It was December of 2009. I had been leading the way, pushing for pension reform while speaking out against the local firefighters’ union. It’s probably not the best idea when your wife is a union organizer and you walk in union circles.
What happened next would be a huge wakeup call, at least for me. My former boss, when I worked in Sacramento, asked me if I would meet with some representatives from the California Labor Federation, as they had some concerns with my writing. My policy was and is that I’ll talk to anyone, and so across the street from the Capitol Building, I met with what turned out to be two representatives from the California Labor Federation.
It quickly became clear that this was not going to be a discussion. My view then, as it is now, is that there is a world of difference between fighting for the rights of people making less than $30,000 a year and protecting the salaries of those making $150,000 to $200,000 in total compensation. If we do not figure out how to rein in those salaries and create a working pension reform, we will have the Proposition 13 of pension reforms rain down on us.
They did not see it that way. They gave me slogans like “united we stand, divided we fall.” They told me that without the firefighters in 2005 on the labor lines, the governor’s reform package might have been approved.
But 2005 was different from 2009, and far different from now. In 2005, we were still in the post-9/11 bliss where firefighters were the heroes that rushed into the buildings to save people as everyone else fled for their lives. It’s taken a generation, but in many places in California, the firefighters have taken that moment of purity and that moment of good will and used it to line their collective pockets to the point of threatening municipalities across the state with bankruptcy.
The image I see today is not of collective heroes, but union fat cats, filing unfair labor practice charges for being forced to take part in joint training. I see former fire chiefs, who, along with a husband, are making over $200,000 per year in pensions, who are trying to obstruct a public report from coming out and, having lost, claim poverty to avoid court fees.
But it doesn’t have to be that. Indeed, we should not paint the entire labor movement on some bad apples. I still believe in the spirit of Labor Day, but the true spirit of people coming together to achieve collectively what they could not achieve individually – an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work.
Houston, Texas, November of 2006. I get a call from my wife asking me if it is all right if she flies to Houston, Texas, with some of her colleagues from SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and gets arrested. The Vanguard was in its fledgling stages and I was still in graduate school at the time, but I say that is fine. She explains that they will provide her lawyers and get her out pretty quickly.
In 2005 in Houston, Texas, the average janitor was earning an average salary of $5.25/hour, and some were receiving as little as $20 per day with no access to health care.
Media reports note, “The success of the Houston campaign was surprising due to the South’s history of resistance to unionization and hostility to labor.”
My wife had to deal with this full on. They would be arrested, but unlike most actions in California where protesters are booked and released, they were held in jail for three days. It took the work of outside negotiators, including then-Senator Ted Kennedy, to get them released.
It was a long ordeal that would force my wife to go back to Texas twice more and take a misdemeanor plea bargain.
Wikipedia notes, “On November 20, 2006, a few days after dozens of strikers and their supporters were arrested by Houston police while engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience, a tentative agreement was reached between striking Houston janitors and employers. The proposed settlement included many concessions from employers, and SEIU was quick to declare victory.” In the end, the action worked and, as a result, 5300 employees got higher wages and benefits.
In May of 2007, dozens of protesters entered Mrak Hall, sat down on the first floor and were illegally arrested during business hours for failure to disperse and trespassing.
When the protesters entered, they attempted to see then-Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, but access to his office was blocked, and he was not there.
The police officer came in and was sweating the whole time. He told them it’s an unlawful assembly, they have to leave and if they don’t leave in three minutes they will get arrested. So, of course, they all refused to leave because it was their intent to get arrested. So one-by-one they arrested each of the protesters, read them their rights and asked them if they understood. It took over an hour to arrest all of the protesters.
The police then kept them on a hot bus with the air conditioning cut off. They had the handcuffs on, with their hands behind their back. They stretched the tendons in the arms and they left the handcuffs on for several hours. They didn’t take them off until about 6:00 pm. and they had put them on around 1:30 or 2:00 pm.
The charges would eventually be dropped, as the district attorney’s office recognized that the arrest itself was actually illegal. It was a public building during normal business hours, and trespassing could only be applied if they had entered the building after hours.
550 food service workers, custodians and cooks were organizing to become university employees rather than Sodexho employees. The move would entitle them to higher pay and benefits.
