is particularly notable, however, because his union led a strike against the grocery store, Raley’s, in November.

“Free speech for me, but not thee” could well be organized labor’s new slogan in California.

Everyone can enjoy the First Amendment for the guarantees of freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly. But labor unions in California have been guaranteed even more speech rights than the rest of us.

In California, the Moscone Act and other related statutes make it harder for businesses to obtain a restraining order or injunction against labor union picketers than against other people or groups. This union perk even extends to labor protesting on someone’s private property. Lower courts in California struck down the law, saying that it afforded extra free speech protections to labor unions that did not exist for others wishing to publicly speak on another’s property. The courts ruled that this was a content-based restriction, which is impermissible under the First Amendment. It was also alternatively interpreted as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.

In the case at issue, the store did not allow any demonstrators within 20 feet of the entrance and had asked police to remove members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) who were handing out flyers in front of the store.

But the California Supreme Court ruled that labor unions could picket in the doorway of a private store and receive legal protection. This gives labor an advantage over all other speakers that would want to stand in front of a store and exercise free speech. Justice Goodwin Liu went as far to say that the owner could not even place reasonable limits on the pickets by those invading his property — though most of the other justices disagreed.

Putting aside the freedom of association problems inherent in non-right-to-work states and even the speech questions concerning the spending of agency fees and union dues, there are other advantages that labor receives in the form of free speech protections.

The Norris-LaGuardia Act, a federal law, has elements similar to California’s Moscone Act when it comes to discouraging injunctions against labor pickets. Federal courts have taken a measured approach to Norris-LaGuardia and have not given unions an unquestioned right to picket on private property. In contrast, the California laws only allow a judge to stop a picket if there are illegal acts that will result in significant property damage. Nonetheless, Norris-LaGuardia is unique in giving certain types of speech — speech relating to a labor dispute — priority over many other forms.

Section 8(a)(1) of the Labor-Management Relations Act (LMRA), also known as Taft-Hartley, restricts the type of speech permitted by employers when employees have engaged in an organizing campaign. Courts have interpreted employers’ obligations very strictly, stopping employers from mentioning most anything that could be remotely perceived as discouraging unionization.

There is also the still-undecided Roundy’s case before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which could require an employer to provide unions access to private property if it allows any outside group access. If the NLRB follows its recent habits of pro-organized labor activism, it would create an even bigger issue when it comes to a union’s invasion of the employer’s physical and virtual property.

While everyone can enjoy free speech rights, labor has the special benefit of a few bonus provisions that give its free speech an advantage over the rest of us.

It’s hard to imagine a more disastrous public pension system than California (although Illinois is trying). According to a Stanford analysis, the state’s public pensions are underfunded by at least $500 billion, or roughly one-fifth of the revenue taken in by the entire federal government last year. This disaster was caused by an incestuous relationship between California’s government and public-sector unions, and a willingness to spend profligately.

But not all the news from California is bad news. Here are three rays of sunshine in a state that desperately needs it:

The SEC is investigating California’s public pension fund. This might seem like a black mark for California; after all, the only other state pension fund ever targeted by the SEC was New Jersey’s. But as the Contra Costa Times notes, “If federal investigators are able to make a case that CalPERS [the pension fund] misled investors about the risk in its pension fund, it would send a powerful signal to other public funds, which almost without exception base their financial reporting on average annual investment returns of about 8 percent a year”. Scaring states into abandoning the 8 percent figure and calculating reasonable risk would be a huge step forward.

San Diego is leading the way in pension reforms. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has said, “We’ll be rethinking literally everything we do.” That includes ambitious reforms for public-employee retirees. The new plan hasn’t been written yet, but Sanders has indicated it will shift all new government hires to a 401(K)-style pension plan (excluding public safety workers). Sanders wants the issue on the ballot during the next election — which means he can expect a fierce fight from organized labor.

Governor Jerry Brown wants to cut spending. Brown is an unlikely savior for California’s pension system. He was elected with massive union support and has been criticized for ignoring the state ‘s pension problems. But his latest proposal cuts $12.5 billion in spending, including 8-12 percent of public employee compensation. At the very least, this suggests that Brown acknowledges there’s a problem, something many of his predecessors refused to do.

Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk.

Time for a little union mythbusting. This comes from California and the never-ending war between the SEIU and the National Union of Healthcare Workers:

I am sitting at a table in the Summit Hospital cafeteria in Oakland, California. Beverly Griffith, a spirited African-American grandparent who worked for 32 years in the Summit EVS (Housekeeping) department, taps my arm. “See that security guard at the table? He’s watching us. SEIU gets Security to follow me.”

I think to myself. How many grandmothers are security risks? So I ask: “Why would anyone follow you?”

“It’s harassment,” she insists. “I’m involved in the NUHW campaign to decertify SEIU. The election between these two unions takes place January 19th. Both management and SEIU are working together to make employees who converse with me feel uncomfortable.”

Follow the link and read the full article — it turns out Griffith isn’t the only employee who thinks she’s being watched. It’s also not the first time the SEIU has used thuggish tactics against the NUHW. So much for the SEIU being anti-corporate and defending the dignity of the common worker. At the end of the day, America’s number-one union is only looking out for number one.

Image courtesy of D.Clow – Maryland.

Sal Rosselli is the gift that keeps on giving. When Rosselli broke away from the SEIU and formed the National Union of Healthcare Workers, we could not have imagined just how many headaches he would cause for Andy Stern and Mary Kay Henry. Now, roughly a month after the NUHW lost a battle with the SEIU over Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in California, the wrangling continues, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.

National Union of Healthcare Workers, an upstart rival to Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, won two of three unit elections tallied Wednesday for almost 2,000 Kaiser Permanente members in Northern California.

Behavioral health services workers voted 603 to 196 for NUHW over UHW and optical workers voted for NUHW over UHW 154 to 142. Medical-social workers voted to stay with UHW, 148 to 139.

This is a win for the NUHW, although they already lost the lion’s share of Kaiser’s 47,500 healthcare workers back in October. Current score: SEIU, 43,000; NUHW, 4,300. The NUHW disputed the October results, claiming that the SEIU worked with management to intimidate members into voting their way.

Imagine that! If true, this wouldn’t be the first time the SEIU has used top-down intimidation tactics to achieve its goals in southern California. For more, read this damning letter by Paul Krehbiel, a former SEIUer who left in disgust and joined the NUHW.