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A Republican Play to Change Labor Laws as Part of California Budget Deal? The Dangers of Closed Door Negotiations

By Frank D. Russo

There is a disturbing article in today’s Sacramento Bee that evokes memories of last year’s delay in enacting a California state budget when Republican Senators held out for a gutting of California’s environmental laws and sought to defund State Attorney General Brown so he could not enforce laws they did not like. The pattern on the part of California’s minority party legislators is unmistakable and is apparently back this year: If you don’t like laws on the books passed by a majority of the legislature through the regular process (public committee hearings, approval by both houses, and signature by the Governor, etc.) and cannot pass legislation to repeal them or modify them because you lack the votes, just tie them to the budget, argue that they affect the financial health of the state, and demand they be changed or you won’t vote for the budget.

This is only possible in California because of the requirement that our state budget be passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses. To Republicans legislators who are largely irrelevant most of the year because of their lack of electoral success with California’s voters, this is their one point of leverage.

Bee reporter Judy Lin article, “State's business lobby wants labor laws adjusted along with budget,” is a must read article. Here is part of what she reveals:

“Schwarzenegger continues to meet with legislative leaders in closed-door negotiations on the tardy budget. Yet companies are hoping that Republicans can deliver a combination of tax breaks and business-friendly policy changes.

“Republicans have offered an economic stimulus plan that includes flexible workweeks, reduced government red tape for building permits, extended deadlines for retrofitting heavy-duty equipment, and competitive bidding on school service contracts.”

It quotes Republican State Senator George Runner as saying it is appropriate to change the state’s meals and breaks laws as part of the budget because “"It has to deal with the future of California's economy."

Lin’s article links up the changes sought in this law to UPS, the world’s largest package deliverer and large campaign contributions, much of them to Republican lawmakers. It ends with this telling quote from a UPS spokesperson: "We hope the Legislature is able to reach an agreement. We've been working on this for five years."

Indeed they have. AB 2530 by Republican Assemblymember Mike Duvall, supported by UPS would have exempted “certain employees in the transportation industry” from the requirement that they be provided with meal periods at specified time periods during their work day. It failed passage in its first committee on a 2 to 6 vote earlier this year. It is the latest in a string of bills that have failed to win support.

Not only are these Republican budget shake downs contrary to the notion that a majority of our elected leaders should be making laws—not a minority—they are apparently being talked about in private with the public being kept in the dark. And I say apparently, because these closed door meetings of the Big 4 and the Big 5 are impenetrable.

What else is being talked about in private? Don’t we deserve to know? How about a little sunshine?

Posted on July 28, 2008

Comments

This is a perfect example of what author Naomi Klein calls "The Shock Doctrine". (See The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/the-book) Conservative ideologues use crises and emergencies to push through radical legislation that would otherwise be rejected under normal circumstances. With the enthusiastic encouragement of Milton Friedman Dictator Augusto Pinochet used his bloody coup to introduce radical right-wing economic ideas dreamed up at the University of Chicago. Bush and Cheney used the shock of September 11th to dramatically expand exexcutive power and pass the Patriot Act, shaply reducing civil rights. The Republican overlords of Louisiana used Hurrican Katrina to make sure that the African-American community that was evacuated from New Orleans could never return to New Orleans, and real estate that White investors wanted to snap up for a song.

Now California Republicans are using the budget crisis, which they created with their unrealistic demands and intransigence, to push through radical anti-labor measures, as well as restrictive spending caps (such as Colrado's TABOR act) whiich have proven disasterous in other states where they have been enacted. Colorado voters actually went to the polls to demand by referendum that their spending caps Republicans pushed through be removed after they nearly wrecked state government and the educational system in Colorado.

Posted by: Tom Joad 57 at July 28, 2008 08:48 PM

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