An outsourced worker gets around $10.35 an hour, versus a starting minimum of over $12 hour and a max of up to $15.50 for a university employee. However, even more important are health care benefits. One of the workers told me she was paying over $100 for her health care package, while a UC Davis-employed worker would only pay about 5% of that.
On January 15, 2008, my work with the Sodexho workers gave me the opportunity to get a backstage pass to cover the representatives who were given the opportunity to meet and briefly speak with former President Bill Clinton, who had spoken at the ARC that evening in support of Hillary Clinton, running for the Democratic nomination.
The President spoke briefly with the workers and then posed for pictures. During the course of their conversation, he came out in favor of their efforts to become full university employees, earning equal pay and equal benefits.
In my time working the Vanguard, getting the opportunity to cover that moment still ranks among the highlights of my tenure.
Ultimately, the food service workers would prevail. The university announced that “the campus’s food service contractor, Sodexho, will continue to manage residential and retail food operations on campus, but an estimated 175 to 200 nonmanagement Sodexho employees will be eligible to transition to University of California employment.”
It was a great victory for hundreds of the lowest-paid workers in the system.
The true spirit of Labor Day is not blindly supporting everything that is labeled as union or labor. Supporting people who make $150,000 to $200,000 is not the same as supporting those who are fighting paycheck to paycheck for decent wages and benefits.
In fact, I believe the cause of the former undermines that of the latter. So, as you go about your day off today, remember that there are still struggles out there worth fighting for, and do not allow the greed of some to blind you to injustices of the many.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
David wrote:
> My view then as it is now is that there is a world of
> difference between fighting for the rights of people
> making less than $30,000 a year and protecting the
> salaries of those making $150,000 to $200,000 in total
> compensation.
As the grandson of two union guys that worked hard and were involved with unions their entire life (one grandfather marched for union rights in the 30’s and was shot at when his group would not follow police orders) I’m a big supporter of fair work rules and fair pay.
Like David I’m bummed that it seems like the unions spend more time focusing on the guys that “take home” $150K to $200K (I have close firefighter friends that make that much with “total compensation” even higher) and get to retire at 50 with huge pensions than what most people would think of as “workers” or “laborers”…
Sure, whatever, but you write probably 100 articles about the overcompensation of the few for every one about the many who aren’t organized. Even on labor day you bash the few without recognizing that most of these cases you cite are for managers or supervisors not rank and file members. In CTA, a huge union, I know of no teachers that make even $100,000 a year in total compensation. Maybe you can find a district somewhere that is an exception. Are there problems? Of course there are problems but only right wing guys use Labor Day to attack labor. Labor Day is a day to reflect on the gains; child labor laws, 40 hour work week, workplace safety, minimum wages, collective bargaining …
Labor Day is also a good time to reflect on what needs to be done like making it easier to organize and living wages. We live in a time where all the monetary profits from the productivity gains of a generation, a generation that has seen the greatest gains in productivity in human history, due to advances in technology, go to the owners and bosses, while workers have been left behind. We live in a time when corporations like Walmart, the largest employer in the nation, engage in an anti-union race to the bottom at home and use globalization to do the same abroad. We also live in a time when fast food workers across the nation have been striking to gain living wages.
Yet what do you choose to do on Labor Day, write another article bashing the local fire department, an institution for whom your personal animus is well established. Too bad that on the one day we celebrate labor by giving our labors a rest for you its just another slog at the same old grind.
I anticipated your response Mr. Toad.
First of all, I’m not attacking labor, I’m attacking people who are using the labor system meant to help workers trying to earn an honest day’s pay, to enrich themselves.
Nowhere did I mention CTA in this piece.
But the bottom line here is twofold.
First, I gave my honest opinion on the difference between fire and the janitor and Sodexho food workers.
Second, if I hadn’t, someone else would have attacked labor for fire and a few others. Bobby Weist is not management, he is a union member. People like Bobby Weist do more harm to the labor movement and it’s important to differentiate.
“Labor Day is also a good time to reflect on what needs to be done like making it easier to organize and living wages. “
I gave two examples from personal experience.
