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Court Rules City Within Its Rights To Reduce Retiree Health Benefits

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Potentially precedent setting ruling opens the door for governments statewide to slash worker benefits.

By Andy Cohen

Last month, a state appeals court confirmed a lower court ruling that retiree health benefits are not vested benefits, as are employee pensions, and therefore are not subject to the same rules that apply to pension benefits.

The original lawsuit was filed on behalf of a retired police officer who sued the city because the it placed a cap on the premiums it would pay on her retiree health benefits. The cap, she said, fell $600 short per year of covering the full premium. Her attorneys argued that, according to the city’s agreement with the San Diego City Employees Retirement System (SDCERS), the city had to pay the full premium on medical benefits for all eligible retired city workers.

The courts disagreed, noting that, according to the city’s municipal code, “Health plan coverage for retirees and eligible dependents is subject to modification by the City and the provider of health care services, and may be modified periodically as deemed necessary and appropriate.”   [Read more…]

Fear and Gambling at Pauma Casino

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By Doug Porter

Anna Daniels and myself took a road trip yesterday to beautiful downtown Temecula to meet and talk with employees of Casino Pauma who have been struggling for union representation. Native American casinos like Pauma are located in sovereign territories whose coverage  by labor laws are limited to the terms described in compacts negotiated with the Governor’s office and ratified by the legislature.

Following an initial investigation by its General Counsel, the National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against Pauma Casino alleging that management’s response to the wearing of union buttons was an unfair labor practice. The unions says that workers who wore buttons have been threatened with disciplinary action if they failed to remove the buttons.

Organizers with UNITE HERE Local 30 staged a press conference in the parking lot outside of a Ramada Inn in Temecula prior to the start of a week long series of hearings by an administrative judge from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Separate from the hearing, workers have been asking the tribe to agree to a fair process, free from intimidation and retribution, while they decide whether to unionize.

   [Read more…]

Post Office Banking Could Be the Start of Something Big

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If it works – and it will, if managed correctly – it will be a great boon for the transformative idea of public banking.

By Richard Eskow / Campaign for America’s Future Blog

It seems like an idea whose time has come. With one in four American households partially or entirely excluded from the current banking system, and with the U.S. Post Office in search of additional revenue, why not use the postal system to offer banking services to lower-income households?

In fact, this is an idea whose time has already come, more than once. Many nations – among them Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Israel, and Brazil – provide or have provided some form of postal banking services. So did the United States, until 1966.

It’s hardly a radical idea. The U.S. system was voted into law in 1910, during the presidency of William Howard Taft. In any case, a better way to describe it would be as a beginning.   [Read more…]

Faulconer’s Fantasy History TV Ad: “Times When Union Cronies Ruled San Diego”

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Faulconer is hoping that you just won’t remember that the pension scandal occurred under a Republican mayor 

By Jim Miller

As we head down the stretch run of the campaign to elect San Diego’s next mayor, Kevin Faulconer’s anti-union hysteria has reached critical mass.

In his latest TV ad a very serious woman’s voice warns us that despite the fact that “We need progress in San Diego,” David Alvarez wants to “take us back to times when union cronies ruled San Diego.” She goes on to warn us that Alvarez is being brought to you by “union bosses” who want “lavish pensions” and “no accountability” while “streets crumble” and “neighborhoods suffer.”

Cue the gritty black and white footage of San Diego in ruins.

While I have already dealt with Faulconer’s historically challenged and wildly misleading claims about pensions and the effect of Proposition B in last week’s column, it’s worth further reviewing the ridiculous nature of Faulconer’s faux history.   [Read more…]

The Real Job Creators in San Diego: The US Military and the Military-Industrial Complex

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By John Lawrence

In 1961 President Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex (MIC). He said, “We annually spend on military security more than  the net income of all United States corporations.” Since then spending on the military and the MIC has only skyrocketed. Taken together, they, not the rich, are the main job creators in the US. If you graduate from high school and can’t get a job, no problem.

The military will accept you with open arms, provide you with on-the-job training, even give you a signing bonus. Why stand in an unemployment line or apply for a job along with 500 other applicants? Or go into debt to attend some schlock college?

If you’re a college graduate and can’t get hired, try the MIC: the NSA, the CIA, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics – they’re the real job creators.   [Read more…]

The Liberal/Progressive Agenda Becomes Cool Again

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Todd Gloria’s State of the City Address paved a path for Dems, Alvarez to re-embrace a progressive agenda for San Diego.

By Andy Cohen

This has been a rather strange special election cycle. On the one hand we have a conservative, Republican candidate that can’t run away fast enough from the San Diego Republican Party—indeed, the Republican brand in general—who tries to sweep that identification under the rug at all costs. On the other hand, we have a progressive Democratic candidate who has seemed a little bit shy about brandishing his more liberal credentials.

That latter situation may have changed with iMayor Todd Gloria’s State of the City Address (no one, except for maybe GOP head henchman Tony Krvaric, expects Kevin Faulconer to claim the Republican mantle—at least not openly until after the election). For the first time since the 2012 mayoral election, a San Diego pol made the case for a complete departure from the Business as Usual crowd that is clamoring to return to power—and undermine San Diego’s elected government.   [Read more…]

Pressure to Raise Pathetic Minimum Wage Is on the Rise Across the Land

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A growing coalition of progressive organizations is pushing hard to get the minimum wage on 12 state ballots.

