Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walters: Legislature's Employees Should Be Allowed to Unionize
GV-Wire-1
By gvwire
Published 7 years ago on
January 22, 2018

Share

In his Jan. 22 CALmatters column, Dan Walters points out that it was the young Gov. Jerry Brown who more than four decades ago “decreed that public employees had the right to join unions and bargain for salaries and other working conditions.”
Brown’s logic, Walters writes, “for extending collective bargaining rights to state and local government workers, including teachers, was that they should have the same rights as other wage earners.”
Nevermind that California’s public employees already had Civil Service protections and, writes Walters, “would be bargaining with elected officials who had no personal stakes in the contracts they would sign.”
While Walters questions the logic of Brown’s thinking, he also recognizes that public employee unions are here to stay in California. Thus, he writes: “There’s absolutely no reason why Capitol workers, except for a small cadre of senior staffers, should not have civil service status and unionization, if they wish.”

Legislature’s Employees Are At-Will

However, the same Democratic Party lawmakers who strongly support public employee unions also have long preferred to keep their own staff members on “at-will” status. Thus the lawmakers are free to hire and fire — and even direct their employees to work on their campaigns “off the books.”
With the Legislature mired in sexual harassment scandals, Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, is pitching a bill that would allow legislative staffers to join unions.
Opines Walters: “If nothing else, it would counter the do-as-we-say-not-as-we-do tendency of politicians to impose all sorts of restrictions and mandates on everyone but themselves.”
You can read Walters’ entire column at this link.
 

DON'T MISS

Elon Musk Reclaims Top Spot on Forbes’ Billionaires List

DON'T MISS

California Just Blew Its First Deadline for Voter-Approved Healthcare Measure

DON'T MISS

Trump Administration Halts Dozens of Research Grants at Princeton University

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Sheriff’s Pilot Takes His Last Flight as He Retires After 31 Years of Service

DON'T MISS

A Palestinian From the West Bank Is First Detainee Under 18 to Die in Israeli Prison, Officials Say

DON'T MISS

How Safe Is It to Walk to School? Fresno County Wants to Find Out

DON'T MISS

Baseball Is Back! How to Listen to Your MLB Favorites and the Grizzlies

DON'T MISS

Trump Says He’s Settled on a Tariff Plan That Is Set to Take Effect Wednesday

DON'T MISS

Auto Sales Surged in Anticipation of Trump’s Tariffs

DON'T MISS

Raid Or Rumor? Reports Of Immigrations Sweeps Are Warping Life In CA’s Central Valley

UP NEXT

California Just Blew Its First Deadline for Voter-Approved Healthcare Measure

UP NEXT

Trump Administration Halts Dozens of Research Grants at Princeton University

UP NEXT

Fresno County Sheriff’s Pilot Takes His Last Flight as He Retires After 31 Years of Service

UP NEXT

A Palestinian From the West Bank Is First Detainee Under 18 to Die in Israeli Prison, Officials Say

UP NEXT

Baseball Is Back! How to Listen to Your MLB Favorites and the Grizzlies

UP NEXT

Trump Says He’s Settled on a Tariff Plan That Is Set to Take Effect Wednesday

UP NEXT

Auto Sales Surged in Anticipation of Trump’s Tariffs

UP NEXT

Raid Or Rumor? Reports Of Immigrations Sweeps Are Warping Life In CA’s Central Valley

UP NEXT

House Speaker Johnson Fails to Squash a Proxy Voting Effort From New Moms in Congress

UP NEXT

UN Agency Closes Its Remaining Gaza Bakeries as Food Supplies Dwindle Under Israeli Blockade

Fresno County Sheriff’s Pilot Takes His Last Flight as He Retires After 31 Years of Service

10 hours ago

A Palestinian From the West Bank Is First Detainee Under 18 to Die in Israeli Prison, Officials Say

11 hours ago

How Safe Is It to Walk to School? Fresno County Wants to Find Out

11 hours ago

Baseball Is Back! How to Listen to Your MLB Favorites and the Grizzlies

12 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Settled on a Tariff Plan That Is Set to Take Effect Wednesday

12 hours ago

Auto Sales Surged in Anticipation of Trump’s Tariffs

12 hours ago

Raid Or Rumor? Reports Of Immigrations Sweeps Are Warping Life In CA’s Central Valley

12 hours ago

House Speaker Johnson Fails to Squash a Proxy Voting Effort From New Moms in Congress

13 hours ago

UN Agency Closes Its Remaining Gaza Bakeries as Food Supplies Dwindle Under Israeli Blockade

13 hours ago

Hooters Goes Bust and Files for Bankruptcy Protection

13 hours ago

Elon Musk Reclaims Top Spot on Forbes’ Billionaires List

Elon Musk has reclaimed his position as the world’s wealthiest individual, according to Forbes’ 39th annual World’s Billio...

8 hours ago

8 hours ago

Elon Musk Reclaims Top Spot on Forbes’ Billionaires List

10 hours ago

California Just Blew Its First Deadline for Voter-Approved Healthcare Measure

Nassau Hall at Princeton University is in Princeton, N.J., Oct. 8, 2024. (AP File)
10 hours ago

Trump Administration Halts Dozens of Research Grants at Princeton University

After 31 years of service, Fresno County Sheriff’s Deputy IV and Pilot Michael Sill is retiring, having logged over 10,000 flight hours.
10 hours ago

Fresno County Sheriff’s Pilot Takes His Last Flight as He Retires After 31 Years of Service

Khalid Ahmad holds a poster of his 17-year-old son, Waleed, who died in an Israeli prison, that reads in Arabic, "The hero prisoner Martyr, mercy and eternity for our righteous Martyrs," in the West Bank town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP/Nasser Nasser)
11 hours ago

A Palestinian From the West Bank Is First Detainee Under 18 to Die in Israeli Prison, Officials Say

11 hours ago

How Safe Is It to Walk to School? Fresno County Wants to Find Out

12 hours ago

Baseball Is Back! How to Listen to Your MLB Favorites and the Grizzlies

Vehicles at an Audi showroom in Miami, March 29, 2025. President Donald Trump has said that tariffs would encourage auto companies and their suppliers to move to the U.S. (Saul Martinez/The New York Times)
12 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Settled on a Tariff Plan That Is Set to Take Effect Wednesday

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend