Class is in session. The topic? Union tax grab 101. Courtesy of Citizen Outreach.

After reading the latest article in the Kitsap Sun regarding ferries, I started thinking about how the state could sell its two foot ferries. If this latest deal goes the way of the failed attempt to sell the ferries on eBay, the ferry system may have to resort to Craigslist. Here's a possible posting I wrote for them: 2 passenger-only ferries, like-new, used sparingly. Same class. 7,200 Hp. 35 knots max speed. Diesel-Waterjet propulsion. Carries up to 350 people. Paid $9.7 million each. Asking price $4.5 million each. $8.5 million OBO takes them both. Touch-up paint included. As is, cash only, no trades. Pictures below. Docked at Eagle Harbor for easy convenience. Pick up anytime. Payment on the honor system. Leave payment in ferry union dues drop box. Call David M. at 206-555-5555 for directions or questions. Chinook     Snohomish And if this doesn't work, maybe the state could pawn them off as riverboat casinos on the Mississippi River or Gulf Coast. The possibilities are endless. Let's just hope that in the meantime our ferries don't end up in this situation:  

The Dept. of Labor (DOL) has announced that it is changing the requirements for internal financial disclosures of unions requiring more details on finances and spending, the AP report on the 8th. Unions are required annually to submit forms to the DOL detailing their financial information, but Federal officials have decided that the current forms lack [...]

...two columns on Friday morning.  EFF Labor Policy Center Director Sonya Jones has an op-ed in the Columbian in Vancouver concerning the state's loss of a $13.2 million private grant to promote advanced placement of high school students in math and science because of arcane state labor union negotiation laws and the refusal of the Washington Education Association to compromise.   And Economic Policy Center Director Amber Gunn, along with policy analyst Brian Zapotocky, have posted a definitive commentary article making it clear that Big Foot is alive and well.

The Washington State Residential Care Council has claimed victory over the Washington Federation of State Employees in the effort to unionize adult family home providers. This week, officials with the Public Employment Relations Commission, WSRCC, and WSFE came to terms on how to count 144 disputed ballots in the election to certify a union. The final vote tally was 648 in favor of WSRCC, 552 in favor of WSFE, and 11 ballots still challenged. The 11 ballots did not affect the outcome of the election. There is a seven-day period for appeal. If there is none, PERC will certify the election results on May 13. In 2007 the legislature passed HB 2111, which allowed adult family home providers the right to bargain collectively with the state for higher subsidy and reimbursement rates. Adult family homes provide residential care for the elderly or disabled adults. After HB 2111 passed, many providers realized that WFSE would try to unionize them. WSRCC, a voluntary association at the time, amended its bylaws to allow for it to officially represent its members in bargaining sessions. Here's what's interesting -– WSRCC dues are for collective bargaining costs only. A person or home may elect to pay an association membership fee in addition to the dues, but that fee is used for other purposes and is voluntary. In contrast, public-sector unions typically use dues to cover both collective bargaining and other non-disclosed membership and political activities. (This is why we need union financial transparency.) Even though I disagree with the concept of mandatory dues, it's at least nice to see one outfit (unlike WFSE, SEIU, WEA, etc.) that is willing to limit itself to workplace-representation issues and NOT spend its members' dues money on issues and politics they may disagree with.

The teachers unions just won’t stop with the finger pointing. Apparently, they believe the general public is so stupid that they will believe the unions’ claims of having nothing to do with the $13.2 million grant sacrificed this week. Of course, based on election results in this state that may very well be true. From the Seattle Times:   But here's where the road turned rocky. Grant makers wanted to pay the teachers directly, an appropriate way of maintaining accountability and paying for a job well done. But the Seattle Education Association smelled merit pay. The horror!   The union could have overcome its general opposition to merit pay to accept the grant. Steve Pulkkinen, the union's negotiator over the grant, says teachers could have requested such a waiver but didn't. According to Seattle School District officials, Franklin teachers did. And so the finger-pointing goes.   Pulkkinen and the teachers were wrong. Complaints about pressure to do uncompensated work were answered by the grant's direct payments. Washington state's collective-bargaining laws require negotiation about pay, but that doesn't preclude reasonable agreement.   Other states reached agreements, including ones with strong unions, such as Massachusetts and Connecticut. Seattle's union should have been able to do the same.   How much blood do the teachers unions need to have on their hands before the public realizes the extent of their massacre of the public school system?    Aside: On both the WEA and the Washington State Labor Council’s news pages today, the link to the Times editorial is conspicuously missing – so much for providing members ALL of the union related news for the day. [hat tip, Jason Mercier, Washington Policy Center]

 The city of Vallejo, California has filed for bankruptcy. Apparently, the police and firefighters unions would not back down on their salary demands and the city simply doesn’t have enough money to pay them. Nice.   Vallejo has become the first city in California to file for bankruptcy because it didn't have enough money to provide basic services. This is dreadful news for Vallejo - and its citizens - but it's also an ominous report for the rest of us.   The city council's unanimous decision Tuesday night, which came after hours of impassioned public comment, represents a failure of Vallejo's police and firefighter unions to understand basic economic realities. The unions - whose members are among the highest-paid in the state - refused to allow the city to cut their pay. The lowdown:   Vallejo has been slammed by increasing costs of its public safety contracts, the housing crisis, lower property values and state raids on local coffers. The city faces a $16 million deficit in the 2008-09 fiscal year which starts July 1. Tuesday night's dramatic vote came after months of fruitless talks between city and labor representatives.   More telling:   City employee union attorney Alan Davis has said a union-hired financial expert has produced two documents contradicting the city's assertions of an enormous deficit. Davis vowed to release the documents if an agreement was not reached. However, the unions have been unwilling to produce the reports for public review. Call me crazy, but public-sector unions who negotiate with taxpayer dollars on how to spend taxpayer dollars should be forced BY LAW to make ALL of their reports public.   Some of you will recall that we fought this battle last year. We requested documents from the state’s 2007-09 union negotiation sessions. A coalition of unions rushed to court to prevent disclosure, arguing that transparency was not in the public interest and could irreversibly harm the state’s collective bargaining process. One union negotiator said he should have the right to swear at taxpayers behind closed doors. Eventually the King County judge ruled that the records are indeed public documents and should be released to us. This was a victory, but Washington could go a step further by opening all union negotiations under the Open Meetings Act. After all, taxpayers are funding the process AND the government employee contracts.