QUOTE OF THE DAY
Bloomberg: $822,000 Worker Shows California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway
Payroll data compiled by Bloomberg on 1.4 million public employees in the 12 most populous states show that California has set a pattern of lax management, inefficient operations and out-of-control costs. From coast to coast, states are cutting funding for schools, public safety and the poor as they struggle with fallout left by politicians who made pay-and-pension promises that taxpayers couldn’t afford.
WSJ: Worker Liberation in Michigan
The economic policy drift in Washington is antigrowth, but here and there in the states are glimmers of hope and change. The best news of late is in Michigan, which is poised this week to pass a landmark right-to-work law.
You can tell this is a big deal based on the fury of Big Labor's reaction. Union activists plan to descend on Lansing Tuesday to protest, including many from out of state. State police will have to be on duty to ensure that legislators can get through what is likely to be a loud and abusive cordon of activists who want to block the vote.
This thuggishness is a deliberate and familiar union political strategy: Cause as big a ruckus as possible in hopes of making right to work seem radical when it's already the law in nearly half the country.
YouTube: Conservative blogger punched in the face by union thugs
Steven Crowder attacked by union members outside the Americans for Prosperity tent in Lansing, MI.
Daily Caller: Michigan protesters tear down conservative group’s tent, with people inside
Pro-union protesters tore down a tent belonging to the conservative organization Americans For Prosperity outside the state capitol building in Lansing, Michigan on Tuesday.
A video posted by the MacIver Institute claims to depict several protesters in hardhats tearing down the tent, followed by cheers and whoops from the crowd.
“Our tent was ripped down by union activists actually tearing it down with knives, with people inside it,” Americans for Prosperity communications director Levi Russell told the Daily Caller.
Truth About Cars :Chrysler’s Drunk, Stoned Autoworkers Are Back Making Cars
They are back! Two years ago, a group of Chrysler workers were caught were caught drinking and doobing on their lunch break. Not just that, they were caught on camera by a local TV station. The video went viral, and Chrysler was forthwith associated with quality enhanced by booze and marijuana. 13 workers were fired. Yesterday, they got their jobs back, courtesy of Chrysler’s contract with the UAW.
The workers followed a grievance procedure process outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between Chrysler and the United Auto Workers. The matter went to arbitration. Two years later, an arbitrator decided in the workers’ favor, citing “insufficient conclusive evidence to uphold the dismissals.” Apparently, a video wasn’t good enough.
In a statement, Chrysler says it does not agree with the decision. However, the company is “in the tough spot of having to accept the arbitrator’s decision, just as the Union must when the ruling is in the favor of the company.”
The UAW has not commented.
AEI: Has the decline of unions caused an explosion in income inequality? Not so much
With heavily-unionized Michigan about to become a “right to work” state, I expect to soon see a blizzard of blog posts and news stories about how the decline in unionism has caused stagnant wages and rising income inequality. But the data don’t support that conclusion.
NBC Southern California: Californians packing up and moving out – to Texas
About 100,000 more people moved away from California in 2011 than relocated to the Golden State, according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The trend can be explained, in part, in monetary terms. Even in an economic boom, the cost of living in California has increased, prompting people to move out, and, in recent years, unemployment in the state has skyrocketed.
So, where are these former Californians going?
The Census Bureau calculates that the most popular destination is Texas (58,992), a state that is luring California companies. That’s followed by Arizona (49,635), Nevada (40,114), Washington (38,421) and Oregon (34,214).
Washington Post: Rick Snyder signs ‘right to work’ legislation
At a news conference at the George W. Romney Building steps away from the state Capitol, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) announced that he’d signed the contentious right-to-work measures that have sparked protests in the state.
Before dozens of reporters assembled inside a conference room on the building’s second floor, Snyder defended his move as one that would lead to ”more jobs coming to Michigan.”
The two bills bar unions from making contracts that require employees to pay labor dues. One bill dealt with public sector unions, exempting firefighters and police officers. The other covered the private sector.