” We live in a time when corporations like Walmart, the largest employer in the nation, engage in an anti-union race to the bottom at home and use globalization to do the same abroad. We also live in a time when fast food workers across the nation have been striking to gain living wages. “
Absolutely and their struggles are harmed by the perception that people at the top are getting wealthy.
“Of course there are problems but only right wing guys use Labor Day to attack labor.”
Didn’t attack labor, not at all.
right on david, mr. toad (the wet sprocket) is all too predictable. we have perhaps the iconic image of the most recognized local labor leader bill camp of the central labor council hanging out of mrak hall in support of the food service workers, bill clinton standing in solidarity with those same workers, and mr. wet sprocket is whining that david’s attacking labor – did you really read the same piece i did?
Unions had absolute historical value during times where employers held all the cards. But today, with respect to employee welfare, unions are a worthless relic of the past. In fact unions are more than worthless; they are destructive to job opportunities, and they corrupt the democratic political process.
The US and state labor codes are more than sufficient to protect employees. Market forces in the labor market are more than sufficient to assure an achievable level of compensation fairness. Those that argue against this can only cite a random example here and there for some non-union employee being treated badly. But, for each one of those cases, there are at least as many cases of unionized employees being treated badly. Unions don’t provide any utility except being a form of legalized wage extortion which only benefits a minority of workers with significantly inflated compensation.
But the cost of this is astounding.
Cities and states going bankrupt.
Once viable companies closing their doors.
Fewer job opportunities as union-inflated compensation cause fewer business development and growth opportunities.
Unions are the evil twin to the Enrons of the world. We would be much better off to rid ourselves of both.
“Absolutely and their struggles are harmed by the perception that people at the top are getting wealthy.”
Exploited by anti-union people like yourself who never miss an opportunity to take at shot at DFD.
“Nowhere did I mention CTA in this piece.”
No i brought them up because they are the largest public sector union in the state to show that most union people earn modest incomes.
“Second, if I hadn’t, someone else would have attacked labor for fire and a few others.”
Complete nonsense. So you are destrying the village to save it.
“Bobby Weist is not management, he is a union member.”
He is a captain and that is a supervisor or some other type of leadership position.
“I see former fire chiefs, who, along with a husband, are making over $200,000 per year in pensions, who are trying to obstruct a public report from coming out and, having lost, claim poverty to avoid court fees.”
Even if he isn’t considered management the ex-chief certainly is and it was this point i was responding to by pointing out that almost all rank and file teachers don’t make $100,000 a year. My point is its the public sector managers that suck up all the money, spiking pensions and what not, yet instead of pointing this out you attack them all by mischaracterizing the the rank of the few.
“mr. toad (the wet sprocket) is all too predictable”
Hey I’m just responding to David’s relentless anti-union screeds. As I like to say, another day another fire department hit piece.
“we have perhaps the iconic image of the most recognized local labor leader bill camp of the central labor council hanging out of mrak hall in support of the food service workers”
Bill Camp would probably agree with me.
“Exploited by anti-union people like yourself “
How am I anti-union when my wife has worked for them for years, been arrested at a protest, I’ve worked for unions, etc. I’m not anti-union, I just don’t consider people making $150,000 to $200,000 labor.
“Complete nonsense. So you are destrying the village to save it. “
How am I destroying a village? I’ve questioned the tactics of one union that I believe is corrupt, how is turning a blind eye to that corruption, helpful to the union movement?
“He is a captain and that is a supervisor or some other type of leadership position. “
He’s a shift leader, but he’s not management. He doesn’t make management level decisions, he makes supervisory decisions. In the fire department, Management are the division chiefs and the chief, not a captain. He’s the fire equivalent to a Sgt., still a member of the union.
” My point is its the public sector managers that suck up all the money, spiking pensions and what not, yet instead of pointing this out you attack them all by mischaracterizing the the rank of the few. “
I’m unclear as to what this sentence means and hence your point.
“The true spirit of Labor Day is not blindly supporting everything that is labeled as union or labor. Supporting people who make $150,000 to $200,000 is not the same as supporting those who are fighting paycheck to paycheck for decent wages and benefits.”
‘In fact, I believe the cause of the former undermines that of the latter.”