By Steven Rosenfeld / AlterNet

After years of hard times and recent organizing by growing coalitions of worker organizations and progressive groups, 2014 may see some of the biggest state minimum wage increases in years.

In 2013, 13 states and handful of cities raised the legal hourly minimum wage after those locales saw campaigns uniting low-wage workers, unions, clergy and Democrats. While most of these increases did not raise wages above the $9 rate for hourly workers, they still increased paychecks for an estimated 4.5 million workers—mostly women—and should inject an extra $2.7 billion into their pockets this year, economists said.

This year a mix of elected Democrats and seasoned organizers are seriously pushing for even bigger increases in a dozen states including Massachusetts, Maryland, Hawaii, Illinois, Arkansas, Alaska, South Dakota and California. According to analysts, these and other states are likely to raise their minimum wages, either from legislative action in coming months or from votes on statewide ballot questions where Democrats are betting that the issue will lead to higher turnout and be a factor in congressional races.
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Leaked Walmart Documents Reveal Propaganda Campaign to Fight Workers Attempting to Organize

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The mega-retailer misinforms and tells managers to tattle on employees who discuss organizing.

By Aaron Cantú / Alternet

A set of internal documents leaked on January 15 revealed that Walmart is attempting to win the hearts and minds of its employees by scaring them out of joining OUR Walmart, a collection of Walmart workers who have organized strikes on behalf of all the company’s most vulnerable employees.

The propaganda campaign is aimed at Walmart’s managerial staff, the corporation’s last line of defense in barring its low-wage workers from organizing for higher pay and better conditions.   [Read more…]

The United Nations in My Closet

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By John Filthy / OB Rag

People don’t often look at where their clothes come from. We don’t often think about who made them. Our closets are full of garments made by people making less than a dollar an hour. Don’t let the price of those Nike sneakers throw you. They weren’t expensive to make. They are expensive because you will pay. The profits do not go to better working conditions. Just ask the workers who survived the Savar garment-factory collapse in Bangladesh. The factory that manufactured clothes for Walmart, among others, killed 1,129 people and injured 2,515 when it collapsed on April 24, 2013.

I’m one of those hippy-clone-activist-types. I actually care where my clothes come from and read labels. I’m also a cheapskate and like to wear clothes that look like rags to some. Blame Johnny Rotten and Kurt Cobain. I didn’t invent the fashion. I must look homeless at times because people are always trying to gift me clothes. My better half is always trying to get me to throw clothes out. She is astounded that I can remember where I got each piece of clothing and how old some of them are.   [Read more…]

Todd Gloria Lays Out Vision For San Diego

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By Andy Cohen

If this was indeed his first and final State of the City Address, iMayor Todd Gloria made it count. As politically aware San Diegans have come to expect, Gloria brought his ‘A’ game to the Balboa Theater, delivering a sweeping vision for what he views is the future of San Diego.

One thing’s for sure: This ain’t Texas.

It was a speech and a vision that is sure to rile up the arch conservative sect of the town, but much of it was surely welcomed by the growing and strengthening Democratic base.

If 2012 and 2013 saw a growing partisan divide in San Diego, if this City Council holds to what the once and future City Council President laid before a crowded house, then the ride is sure to get even more contentious and even more partisan, even if, as Gloria noted several times, that was not the intent.

The iMayor began the address by doing something that would have been fairly unthinkable three years ago: He thanked and applauded the city’s thousands of workers, acknowledging the value of the services they provide to San Diego. It was a refreshing gesture in an era where the public workforce is more often than not vilified as moochers and a waste of taxpayer money.   [Read more…]

JOB KILLERS!

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Dems should steal a page out of the Conservative Playbook and expose who the Real Job Killers of San Diego are.

By Eva Posner

Taking inspiration from Andy Cohen calling B.S. on the right wing and downtown big wigs for their “JOB KILLER” rhetoric, I have decided to propose an experiment:

Since this crap works so well, why don’t we coopt it for ourselves? It’s not like nuance wins arguments.

Below are my ideas for talking points. I have included a few facts and some links here and there. But feel free not to use them. Just shout “JOB KILLER!” at the next person who disagrees with anything you say. We all know that’s how it really works.
  [Read more…]

Kevin Faulconer, Man of the People?

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By Jim Miller

Meet Kevin Faulconer, man of the people. He’s running glossy commercials about how he’ll be “a mayor for all of us” and talking as if he’ll be the guy who will focus on neighborhoods that “have been underserved by this city for too long.”

His website and ballot statement have been scrubbed of any unpleasant reminders that he is a Republican backed by San Diego’s traditional power brokers, and he just can’t stop reminding us that there is “no such thing as a Democratic or Republican pothole.”

Like the Republicans at the national level who have decided that they can claim poverty as an issue while refusing to raise the minimum wage, extend unemployment benefits, or stop cutting services to the poor, Faulconer seems to think that a couple visits south of the 8 and a new catch phrase will suffice to bring home the votes of naïve Democrats and Independents who will fall for his rhetorical head fake while failing to note that he opposes the prevailing wage, increasing the minimum wage, efforts to support affordable housing, bonds for infrastructure, and, of course, allowing working class communities of color to craft their own community plans if large corporate interests oppose them.   [Read more…]

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