The overwhelming victories for pension reform initiatives in San Diego and San Jose in Tuesday's California primaries were rare occasions for celebration in the fight to take back Golden State government from Public Sector Inc. But don't think for a moment that California's public-sector unions are taking any lessons in humility from their losses at the ballot box. Instead, they're now setting their sites on eliminating the competition, using a variety of methods to ward off privatization proposals that have gained traction in the wake of the state's budget crisis.
Here's how Jon Ortiz reports it
in the Sacramento Bee:
Unions had a say in Gov. Jerry Brown's 2012-13 budget revision last
month, which proposes axing outside contracting for a range of work,
from computer consulting to custodial services.
State employee unions
also threw their weight behind recent legislation that, among other
things, would have given civil service employees first crack at all
state government jobs. The measure failed but is likely to resurface.
Last month, the state attorneys' union successfully contested a
multimillion-dollar contract with a private law firm for legal services.
California's public employee unions are making it clear that they won't go down without a fight. If San Diego and San Jose teach us anything, it should be that those are battles worth having.
Read
more here:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/04/4535727/california-government-unions-move.html#mi_rss=Top%20Stories#storylink=cpy
