ucrp

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Maybe the Regents Finally Got the Attention of the Governor on the UC Pension Issue

Byuclafaculty

We noted in a post yesterday that the LAO was forecasting rosy budget times ahead for the state but nonetheless seemed to want a budget freeze for UC.  Today, the news media are full of statements by Gov. Brown warning the legislature not to party and to behave frugally.  We also noted in prior posts on the recent Regents meeting that the Regents were somewhat bolder with the governor.  After the usual thank-you-thank-yours for Prop 30, they passed a budget proposal with more money than the governor wanted and pointed especially to the imbalance whereby the state automatically funds the…

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New Nurse Contract Said to Avert Participation in Nov. 20 Strike

Byuclafaculty

Nurses at UCLA Hospital, 1955 From the LA Now blog of the LA Times: The University of California reached a tentative contract agreement with unionized nurses at its medical and student-health facilities, averting a one-day walkout that had been scheduled for Wednesday. The four-year agreement still needs to be voted on by the 11,700 UC nurses who belong to the California Nurses Assn., or CNA. Contract highlights released by UC call for annual 4% pay increases through 2017. The nurses have agreed not to join in a one-day strike on Wednesday in sympathy with a walkout still scheduled by the…

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Clock is ticking away on chance to get UC out of anti-pension initiative

Byuclafaculty

Previous posts on t his blog have noted the filing of an anti-pension initiative, fronted by some mayors, that would include UC along with other state and local plans.  We have noted that it would be best if UC were omitted from the initiative on the rationale that the Regents have implemented their own plan for modifying their retiree programs (back in 2010). We have also noted that once an initiative gets on the ballot, it cannot be amended.  However, groups filing pension initiatives sometimes file amended versions.  The group behind the initiative has now filed a second version, illustrating…

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Response Would Be a Slender Reed (Pun Intended), But Why Not?

Byuclafaculty

Prior posts on this blog have noted that there is an anti-pension initiative that has been filed by a group whose front man is San Jose mayor Chuck Reed.  The proposition, if it got on the ballot, would cover UC.  It would require plans do be drawn up, presumably by the Regents, to deal with retirement underfunding.  The plans would be different than what the Regents developed on their own in 2010.  In theory, the Regents could draw up the plans and ignore them.  That would create political problems for the Regents and UC, however. Bottom line: We would be…

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Possible UC strike

Byuclafaculty

Demonstration in Westwood after previous strike From the LA Times: Members of the union that represents 22,000 service workers and patient care employees at UC campuses and hospitals have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a possible strike in the future if a contract agreement is not reached, officials said Friday. Ninety-six percent of the members of AFSCME 3299 voted to allow union leaders to call a strike if they decide it is necessary. If a strike happens, it would be the second this year and a potentially wider one, possibly affecting the 10 campuses and the five medical centers. In late…

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Scary Thoughts for Halloween

Byuclafaculty

Over the past year or so, there have been various scary developments about which we have blogged.  Most recently there is the recently-filed anti-pension initiative that sweeps in UC.  There is the volatility of state budget because of its heavy dependence on the income tax and the incomes of those in the upper brackets that are reflective of the ups and downs of financial markets.  There is the illusion that online ed will resolve the long-term budget squeeze on the university. The hotel shown below is pretty scary but so, too, is the UCLA Grand Hotel, in part because of…

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Brown Joins Harvard in Rejecting Fossil Fuel Divestment

Byuclafaculty

We have noted in previous posts that there is a student group that has been using the public comment period at the Regents to push for pension and other fund divestment of fossil fuels. (The demand involves both extraction industries and some utilities.)  It is part of a national student movement.  If you scroll back to our links to Regents meetings, you will be able to hear those demands. Recently, as we have noted, Harvard rejected the demand.  See http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/04/harvard-rejects-call-divest-fossil-fuels.  Today, Inside Higher Ed is reporting that Brown University has also rejected it.  See http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/10/28/brown-u-rejects-call-sell-holdings-coal-companies. Given the current anti-pension initiative…

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The Whitaker-Baxter style campaign for the anti-pension initiative continues

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post on this blog provided a bit of California political history regarding Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter, the couple in the photo, who developed an approach to campaigning in the 1930s.  As we noted, they developed a network that provided editorial content to newspapers around the state, pushing whatever cause they were paid to promote. The proponents of the anti-pension/anti-retiree health care initiative that was recently filed and which sweeps in UC, seem to be following the Whitaker-Baxter playbook, as we have previously noted.  Yet another example can be found below in which one newspaper reprints a pro-initiative…

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Disclosure Decision Will Make It More Difficult to Hide Funding for Anti-Pension Initiative

Byuclafaculty

You may recall the brouhaha that developed around secret funding by a group that opposed Proposition 30 (the governor’s tax initiative) and supported Prop 32 (an anti-union initiative).  It became an issue late in that election.  Large fines have now been levied by the California Fair Political Practices Commission.  While this development may seem like old political news, it will be relevant for whatever groups are pushing the anti-pension initiative about which we have been posting and which covers UC.  It will be more difficult – but not impossible – to continue to hide behind the friendly faces of a…

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The Anti-Pension Initiative: What Can UC Do?

Byuclafaculty

The State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee carries a piece on what the political campaign against the anti-pension/anti-retiree health care initiative will likely look like.  Excerpt: Chuck Reed’s public-employee pension initiative is a long way from making it to a statewide vote – money being the biggest hurdle – but labor unions have already started blasting the proposal. The San Jose mayor’s measure would, among other things, change the California Constitution to explicitly allow state and local governments in a fiscal emergency to cut future retirement costs by lowering current employees’ benefits prospectively but leave accrued benefits untouched. Right…