Pension Reform and Union Shenanigans in San Diego

"Carl DeMaio, the councilman who's the primary author of [the comprehensive pension reform ballot measure] could be the Howard Jarvis of the pension reform movement."

--Chris Reed, San Diego Union Tribune

On November 8, 2011, San Diego's Comprehensive Pension Reform ballot measure qualified for the June ballot. Like so many other cities around the country, San Diego is facing a fiscal crisis. Currently, the city's pension fund budget is facing an unfunded liability of over $2 billion. The Comprehensive Pension Reform ballot measure, if it passes in June, will switch new public employees to 401(k)-style plans, put an end to "pension spiking" and cap pensionable employee compensation for five years.

As mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio puts it, "all eyes are on San Diego" because San Diego could become a national model for pension reform.

The labor unions didn't sit back and watch the signature gathering process. Instead, they created a fake organization that took out ads warning people that their identities could be stolen if they sign a petition and sent burly men to initimidate people at signature gathering locations.

Approximately 6.5 minutes.

Produced by Paul Feine and Alex Manning.
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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Pension
• Reform
• Union
• Shenanigans
• San Diego
• Election

[freesk8]

Unions must be allowed. Freedom of association is a natural right. But unions deserve no special protection by govt. No employer should be forced to recognize or negotiate with any union. No employee should be forced to join a union, regardless of how the rest of the workers vote. No union should enjoy protection from competition from other unions that may want to organize at a workplace. All states should be "right to work" states.

[grraadd]

so they were stupid enough to broadcast that they paid for the advertisement?!?

those marxists are fucking retarded...

[TheWrenaissance]

Great to see people taking action, the government has gotten way too large. These fantastical ideas of pension, social security, and bailing out corporations are not economically sound.

[MyDormantSoul]

@LordSparkisvati No, unions are. Police, teachers, and senior caregivers need to stay mostly public.

[eirefrance]

@1czelaya Take another look at the statement that I wrote: "And when more Americans were unionized, we actually had a middle class." WHEN, not BECAUSE. I am not drawing a direct correlation, because that would be impossible to do. As Austrians acknowledge with their "Our theories can't be proven they must be accepted prima facie", economies are complicated things. All I'm saying is WHEN we x, we ALSO had y. When x went away, y also went away.

[bighitter42]

@httm241 Jesus.... I'm not funded by a billionaire and understood this to be true long before I found Reason. It's not only common sense, it's common god damned decency to say that unions as they exist in many states have outlived their purpose. Protections exist...OSHA exists. Move on already.

Nobody(not even the dreaded Koch brothers,) want unions outlawed...get together and decide anything you like with your coworkers. Just don't expect protection from the government.

[dlstb]

@Vindaven Really? People couldn't understand that their pensions and retirement were more than the taxpayer could afford when a gov't job pays more on average than the private sector's equivalent and the gov't doesn't produce a single thing? How is this stuff not obvious? Its like when people argue about soc. sec. They watched gov't take their money, convert it to bonds (IOU's), spend the money, and they think just because they paid in they should get it back... They got scammed by themselves.

[vonGleichenT]

love it.

[httm241]

@Vindaven agreed this koch propoganda at its finest

[H1TMANactual]

@freesk8 Well summed up.

[Vindaven]

@dlstb So is forcing old people to work... because that's exactly what you're doing when you take away pension without decades of warning... they didn't know they would need a secondary retirement.

[shamgar001]

I don't want to jump to conclusions if I don't know what I'm talking about, but does anyone else notice that unions are the only political action groups who engage in these kinds of dirty tactics?