State/Local CA: Stockton, Calif., amends bankruptcy plan, but pension issue hovers By Robin Respaut, Reuters, Tue Aug 12, 2014 6:54pm EDT Aug 12 (Reuters) - The bankrupt city of Stockton, California, on Friday submitted a revised plan to exit Chapter 9 that reflects the judges ruling over the value of a holdout creditors collateral, but a larger question still looms over whether public pensions will be cut. CA: Labor and small businesses team up on California franchising law By Ned Resnikoff, MSNBC, Updated 08/12/14 07:06 PM On Thursday, the California State Assembly is expected to consider a law that could dramatically alter the shape of fast food and other franchised industries in the state. Senate Bill 610 (SB 610), which has already been approved by the State Senate, would make it harder for franchisor companies such as the McDonald’s Corporation to end licensing agreements with franchisees. The proposed law has polarized the business community, and become a flashpoint in organized labor’s efforts to transform the franchising business model. The question before the Assembly is whether current state law is sufficient to protect franchisees from the arbitrary whims of major franchisers. If made law, SB 610 would prevent a franchisor from severing licensing agreements with their franchisees unless they can demonstrate that a “substantial and material breach … of a lawful requirement” of the agreement has taken place. The bill also says licensing agreements cannot obstruct the right of franchisees to participate in franchisee associations, or prevent them from selling their franchises, although the franchisor must still give consent for a sale to take place. The labor union SEIU – a major financial backer of the nationwide fast food strikes – has thrown its support behind the proposed law, launching the website FranchiseFairness.org and funding pro-SB 610 radio ads. Although union representatives have been reluctant to hold on-the-record discussions regarding the strategy behind their support for the bill, the theory appears to be that protecting franchisors against the threat of closure will make it easier for them to do things like raise workers’ wages. CO: Guest opinion, PERA needs pension protection By Dinah McKay, Daily Camera, 08/13/2014 01:00:00 AM MDT In Colorado, conservative think tanks are spreading anti-public-worker propaganda claiming that PERA (Public Employees Retirement Association) employees and retirees are greedy parasites and their exorbitant benefits have created an underfunded crisis that could bankrupt the state. Their only solution to save PERA from this manufactured crisis is to drastically cut benefits and privatize the pension plan. They want to strip PERA employees and retirees of their rights to their earned pension benefits and allow Wall Street hedge fund managers to raid PERA assets. They dont mention that the Colorado State Legislature has underfunded its employers obligations to PERA for over a decade. Prior to 2003, the state legislature had always met its employers actuarially required contributions (ARC) to PERA at 100 percent. Beginning in 2003, the state legislature decided not to fund what actuaries determined was the state employers percentage of payroll (ARC) required to keep the PERA trust fund sound. PERA employees have always met their required employee contributions from their monthly paychecks without fail. DC: High-profile Head Start center in the District loses federal funding By Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post August 12 at 8:18 PM When Congress reauthorized Head Start in 2007, a little girl named Cynthia Martinez-Cardoso from one of the District’s longest-running Head Start centers sat in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lap as she signed the bill. The law put into motion sweeping changes designed to improve the quality of the nation’s largest preschool program for poor families, in part by introducing competition and cutting off funding for the lowest performers. Seven years later, scores of grantees have lost their awards, including the one that served Martinez-Cardoso. FL: Press Release - Florida groups form pension reform coalition Florida Trend, 8/12/2014 Floridas influential business advocates and policy groups have formed Taxpayers for Sustainable Pensions, a coalition dedicated to achieving municipal pension reform. The groups convened in Tallahassee to announce their commitment to reforming taxpayer-funded government pensions to ensure funding and long-term sustainability. The coalition will pursue options for local pension reform, including legislative, constitutional and local-level solutions. IN: IPS non-teaching staff turning up the pressure Michael Auslen, 3:34 p.m. EDT August 12, 2014 School bus drivers, custodians and cafeteria workers at Indianapolis Public Schools are regularly showing up at School Board meetings. The reason: They want a raise. Its been at least five years since the last wage increase, said staff organizer Andrea Helm, representing workers associated with AFSCME Local 661. In that time, she said, employees have seen insurance costs rise and working conditions get worse. IPS officials did not immediately comment on the unions push. KS: New federal rules will disrupt care for disabled Kansans, state officials say Changes aimed at improving caregiver wages, but could result in cuts to services By Dave Ranney, KHI News Service, updated Aug. 12, 2014 at 6:23 p.m. TOPEKA — A state official charged with overseeing Medicaid-funded services that help people with disabilities live in community-based settings rather than in nursing homes said Tuesday that coming changes in federal wage and hour rules are likely to increase costs, reduce access to care and give beneficiaries less say in deciding who will provide their care. “We have great concerns about this,” said Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Secretary Kari Bruffett, testifying before a Statehouse meeting of the Robert G. Bethell Joint Committee on Home and Community Based Services and KanCare Oversight. MI: Koch-linked group cancels Michigan ads ALEXANDER BURNS ∙ Politico ∙ 8/12/14 10:00 AM A powerfully funded group backed by the conservative Koch brothers has canceled over a million dollars’ worth of Michigan ads for the month of August, according to sources tracking the 2014 air war. Freedom Partners, which had booked about $1.1 million in Michigan airtime, abruptly canceled the ads this week. .... But the withdrawal — at least for now — of the Koch group is striking in a state that Republicans have long yearned to capture, and where Democrats have explicitly made the Kochs’ involvement an issue in the Senate race. MI: With 4 Senior Lawmakers Retiring, Michigan Faces Loss of Its Clout in Congress By JENNIFER STEINHAUER, New York Times AUG. 12, 2014 YPSILANTI, Mich. — When four senior members of Congress from Michigan retire this fall after a collective 134 years of service, they will leave a legacy that stretches from the woods of the Upper Peninsula to downtown Detroit. NM: Christus St. Vincent workers picket T.S. Last ∙ Journal ∙ August 12, 2014 It was hard to tell whether drivers honking their horns in front of Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center on Monday morning were supporting picketing hospital employees or just late for work and stuck in traffic. But the suspicion among the picketing workers was that closing off one of the west-bound lanes on St. Michael’s Drive, as well as the sidewalk between the hospital’s main entrance and the St. Mike’s intersection with Hospital Drive, was a deliberate effort to disrupt the demonstration. When Fonda Osborn, president of the local affiliate of the National Union of Nurses and Hospital Employees, was asked if she thought that was the case, she paused and said, “We had to give 10 days’ notice. They knew we were going to be here.” NY: The Opinion Pages | Letters Analyzing New York City’s Pension Funds August 13, 2014 To the Editor: I disagree with your Aug. 4 front-page article “City’s System for Pensions Shows Strain.” New York City’s pension funds are on the road to recovery after weathering enormous losses from the collapse of the housing bubble, the economy and the stock market. RANDI WEINGARTEN, President, American Federation of Teachers To the Editor: As a trustee of one of New York City’s pension boards, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, I take issue with the grim picture of the financial health of the city’s pension fund in your Aug. 4 article. GREGORY FLOYD, President, Local 237 Teamsters OR: Unionist runs for seat in Oregon Legislature nwLaborPress.org, Aug 12, 2014 Scott Mills isn’t your typical progressive labor Democrat. He’s a blue- collar farm boy who likes his guns. But he’s union through and through — and he’s running for the Oregon Legislature in House District 18. A 36-year member of Sign Painters and Paint Makers Local 1094, Mills, of Aurora, has taken on the difficult challenge of trying to unseat state Rep. Vic Gilliam, a wealthy Republican who has held the office since 2007. … In the May Republican primary, Gilliam easily defeated Tea Party challenger David Darnell. Darnell, who is chair of the Marion County Republican Party, received $100,000 in campaign contributions from two wealthy businessmen who had labeled Gilliam as “not conservative enough.” [Gilliam was endorsed in the primary by Oregon AFSCME Council 75 and Service Employees Local 503.] Mills, 56, won’t have a huge amount of money to spend, but he has a slew of support from organized labor, including the Oregon AFL-CIO, the Oregon Education Association, the Oregon School Employees Association, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, Teamsters Joint Council No. 37, the Oregon Steelworkers Legislative & Education Committee, and the Oregon State Building Trades Council, among others. VA: State Workers: GiftGate’s Unsung Heroes Peter Galuszka ∙ Bacon’s Rebellion ∙ August 10, 2014 The McDonnell corruption trial, now going into its third week, is an enormously sad and tawdry affair bringing shame on the defendants and the prosecution’s key witness, businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. Yet there are heroes — state employees. .... One reads so many attacks on government workers among more conservative writers who see public workers as slow-minded except when it comes to tying business up with regulations — the theory goes. Private workers build wealth and create products. Public workers live off the taxpayer’s dime and should be fired in droves, one theory goes. Not true in the McDonnells’ case. WA: Opinion: Looks like SEIU organizing strategy may backfire — on Washington taxpayers By Erik Smith, Seattle Times, August 12, 2014 More than a month ago, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling likely to shake the left side of Washington politics. But this state hasn’t heard in any official way what effect Harris vs. Quinn will have – and now it looks like we’ll have to wait for a legal decision sometime in the months or even years ahead. But what a punchline this one will likely carry. The June 30 federal ruling concerns a clever strategy to beef up membership in the Service Employees International Union in Illinois, similar in every way to an SEIU organizing effort in Washington. Read between the lines and it is possible to see that Washington taxpayers may be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars. WI: With Burke’s win, the three biggest months of Scott Walker’s political career begin By Sean Sullivan, Washington Post August 12 at 9:58 PM No discussion about the 2016 presidential campaign would be complete without Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). But that could change in just 12 weeks. Thats because Walker, a national conservative star, faces a tough reelection campaign. The general election officially kicked off for him Tuesday with ex-state commerce secretary Mary Burkes easy win in the Democratic primary. No other potential 2016 hopeful has as much riding on the midterm election as Walker. If he wins on Nov. 4, he will be well-positioned to move toward a campaign for president as a hero of the right and a proven swing state victor. But a loss would vanquish him from the short list and mark the end of a tumultuous tenure as governor of one the countrys most politically divided states.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 17:55:56 +0000