The dream called California. Thats where I live,work enjoy my time, raise my family,and was born here as well.
But something has gone wrong here. When I travel I use to see the cleanest rest areas in the country, but as of late thay are dirty and run down. This is just one sign of the times, and a growing part of California is looking like that. No one in state goverment is held accountable so they all pass the buck. No one will stand up to do the right thing anymore, even if it is only cleaning the rest rooms at a rest area. No one cares because there job will allways be there due to the unions and all of the power that they now have as a emplyee union and that is just wrong my friends. Meg Whitman is the answer I belive. Now all of the unions are worried about her wanting to clean up the state and break there hold on power.
I say let her clean up our state and make it shine again. Don't you like to stop in a clean restroom, or do you like the dirty ones?
I say let her clean up our state so we can be proud or our Dream called California once again!!!!!!!!!!!

When a teachers union opposes a ballot measure that would increase teachers pay, you know their must be a poison pill included in the language of the initiative. As unlikely as it seems, that's just what's happening in Oakland where the local teachers union is actively opposing a ballot measure that would levy an additional property tax to the tune of $120 per parcel.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

• Measure N was placed on the ballot by Vince Matthews, the state administrator who oversees the district's finances. (The board lost fiscal authority in 2003, when Oakland schools went bankrupt.)
  
  Noel Gallo is the lone school board member who supports the parcel tax. He said Oakland students suffer because their low-paid teachers quit the district in droves each year. With a starting salary of $39,000 - compared with San Francisco's $52,000, for example - Oakland teachers are the lowest paid in the Bay Area, Gallo said.

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(cross-posted on Calitics)

It is a dirty little secret, but often times the more virulently anti-union employers are religious orders that run health systems. Such is the situation with the Sisters of St. Joseph who run the St. Joseph Health System. They have been resisting the efforts of their service employees to join SEIU-UHW for the past three years.

SEIU-UHW is organizing a series of events this week in support of their organizing efforts. Today Delores Huerta of the United Farm Workers wrote a HuffPost piece on the struggle.

This week I'm joining St. Joseph Health System workers, Attorney General Jerry Brown, Father Eugene Boyle, actor Ed Begley Jr, and community and religious leaders to call upon the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange to make peace with their workers.

For decades, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange have fought for justice for California's workers. In the summer of 1973, they marched in solidarity with Cesar Chavez and farm workers during the brutal Grape Strike. I witnessed the Sisters putting their personal safety at risk. They walked picket lines and even went to jail with more than 3500 striking farm workers. I was inspired by the Sisters' commitment to stand with the farm workers, even in the face of violent provocation.

But now, these same sisters are refusing to show their own workers the same justice they once fought for.

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