Flap’s Links and Comments for March 2nd from 10:11 to 10:52

These are my links for March 2nd from 10:11 to 10:52:

• Should public employees have collective bargaining? California’s Collective Bargaining Laws – California collective bargaining laws

  (Meyers-Milias-Brown, 1968) provides collective bargaining rights for public agency employees including firefighters, police officers and emergency medial personnel employed by cities, counties and some districts.

  SB60 (Rodda, 1975) granted collective bargaining rights to employees of K-12 schools and community colleges.

  SB839 (Dills, 1977) extended collective bargaining rights to most state employees, excluding higher-education employees.

  AB1091 (Berman, 1978) extended collective bargaining rights to employees of the University of California, the California State University and Hastings College of the Law.

  +++++++

  A good summary

• Poll Watch: American Voters Split On Government Shutdown, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Democrats, Republicans Divided On Gov’t Worker Pay – American voters are split as 46 percent say it would be a good thing and 44 percent say it would be a bad thing if the U.S. government shut down because of disagreement in Washington over federal spending, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

  Looking at the controversy over pay for government workers, 35 percent say the pay is "about right," while 15 percent say it is too little and 42 percent say it is too much.

  To reduce state budget deficits, collective bargaining for public employees should be limited, 45 percent of American voters tell the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll, while 42 percent oppose limits on collective bargaining. But voters say 63 – 31 percent that government workers should pay more for benefits and retirement programs.

  Efforts by governors to limit collective bargaining rights are motivated by a desire to reduce government costs rather than to weaken unions, voters say 47 – 41 percent.

  If the federal government is forced to shut down because of the impasse over spending, voters say by an overwhelming 78 – 18 percent neither President Barack Obama nor members of Congress should be paid for that period. Voters would blame Republicans more than President Obama 47 – 38 percent if the government shuts down.

  +++++++

  This poll certainly is different than CBS poll. It is difficult to poll labor issues since most folks unless they are in a union understand what is collective bargaining.

• Barbour to Obama: Why don’t you let federal employees collectively bargain? – Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said he stands behind fellow Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin in his battle against public sector unions, and knocked President Obama for supporting the protests while presiding over millions of federal workers who cannot collectively bargain.

  Obama recently voiced support for state workers and labor groups in Wisconsin, who have been protesting a bill that would would force them to pay more into their pensions and for health care, and end collective bargaining for public workers.

  Barbour, a potential 2012 presidential contender who met with the president this week at a White House governors meeting, didn’t call Obama a hypocrite outright, but he came close.

  “The fact of the matter is, the president told us at the White House that he had unilaterally frozen spending for federal employees. Federal employees don’t have collective bargaining rights,” Barbour told reporters during an event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Wednesday. “The idea you guys have given the country is it’s just like there’s some constitutional right to collective bargaining. About half the states either don’t have it at all – my state does not have collective bargaining – or they limit it. The federal employees are not allowed to have collective bargaining for pay, for pensions, for health care.”

  While labor unions that represent federal workers do have some collective bargaining rights, provisions in the Civil Service Reform Act passed under President Carter in 1978 restrict federal employees from using it for pay or pensions and federal workers cannot be forced into a union or required to pay dues.

  +++++++++

  And, this misinformation about public employee collective bargaining is reflected in the polls.