(Gov. Jerry) Brown blocks unionization of child care workers

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Recordnet

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown has dealt a blow to labor by blocking a bill that would have let California child care workers unionize.

The Democratic governor on Tuesday vetoed AB101 by Assembly Speaker John Perez. Brown wrote in his veto message that it's important to maintain quality child care and ensure that working conditions are "decent and fair for those who take care of our children."

But he said he was reluctant to take on a new program "of this magnitude and potential cost" because California continues to face huge budget challenges.

Supporters say the bill would have allowed workers at child care centers to join unions, but opponents say the bill would hurt the state's business climate.

Read more: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111004/A_NEWS/111009966

---

Brown also vetoed the same farm worker bill Arnold vetoed last year. I wonder IF Jerry remembers he marched with Cesar Chavez?

[Angry Dragon]

1. Why does the state have the right to determine who represents

me on getting a job??
Is it illegal for someone to negotiate their pay??
Can they state determine who I hire to represent me
in job benefits??
Is it illegal to hire a lawyer to negotiate my benefits??

[Proletariatprincess]

8. Excellant points.

Do we have freedom of association as citizens or do we not? Why is joining a union so different than joining any other organization? All workers need to assert and take back our rights which have been stolen by scurillus scumbags.

[SoapBox]

9. I will ask the same...How the hell can the "state" stop citizens from joining a union?

...bullshit.

[defendandprotect]

10. Agree -- and what the heck is going on with Jerry Brown ... any validity to his points?

[Omaha Steve]

18. Farm workers and public workers are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act

There are a few other exceptions. So these groups have to have state laws that allow them to have union.

My niece works for the the State of Nebraska Supreme Court. They tried to organize. The court ruled only the court has the jurisdiction to set pay and benefits for it's employees. Care to guess how their pay and benefits compare to unionized Ne. state workers?

[Angry Dragon]

19. thanks for the information

[Xithras]

21. FWIW, this isn't about state workers.

California childcare programs administered by the state are run directly through the local school districts, and those childcare workers are almost universally unionized by the CSEA already. This bill primarily impacted licensed childcare workers in private facilities that received state stipends, and self-employed non-employee home childcare employees who receive state reimbursement for their services. It wouldn't have granted them any negotiating rights with their employers, but would have simply given the SEIU some power in drafting laws that regulate California childcare.

[xchrom]

2. Fuck Jerry Brown. Nt

[Duct Tape]

3. I live in CA and, although I don't pay

nearly as much attention to him as I do to the President and country as a whole, almost all the news regarding his actions as governor is bad.

Our last election was definitely a case of voting for the lesser of two evils. Then again, when isn't it?

[shanti]

23. lesser of two evils??

you must be kidding me. the alternative was MEG fucking WHITMAN! there is no comparison, none whatsoever. look whose damage he has to undo. :eyes:

[Citizen Worker]

4. After his less than stellar run in '92 I recall Brown saying, I'm paraphrasing, had I moderated my

policies I would have been president by now. As we all know Clinton was the establishment favorite and thus the only democrat who was going "win" the nomination even if by nefarious means.

[No Elephants]

13. Bingo. Since the DLC took hold, you cannot win office anymore unless you are

"moderate," and, in that context, "moderate," means the extreme right of the Democratic Party.

DINOs and Republicans. It's a brave new world, Miranda.

[salib]

5. Bought and paid for. 'Nuff said.

[No Elephants]

14. Usually, when I read "nuff said," I think to myself,

"Not really. I have no clue what you are trying to convey. Wish you had said a bit more."

But, in your case, I agree. That was really all you needed to say. I got it. And I agree.

[salib]

22. Funny, that may be the first time I typed that on DU.

Thanks.

[IamK]

6. His wife / 'special counsel' is pulling the strings... lawyer n/t

[defendandprotect]

11. Ah... didn't even know he had gotten married -- !!!

[No Elephants]

15. If his wife is responsible, which is a very odd view, IMO, what would

being a lawyer have to do with it?

Wouldn't it be her political views, not her profession? Couldn't find her Party, but her father was a Republican and, when asked what she liked about Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman said, "His choice of wife."

