NB: It is important to know what the USA fascists are doing (claimed to
be libertarians and conservatives, just like Trump, the Proud Boys, Oath
Keepers, etc.). The Wikipedia item on this group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Policy_Center
is technically correct but badly biased. Without defined benefit, but
rather only a contribution to, say, the Wall Street casino, regular
pensions and benefits evaporate (although mortgage, credit card,
medical, utility, etc., costs do not). As for school choice, private
P-12 only results in further classism and effectively re-segregation.
The fact that a "private" P-12 entity can provide a better education
than a public one is due to funding and the fact that a "private"
institution can reject students that are too expensive to educate, but
the public schools are required to matriculate every student.
End NB.
From below:
“This decline is most remarkable because it comes despite that massive
hiring boom,” said Jackson Reese, Vice President of California Policy
Center and director of CPC's Janus project. “Every time a worker resigns
union membership, her union loses close to $1,000 in dues per year. And,
of course, that means $1,000 annually goes into the employee’s pocket.”
NB: That of course is not true once the unions no longer can negotiate
a CBA -- wages, benefits, and working conditions, along with some degree
of employment security, all decline. The Smith Wealth of Nations idea
that each employee can negotiate with the employer and thereby increase
the compensation of the individual employee is a fiction, and in some
cases, even a fiction for some "management" employees. End NB.
Reese, who led CPC’s documents review, said his team calculates that the
membership losses produced a decline in annual union dues income of just
under $337 million.
“That’s money the unions no longer have to finance campaigns, engage in
political activism or lobby government officials — and that’s a key
purpose of our work here,” Reese said.
AND
Some of the most notable declines took place in the California
University system where almost 45% of faculty and staff are no longer
paying into their unions. Internal records report 29,403 employees have
decided union membership is no longer for them.
AND
CPC has spent about $4.5 million for its part in helping government
workers resign from their unions.
End excerpts.
California’s government unions continue steady decline
California Policy Center
Boosted by Covid emergency funding, California governments have gone on
a hiring frenzy, but membership in California’s government unions has
hit a 20-year low, documents obtained by California Policy Center show.
State and local government payroll records, obtained by CPC under the
state’s Public Records Act, reveal that governments have added some
200,000 new employees after four years of declining employment. At the
same time, government union membership continued its decline. Since the
Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v AFSCME, the state’s unions have
lost a total of 378,000 potential members.
In Janus, the Court declared that governments cannot require their
employees to join unions without violating those employees’ First
Amendment rights of speech and assembly.
“This decline is most remarkable because it comes despite that massive
hiring boom,” said Jackson Reese, Vice President of California Policy
Center and director of CPC's Janus project. “Every time a worker resigns
union membership, her union loses close to $1,000 in dues per year. And,
of course, that means $1,000 annually goes into the employee’s pocket.”
Reese, who led CPC’s documents review, said his team calculates that the
membership losses produced a decline in annual union dues income of just
under $337 million.
“That’s money the unions no longer have to finance campaigns, engage in
political activism or lobby government officials — and that’s a key
purpose of our work here,” Reese said.
Some of the most notable declines took place in the California
University system where almost 45% of faculty and staff are no longer
paying into their unions. Internal records report 29,403 employees have
decided union membership is no longer for them.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, many firefighting unions are still
retaining the bulk of their membership — despite the California
Professional Firefighters consistent endorsements and financial support
of progressive candidates statewide.
CPC has spent about $4.5 million for its part in helping government
workers resign from their unions.
“Wherever we deploy our resources, the documents show a steep decline in
union membership,” Reese said. “Without intervention, union membership
remains even or rises just a bit.”
“We’re winning the fight to liberate government workers from unions that
work every day against the interests of California’s working people,”
said CPC president Will Swaim. “But the fight continues. The unions have
controlled state and local government for decades — decades in which the
state has become more and more dysfunctional. They’re not going to
disappear because we ask politely.”
If you know government workers who think they’re trapped in their union,
help them resign. Send them here.
ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER
The California Policy Center promotes prosperity for all Californians
through limited government and individual liberty.
NB: Liberty for those who can afford it, for now; the future that is
being promoted will be the "liberty" offered by Putin and other dictators.