It appears you wouldn’t know an attack on labor if you wrote it yourself.
“It appears you wouldn’t know an attack on labor if you wrote it yourself.”
How so Mr. Toad? I stated numerous times I don’t consider people making $150,000 to $200,000 in total comp to be labor, if that’s the case, how can you construe what I wrote as an attack on labor?
Because it feeds anti-union sentiment.
That’s absurd. Their actions feed anti-union sentiment.
” My point is its the public sector managers that suck up all the money, spiking pensions and what not, yet instead of pointing this out you attack them all by mischaracterizing the the rank of the few. ”
Let me clarify. Its not the average working guy making this money. In almost every instance its the managers that are granted the same deals as workers. Its the chiefs and the officers. Its the Principals and the superintendents.
“How am I anti-union when my wife has worked for them for years, been arrested at a protest, I’ve worked for unions, etc.”
I know it amazes me too.
The $150,000 to $200,000 is the average total compensation for firefighters in Davis.
Here’s the math from a Rich Rifkin article:
[quote]Total comp includes base salary, overtime, pension funding paid by the city, medical benefits and cash-outs for unused medical, life insurance, long-term disability, workers compensation, a survivors benefit, Medicare, uniform allowances, union bank hours and retiree medical funding.
The 35 firefighters ranged from $150,242 to $182,262. The total compensation for the department’s 10 officers ranged from $197,101 to $220,738.[/quote]
“I know it amazes me too.”
Perhaps you’re mislabeling it? After all, am I anti-Democrat if I attack a particular Democrat like Bob Filner for being corrupt? I see the DPF’s the same way I see Bob Filner.
From DJUSD:
Title Annual
Salary Benefits
Superintendent $178,000 $11,904
Associate Superintendent of
Business Services $182, 326 $12,000
Associate Superintendent of Instructional
Services and Elementary Education $133,875 $11,904
Yet the highest paid teacher in the district with 20 years experience 90 post graduate units or more earned $77,965 last year.
Actually, $150k may be tall cotton across the causeway in Sacopotatoes but that’s just middlin’ in Davis. Of course, I understand you expect your servants to live and raise their children elsewhere.
Biddlin ;>)/
Which is why of course it’s the highest compensation for a bargaining unit by far in the city.
“Because it feeds anti-union sentiment. “
i see. by that logic, if you were against the iraq war, you were anti-american, since it feeds the anti-american sentiment?
“Hey I’m just responding to David’s relentless anti-union screeds. As I like to say, another day another fire department hit piece. “
it seems you can criticize what you disagree with without jumping into a blanket anti-union/ anti-labor accusation which doesn’t appear supported by the facts. he has a more nuanced position. i tend to agree with him on this.
“Bill Camp would probably agree with me. “
i doubt camp thinks greenwald is anti-labor.
So for the love of attacking 35 guys you tarnish Labor Day. You can’t let it go for a day. Even though its clear that the City Council and City Manager are working to get things under control. Oh and those guys work too. Just because you don’t consider it whatever is only in your mind.
Biddlin is right. The last time i checked you needed about $135,000 a year to qualify for the average Davis mortgage.
“So for the love of attacking 35 guys you tarnish Labor Day.”
seems like you’re the one tarnishing labor day – instead of sticking with the points you agree on with greenwald, you’ve roll in the mud.
greenwald is only explaining his position and why he sees firefighters (which we all agree he has criticized) differently then he does food service workers or janitors. seems logical because i believe you would have attacked him had he left out the discussion of the firefighters, so he’s really damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t with you. you were going to go after him no matter what on this. admit it.
“i doubt camp thinks greenwald is anti-labor.”
Have you ever asked Bill Camp?
“It seems you can criticize what you disagree with without jumping into a blanket anti-union/ anti-labor accusation which doesn’t appear supported by the facts. he has a more nuanced position.”
On Labor Day its a sucker punch to labor.
“Have you ever asked Bill Camp? “
not personally, but david did work for camp at one point, i believe.
“Actually, $150k may be tall cotton across the causeway in Sacopotatoes but that’s just middlin’ in Davis. Of course, I understand you expect your servants to live and raise their children elsewhere.