If lawyers are really the problem, Gov. Brown went to Yale Law School and his father, who presumably had a role in raising the Gov., was a lawyer as well.



Labor lawyers have been fighting for unions ever since there were unions in the US, not to mention all the lawyers who have fought for civil rights and for poor people for like, always.

Lincoln was a lawyer who fought for poor people when he was in private practice. In fact, twenty-six of the forty three men who became POTUS were lawyers, more than half.



I wish Democrats would stop buying into lawyer bashing, which was a Wrong Wing invention. Yet, Rethugs are always lawyering THEMselves up. They just really don't want anyone else to do the same.


Come by more often.

[IamK]

31. good point, sorry.. please don't sue me...

[No Elephants]

32. Sue you? I am in awe of you.

Not many message board posters concede a point!

Glad you came by again.

[madrchsod]

7. oh well,another fucking sell out.....

[shanti]

24. no he is not

far from it. do you even live in california?? i do, and after 7 years of schwarzenegger, he's a breath of fresh air! you can't please all the people all the time.

[JDPriestly]

12. This is very sad. I am disappointed in Jerry Brown.

[No Elephants]

16. Disappointing. His first term as Governor and his 1980 Presi-

Some fiscal points about his first term as Governor in the 1970's and his 1980 Presidential platform:


"After taking office,Brown gained a reputation as a fiscal conservative.<12> The American Conservative later noted he was "much more of a fiscal conservative than Governor Reagan."<13> His fiscal restraint resulted in one of the biggest budget surpluses in state history, roughly $5 billion.<14><15>

<snip>

Brown was both in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment and opposed to Proposition 13, the latter of which would decrease property taxes and greatly reduce revenue to cities and counties.<24> When Proposition 13 passed in June 1978, he heavily cut state spending and, along with the Legislature, spent much of the $5 billion surplus to meet the proposition's requirements and help offset the revenue losses which made cities, counties and schools more dependent on the state.<14><24> His actions in response to the proposition earned him praise from Proposition 13 author Howard Jarvis who went as far to make a television commercial for Brown just before his successful reelection bid in 1978.<24><25>"



<snip>

Brown's 1980 platform, which he declared to be the natural result of combining Buckminster Fuller's visions of the future and E. F. Schumacher's theory of "Buddhist economics", was much expanded from 1976. Gone was his "era of limits" slogan, replaced by a promise to, in his words, "Protect the Earth, serve the people, and explore the universe." Three main planks of his platform were a call for a constitutional convention to ratify the Balanced Budget Amendment, a promise to increase funds for the space program, and, in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, opposition to nuclear power. On the subject of the 1979 energy crisis, Brown decried the "Faustian bargain" that he claimed Carter had entered into with the oil industry, and declared that he would greatly increase federal funding of research into solar power. He endorsed the idea of mandatory non-military national service for the nation's youth, and suggested that the Defense Department cut back on support troops while beefing up the number of combat troops. He described the health care industry as a "high priesthood" engaged in a "medical arms race" and called for a market-oriented system of universal health care.

This term:

"Brown is working on a budget that would shift many government programs from the state to the local level, a reversal of trends from his first tenure as governor.<85>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown

[Missy Vixen]

17. Jerry Brown wouldn't last one day as a child care worker

Perhaps someone should invite him to try it.

Most child care workers barely make minimum wage. They don't get health benefits, and are constantly fighting off illness because they're working with kids whose parents bring them to the center ill. They're also expected to provide better care than the parents in question.

Balancing his budget on the backs of child care workers really, really sucks.

[LisaM]

29. True. I worked in a childcare center.

The health and well being of the staff is about the last priority of the parents. Not to mention keeping us waiting after the center was closed. The worst - THE WORST - and I am a proponent of breast feeding - was being asked to snip open bags of milk from someone else. YUCK! For $6 an hour and no healthcare.

[Missy Vixen]

36. Our center mostly solved the "tardy parent" problem

It was $1 a minute after 6 PM, payable in cash and on the spot. Let's just say we had a parent be 90 minutes late one day because he thought the rule didn't apply to him, and refused to pay me. It was one of the few times the center's director actually stuck up for staff, especially since I had to wait another hour for a bus to get home that night.

