Public Sector

I was in Toledo, Ohio, last week, watching the labor union drama in Wisconsin unfold from a La-Z-Boy chair in a suburban home that was purchased, furnished and paid off by the wages of a factory worker. Watching with me were union acolytes; family members who built comfortable lives in grocery store produce departments and on spark plug assembly lines. They know the worth of union muscle and support those rallying Midwestern masses. They see the standoff for what it is: a political power grab; union-busting masquerading as budget-balancing.

A Bay Area nonprofit backed partly by groups known for battling teachers unions has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn five California laws that, they say, make it too difficult to dismiss ineffective teachers. The suit, filed on behalf of eight students, takes aim at California laws that govern teacher tenure rules, seniority protections and the teacher dismissal process. "A handful of outdated laws passed by the California Legislature are preventing school administrators from maintaining or improving the quality of our public educational system," according to the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court and announced Tuesday.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and unionized public employees have squared off in a battle that mixes economics and politics with labor and management rights. Similar battles have spread to Indiana and Ohio. Here is a primer to understanding the crisis sweeping parts of the Midwest. What is happening in Wisconsin? Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker proposed charging public employees more for their health insurance and pension benefits, setting off a firestorm of demonstrations, now in their second week.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney is fond of telling crowds that women have lost more jobs than men have under President Obama's economic watch. Is he correct? Kind of. But it's not like the Obama administration deliberately targeted women. Rather, women took an especially rough economic pounding because they play a disproportionately large role in our public schools. And public schools have suffered mightily in recent years. According to the National Women's Law Center, women lost 396,000 public sector jobs during the recovery, or more than two-thirds of all such jobs cut. The economy may now be on the mend, but it's not like the public sector is rushing to fill all those vacancies.

Dear Karen: How can I make a good decision about buying an ice cream franchise? Answer: Request a document called the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular, which franchisers are required by law to provide. Next, do your own research on this opportunity. Is it within your budget? "Food concepts are some of the more expensive franchises, but ice cream franchises are on the low end in terms of capital requirements," said Garth Snider, president of FranchiseOpportunities.

Joseph A. McCartin's Op-Ed article on Tuesday pointing out that collective bargaining for public employees has only recently become controversial prompted reader Betty W. Hosie of La Jolla to write: "McCartin missed a few points. He did not mention Franklin Roosevelt's letter in 1934 stating there should never be collective bargaining in government. In 1955, George Meany, president of AFL-CIO, agreed with him, stating that when government strikes, it strikes against the taxpayer.

California shed 66,500 jobs in June, and more losses loom as double-digit unemployment spreads to state and local governments, once reliable bastions of employment security. June's 11.6% unemployment rate is a post-World War II record. Professional services, construction and trade continue to top the state's jobless categories. But in a troubling sign, governments -- a stable part of the state's economy for a decade -- have been laying off thousands of workers in recent months.

A chance on charters Re "Whistle-blowers to open a charter," Jan. 18 Congratulations to the Los Angeles teachers who are opening their own charter school. They will have the professional autonomy to do the very best they can for their students without being micromanaged from above. They can manage the school themselves or select someone to be head teacher. They will be able to make key decisions about the budget as well as curriculum, instruction and staffing.

Public sector unions representing 1 million members called off a nearly monthlong strike, ending a labor action that shut schools and crippled hospitals across South Africa. A majority of the unions agreed to sign the government's final offer, including a 7.5% wage increase. The rest will return to work while negotiations continue, the unions said in a statement. The unions originally had demanded 12%. The government's initial offer was 6.5%.

Re "Municipalities Struggle to Pay Pensions," July 12: Those of us in the private sector worry about whether we will see any of our promised Social Security benefits when we retire. We hear discussions of "responsible reform" to save the program that would further increase our payroll taxes, delay our retirement and reduce our benefits. Our Social Security trust fund is being pillaged to pay for government revenue shortfalls, part of which is assistance to states and municipalities as well as funding public-sector pension programs.

Campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney continues to assert that his private-sector experience makes him particularly suited to the office of president. That experience, he emphasizes, would be central to his unique capacity to turn the economy around, keep it growing and create jobs. He may be right. But a review of recent U.S. history offers little evidence that private-sector experience is linked to presidential success. Since 1901, 21 men have served as president; 16 had no real experience as a businessperson in the private sector.

A chance on charters Re "Whistle-blowers to open a charter," Jan. 18 Congratulations to the Los Angeles teachers who are opening their own charter school. They will have the professional autonomy to do the very best they can for their students without being micromanaged from above. They can manage the school themselves or select someone to be head teacher. They will be able to make key decisions about the budget as well as curriculum, instruction and staffing.

Joseph A. McCartin's Op-Ed article on Tuesday pointing out that collective bargaining for public employees has only recently become controversial prompted reader Betty W. Hosie of La Jolla to write: "McCartin missed a few points. He did not mention Franklin Roosevelt's letter in 1934 stating there should never be collective bargaining in government. In 1955, George Meany, president of AFL-CIO, agreed with him, stating that when government strikes, it strikes against the taxpayer.

On Jan. 17, 1962, President Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988, bringing collective bargaining rights to most federal workers for the first time. Kennedy's order might be the least known of the string of significant events that made the 1960s such crucial years in American history. At the time Kennedy acted, very few workers at any level of government had won the right to bargain collectively with their employers. Federal action helped inspire many states and localities to follow suit, allowing their own workers to organize.

Teachers, doctors, court reporters, border-control agents, ambulance drivers and other public-sector workers walked off the job across Britain on Wednesday in a massive protest against the government's plans to overhaul their pensions. Unions estimated that as many as 2 million state employees went on strike, which would make it the biggest mass industrial action this nation has seen in at least a generation. The government insisted that the number was much smaller, with Prime Minister David Cameron describing the one-day job action as "a damp squib.

Lanny Ebenstein wants you to vote to kneecap the state's public workers unions by banning their right to collective bargaining. Other measures scrambling to qualify for the November 2012 ballot would drop the hammer specifically on public employees' pensions or increase their retirement age, but Ebenstein's may be the most uncompromising. Ebenstein, a lecturer in economics at UC Santa Barbara, believes that it's too cozy for unions to be bargaining with bosses they've likely campaigned to elect -- and the state's economic doldrums are one result.

A jobs fair for people interested in the public sector will be held Saturday at the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza. The event will be held on the upper and lower levels of the mall from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is co-sponsored by Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, the Sheriff's Department, the Los Angeles County Office of Affirmative Action Compliance and Councilwoman Ruth Galanter. Representatives from 21 county departments and 10 city departments will provide information about job openings and test dates.

Millions of Indian workers walked off their jobs Friday in a one-day protest against the government's announced plan to close unprofitable state-owned industries as part of an effort to move the country from socialism toward free-market capitalism. The strike crippled state-dominated industries such as banking, air transport, insurance and energy, but had a lesser impact in industries where India's private sector is active, such as textiles and manufacturing.

For 24 hours Wednesday, Greece's public sector lay in a coma. Flights were grounded, state schools closed and government offices stopped services as tens of thousands of civil servants walked off their jobs to protest a fresh batch of brutal budget cuts and a debt crisis showing no signs of ending. Organized by the country's two biggest labor unions, the strike was the first since Greece's beleaguered socialist government last month unveiled new controversial austerity measures that include more pension cuts and property tax and plans to terminate 30,000 public sector jobs by the end of the year in a desperate bid to stave off a dangerous default.

Jobs are slowly coming back, but that's small comfort to more than 13 million Americans who remain unemployed. For every current job opening, four people are still looking for a job. Many others have given up even trying to find work. The American economy is trapped in a vicious cycle. Those who are unemployed can't afford to buy much more than bare necessities, while people who are working are getting skimpier paychecks. This means consumers don't have much purchasing power, which has made companies reluctant to hire more employees or raise the wages of those they have.