Stop the Corporate Power Grab Act

by Brian Brokaw, Alliance for a Better California 2012

Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association - who makes his healthy living (last reported to be $300,000 annually) fundraising, concealing, and dispensing special interest money through what the Sacramento Bee calls "a sophisticated series of nonprofit corporations and political action committees" - this week issued a righteous call to "STOP SPECIAL INTEREST MONEY." How about that?  

Of course, anyone who has followed California politics over the last few decades knows that the group founded by the late Jarvis, now led by Coupal, is one of the biggest, most powerful, most-entrenched special interests under the dome.  As the Bee's Dan Morain notes, "[Jarvis] is part of the Republican establishment, almost always aligned with Chamber of Commerce and real estate interests, and often with tobacco, oil, gambling and other big businesses." Of course, we don't know exactly who funds Jarvis' activities because they don't have to tell us - but it's a safe bet that elderly homeowners on fixed incomes didn't fund the nearly $7 million that Jarvis raised in 2010.

Read entire article at Calitics.com >>

Where the Iowa caucuses illuminated the dark essence of social conservatism, the New Hampshire primary was a journey into the dingy, cramped quarters of the right wing's economic policies.

The Republicans ritually denounced President Obama as hostile to capitalism, disdainful of individual enterprise and lacking in ideas for reviving the economy. All they had to offer were economic ideas that not only are inadequate for that purpose but were instrumental in creating the nation's current economic problems.

In a flailing effort to address the pain of the middle class, the Republicans repeated familiar charges that Mr. Obama advocates a redistribution of wealth. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas outright called him a socialist. Newt Gingrich tried to focus national anger about income inequality with a faux populist assault on Mitt Romney's participation in the frenzied world of leveraged buyouts.


Read entire article at NYTimes.com >>

2012 ballot measure designed to attack workers' strengths, silence union voices

A group is on track to place an initiative on the fall 2012 ballot that would gut union strength and make it nearly impossible for labor to compete in elections.

The ballot initiative is specifically designed to make it nearly impossible for members of an employee organization, including Local 1000, to raise money and pool their resources for political campaigns. If passed by voters, the measure would further skew the political landscape in favor of big corporations and business interests.

Private sector retirement security time bomb








By Yvonne R. Walker
President, SEIU Local 1000

California is facing a retirement security crisis.

Despite the headlines, the crisis is not the cost of public employee pensions. Public employees across California, including the members of SEIU Local 1000, have shown a willingness to make adjustments at the bargaining table and in the legislature to ensure that CalPERS is adequately funded.

by Kate Thomas

Late Monday afternoon, the congressional Super-Committee announced their failure to put forward a proposal to cut $1.2 trillion from the U.S. budget over the next 10 years.

Time and time again, the Super-Committee proved unable to reach an agreement on long-term deficit reduction for one reason and one reason only:

Republicans refused to make the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.

On Nov. 17, over 300 California workers, students and supporters joined in a peaceful protest on a Highway 99 pedestrian overpass. Their message - "Put Americans back to work".

The Local 1000-led movement joined forces with Occupy Sacramento and MoveOn.org to create another positive effort in taking back America. Nurses, teachers, college students and other unions joined state workers who are equally tired of the economic crisis that is taking its toll on the middle class.

By Steven Greenhouse

Organized labor's early flirtation with Occupy Wall Street is starting to get serious.

Union leaders, who were initially cautious in embracing the Occupy movement, have in recent weeks showered the protesters with help -- tents, air mattresses, propane heaters and tons of food. The protesters, for their part, have joined in union marches and picket lines across the nation. About 100 protesters from Occupy Wall Street are expected to join a Teamsters picket line at the Sotheby's auction house in Manhattan on Wednesday night to back the union in a bitter contract fight.

With nearly 14 million people unemployed and another 11 million underemployed and looking for full-time jobs, creating jobs is our country's most urgent need. At the same time, our infrastructure is crumbling. All across the nation, it's time to solve the problem by putting people back to work doing ... work that needs doing.

The roads and bridges we drive over every day are failing, our classrooms are crowded and our schools run down. Our energy and transportation systems are at risk, and in our communities, parks and playgrounds are neglected.

Commit to joining us for one of the actions >>