I believe in breast feeding, too, but I would not like dealing with the bags of milk. The worst thing for me was the constant threat of giardia due to those who did not wash their hands after diaper changes.

I worked for a center which paid minimum wage and health insurance. It was located in downtown Seattle, and catered to lawyers married to lawyers, bank VP's, stockbrokers, etcetera. They paid a fortune. I am very sorry I didn't write a book about the experience, because it makes "The Nanny Diaries" look benign. Mostly, I realize how lucky I was to have health insurance during that time. 99% of day care employees don't.

[Xithras]

20. This is a bit misleading.

AB101 doesn't have anything to do with childcare workers forming or joining unions to deal with their employers, and would have given childcare workers no power to negotiate with their employers, to strike, or to negotiate wage increases or benefits. It would have simply required the state to turn over the licensing information for childcare workers to the SEIU for recruiting, and would have granted the SEIU a negotiating voice in the drafting of the laws covering childcare workers employed in state-subsidized programs.

The bill was a noble goal on the surface, but that's not exactly the same thing as "Brown blocks unionization". Childcare workers in California are free to unionize, and always have been. This law simply would have simplified the formation of a single statewide "superunion" to represent their interests in Sacramento. It's similar to the way they "unionized" the IHSS workers. There was virtually no change in their daily working conditions, but it gave them some power in Sacramento, where the laws regulating their trade are set.

I'm personally ambivalent about these types of laws anyway. While I do support unions, I'm a bit leery about granting legislation-altering powers to unelected private interests. It's one thing to lobby the legislature, but this law specifically required that the state negotiate any new regulations impacting these workers with the union. In other words, the state would not be permitted to issue new regulations for childcare workers unless the union agreed to them. I don't like that precedent. How would we react to a law that granted corporations the same rights?

[tammywammy]

33. +1 n/t

[KamaAina]

25. I suppose the repukes will shut up now about Brown being a tool of the unions

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[red dog 1]

26. "Fasten your seat belt", says Jerry Brown.

"I'm going to veto a lot of bills over the next 30 days", said Brown, "So I have to say to some, fasten your seat belt--this is going to be a rough ride. They've given me 600 bills; and there's not 600 problems that we need those solutions for".
Wednesday, he repeated a line in one recent veto message, "Not every human problem needs a law".
Might it be time to start a "Recall Brown" campaign?

[Throd]

27. He's right, not every human problem needs a law.

[Missy Vixen]

37. No, only those problems that won't get solved

by those who believe they're more important than a high school dropout making minimum wage and getting no health insurance at her fifty-hour a week job, and taking home forty-hour a week job pay.

Day care center owners will NOT "do the right thing" unless their feet are held to the union fire.

Thanks, Governor Brown, for your support.

:eyes:

[alarimer]

28. Tell me again why I should vote for Democrats?

When they betray us at every turn? No more voting for them as a matter of course. They all have to EARN my vote. Obama has not and if I lived in California I would not be voting for this clown again.

[proud patriot]

30. Boooooo Hissssss

I'm going have to get a letter off to Jerry 'bout that

[Vinca]

34. If it's "important to maintain quality child care," isn't it important

those looking after the children are fairly treated when it comes to wages, benefits and working conditions? This is mind boggling . . . especially from Jerry Brown.

[Le Taz Hot]

35. No one wants to admit

that Jerry Brown's every move to get the California budget under control has been on the backs of the poor and middle class. Jerry Brown WAS NEVER the liberal the press has made him out to be.

And SB 676 (hemp legalization Bill) is sitting on his desk waiting for his signature. Will he be the good little Party Boy and do as he's ordered by the CDP or will he exercise independent thought and sign off on it? If I'm not mistaken he has 30 days to act on it and the Assembly sent it to him on 9/14.

[Octafish]

38. Duh. Gee, Tennessee! I thought Democrats were supposed to be in favor of Unions?

Oh, well! I guess I must have forgotten something.

[Starry Messenger]

39. I voted for Laura Wells.

Here she is at OccupySF yesterday.



Jerry is playing the same game of chicken with the unions as the Obama administration.