Biddlin ;>)/”
“Biddlin is right. The last time i checked you needed about $135,000 a year to qualify for the average Davis mortgage.”
So janitors and food service workers, (whose job description probably closer resemble those of servants), have no chance of owning a house in Davis.
[i]Yet the highest paid teacher in the district with 20 years experience 90 post graduate units or more earned $77,965 last year.[/i]
For working 10 months out of the year. And not including the benefits paid.
If teachers were so underpaid, we would not be able to attract enough people to the profession. However, people keep pursuing teaching as a profession. So the “underpaid” teacher cry is a myth.
We underpay our great teachers and overpay our crappy teachers. Blame the unions for not allowing any material pay differentiation for performance.
[i]”Biddlin is right. The last time i checked you needed about $135,000 a year to qualify for the average Davis mortgage.”
So janitors and food service workers, (whose job description probably closer resemble those of servants), have no chance of owning a house in Davis.[/i]
Here we go again. So is it a requirement now that we pay everyone enough so they can buy a house?
It is really quite simple. There is a market-value for labor that factors supply and demand. The lower the difficulty to acquire the necessary skills, the easier it is for people to compete for the supply of jobs and the less any employer has to pay for the labor possessing those skills.
We could pay skilled firefighters $60k per year and provide half the benefits and qualified people would form a line several blocks long to get the job.
All jobs should pay market rates.
Want more money, then get more marketable skills and compete for those higher-end jobs that pay more.
[quote]For working 10 months out of the year. And not including the benefits paid. [/quote]
If you want to play this card, we should consider the actual time teachers work, versus what they are paid to work. Anytime I go by my kids school, evenings, weekends, teachers are always there. Plus there is the work they do at home, often receive emails from kids teachers at night and on the weekends. I cringe to think what the hourly wage would work out to be.
[quote]Here we go again. So is it a requirement now that we pay everyone enough so they can buy a house? [/quote]
What I was thinking was that is would be nice if affordable housing was available so people could live, if they so chose, in the town they work. I do think workers should make at least a living wage even if they are working low skilled jobs. If we went strictly be market-value, this would not occur.
Teachers work fewer hours per week than the average for other professional positions.
[url]http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2011/10/05/teachers-work-fewer-hours-than-other-professionals-and-were-not-counting-summer-vacations/[/url]
Add the summer vacation, and a full-time teaching job is equivalent to a 75% part-time professional job.
Please stop making things up.
I’m not making anything up, they work far more hours then they are paid for.
” they work far more hours then they are paid for. “
That was certainly true when my wife and I were teaching. I took a Summer job driving dump-truck that paid twice as much for half the hours, and paid time and a half for overtime, to boot. My wife quickly followed suit and got a clerical job with the State that outstripped her teacher’s pay from day 1. Neither of us have taught in a classroom, since.
Biddlin ;>) formerly IUOE local 39
I also cringe to think what would happen if teachers only worked their contracted hours….I more grateful then I can ever express in words that so many put in these extra unpaid hours.
Feankly I can remember in the 90’s when there was a huge shortage of teachers and all they could find were people with temporary credentials. What happened was they raised teacher pay to attract more people. Now today with recessionary budgets i’m not sure if there is a surplus of credentaled teachers or not but teachers in this state haven’t had a decent raise in a long time. Since the economy has been weak there may not be a problem today. If the economy ever picks up is when you will see the pressure.
Anyway this is all besides the point that David tarnishes everyone by focusing on the few.
“Anyway this is all besides the point that David tarnishes everyone by focusing on the few.”
I do agree with Frankly that there are some bad teachers out there, and it’s frustrating that it’s difficult to fire them. In saying this do I tarnish all the wonderful, dedicated teachers. Not seeing how pointing out those who take advantage of a system tarnishes everyone else. In my view its better for pro-union people to admit there are flause in the system and be proactive in fixing them, versus pretending they don’t exist and thus opening the door for anti-union attacks.
[quote]. Anytime I go by my kids school, evenings, weekends, teachers are always there. Plus there is the work they do at home, often receive emails from kids teachers at night and on the weekends. [/quote]
I’m very skeptical that this is true. I live near an elementary school and never see anyone coming or going on weekends. Moreover, teachers are constantly taking training days and vacation days in addition to all legal holidays and 2 1/2 month summer breaks.
