unions
More than 50 opponents of a proposed pension reform measure that would affect employees of Ventura County showed up at Home Depots in Simi Valley, Newbury Park and Camarillo over the weekend to dissuade individuals from signing a petition supporting the reform.
The demonstrators held signs and spoke out loudly against the measure, calling it, among other things, misleading and draconian.
Among the protestors was Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean.
Officials with Anchorage municipal unions say they have turned in more than enough signatures to place a measure before voters that would repeal a law restricting union powers.
Unions turned in 22,136 voter signatures, more than triple the required 7,124 to place the measure on the ballot, the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday.
The Anchorage Assembly voted 6-5 on March 26 to approve what Mayor Dan Sullivan calls The Responsible Labor Act. The law prohibits union members from going on strike and eliminates binding arbitration.
Read More: here.
State labor unions are once again trying to twist California’s century-old initiative process to work in their favor by going after paid signature collectors.
They’re backing AB 857, which would require at least 20 percent of signatures needed to qualify an initiative for the state ballot to be collected by unpaid individuals. Professional petition firms must register with the secretary of state and comply with all sorts of new regulations, while their petitions must be of a different color and carry a disclaimer.
Read More: here
City officials rejected a second petition by a group of labor unions that are looking to repeal a law that would cut union power.
Now labor union representatives say they are headed to court because of this second rejection.
In march the Anchorage Assembly passed a labor rewrite law also known as ordinance 37.
Union members say the ordinance took away many of their rights, for example collective bargaining and their right to strike.
City officials rejected the first referendum petition citing the ordinance is administrative in nature and a referendum would not legally change it.
Voters in Ohio and Maryland will decide whether to veto acts of their state legislature in November. Ohio voters will weigh in on Senate Bill 5, and Maryland voters will decide whether to keep the “Dream Act.”
New Mexico’s teacher’s union is circulating a petition to protest an increase in their personal pension contributions. Pension contributions increased by 1.5% this year in an attempt to solve state budgetary problems. The union has suggested raising taxes on New Mexico workers to pay for the pension increase.
A union representing 5,000 state workers is endorsing Prop 1A while its international counterpart is opposed to the measure. Prop 1A would impose both a tax increase and a spending limit. Polls indicate that the proposition and related budget measures being pushed by Governor Arnold Swarzenegger are not popular with voters.