All that would be fine if they did a good job, as a large majority of them do. But I won’t forgive them for protecting their incompetent colleagues, who ruin the educations of generation after generation of children. This they do because of, and only because of, their union. The CTA is an evil institution.
PS
Happy Labor day, everyone!
“I’m very skeptical that this is true. I live near an elementary school and never see anyone coming or going on weekends. Moreover, teachers are constantly taking training days and vacation days.”
This description does not match with my experiences with my kids teachers, who rarely have taken a non work related day off. Because of the volunteer work I did at my kids school last year I was often on campus during weekends and evenings and there was always a teacher there. Teachers hands down are some of the hardest working people I know. Hearing them disparaged as a group because of a few bad apples is disheartening.
“Hearing them disparaged as a group because of a few bad apples is disheartening. “
From your post to David’s brain…
Biddlin ;>)/
I don’t know Bobby, I do know a couple of Davis ffs. Neither make anything close to $150k/anum, closer to half that. I believe that David believes that he is pro-labor. Perhaps that has the same perverted meaning as progressive in Davis.
Biddlin ;>)/
“Hearing them disparaged as a group because of a few bad apples is disheartening. ”
From your post to David’s brain…
Biddlin ;>)
That’s not my interpretation of what David is doing in this article. I don’t see him disparaging all unions. He is only criticizing the ones he views as unjust.
[i]Anyway this is all besides the point that David tarnishes everyone by focusing on the few.[/i]
Mr. Toad, I disagree with you on that point. There should be no sacred cows here. You seem to be demanding an all-or-nothing position. I don’t see how that helps.
David is on the leading edge of the growing liberal Democrat paradox of public unions verses funding for everything else. I think you are just not as evolved as him on this particular topic. Seriously, what is your explanation for San Bernardino, Stockton and Vallejo if not the over-compensation of the public labor unions for those three cities?
[i]I can remember in the 90’s when there was a huge shortage of teachers and all they could find were people with temporary credentials. What happened was they raised teacher pay to attract more people.[/i]
That’s fine. But there is no shortage of people wanting to become a teacher today. Maybe you can thank Obama and Brown for their crappy economic policies that make good-paying jobs in short supply. In any case, the good teaching programs are often wait-listed for students that want that career. If the job paid too little like you claim, these degree and credentialing programs would be struggling to find interested students.
[i] I do know a couple of Davis ffs. Neither make anything close to $150k/anum, closer to half that.[/i]
You cannot leave out the cost of the benefits paid. When you consider that and the overtime most of them earn after making their regular pay (by sleeping 50% of their work hours), it is a fantastic and unsustainable gig.
I know retired firefighters and police that are living high on the hog after retiring in their mid 50s. Full medical and 80-90% of their 6-figure base pay for life, with cost of living adjustments for life. To get that same lifestyle, the cost of a lifetime annuity for someone 55 year of age, planning to live to 95, would be $3 – $4 million dollars.
What it should have been, and should be, is retiring in early to mid-60s with `-70% pay and 75% of healthcare paid for. That would cut the cost in half and it would be perfectly reasonable and fair compared to private sector Cadillac compensation plans.
” There should be no sacred cows here. “
Apparently there aren’t not even on Labor Day.
[quote]Anyway this is all besides the point that David tarnishes everyone by focusing on the few.[/quote]
It seems to me that David has made extensive clarification that he was not extending his comments to all union workers but only to those inordinately and unfairly advantaged by the system. I have no difficulty distinguishing between these groups. It is only you, Mr. Toad, that is insisting that his comments “tarnished” everyone.
You miss how this plays into the broader historical theme of anti=unionism that is the longest consistent theme of capital in american history. Just look at all this anti-union sentiment that David hosts on a regular basis. Its sad to see Labor Day exploited for this agenda.
“Maybe you can thank Obama and Brown for their crappy economic policies that make good-paying jobs in short supply.”
You act as if the world began on the day Obama took over but even if it did Brown came in two years later when the unemployment rate was much worse than it is today.