Mar 28, 2017
Listening to the Gorsuch confirmation hearings makes me wonder whether the judiciary has become the least honest branch of government. We have been through this tedious kabuki theater again and again: asked their positions on seminal cases, like Roe v. Wade, judicial nominees respond reflexively that they cannot answer because the same question might come before them on the bench,…
Mar 2, 2017
The presidential election was a primal scream for good jobs, but many elected officials seem not to have heard it. It’s time for a simple, common sense reform to address the crying need for family-sustaining employment: Every public policy that involves employing people should create good jobs. Although direct government employment generally pays at least a living wage, the jobs…
Dec 22, 2016
At the behest of big corporations, the federal government has all but taken away the freedom of workers to organize in order to get their fair share. When workers lack the freedom to organize, wages stagnate, the middle class shrinks and inequality soars. Contrary to Republican dogma, it is workers and not businesses who are over-regulated. American workers are crying…
Dec 21, 2016
This year organized labor dodged a bullet when Justice Antonin Scalia’s death left the Supreme Court tied in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. If Scalia had lived, the Court would have decided in Friedrichs that public sector workers cannot be required to pay for the services they receive from the union that represents the employees at their…
Jan 22, 2015
There’s good news and bad news in the City of San Jose’s just-released Comprehensive Annual Financial Report on its two pension funds. The good news is that the investment returns for the Police and Fire Plan (which covers police and fire) and the Federated Plan (which covers everyone else) were 13.5% and 14.2% respectively. That’s well above the 7.125% and…
Jul 22, 2014
When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country,” he expressed a view shared by many business leaders. In today’s business climate it seems incredible, but through much of the 20th century business leaders supported workers’ rights. Why did leading…
Jul 14, 2014
My friends in the Liccardo-for-Mayor camp keep telling me that Sam will not be like Chuck Reed. It’s hard to believe. Sam has voted with the Mayor on every major economic justice issue. The two of them opposed the minimum wage increase, voted to undermine the City’s living wage policy, imposed work conditions on most of the City’s employees and…
Feb 12, 2014
Last weekend’s opinion piece by Chamber of Commerce CEO Matt Mahood explaining that the Chamber might not oppose a badly needed tax increase in San Jose is a good sign. Anyone who pays attention to what’s going on in the City can see that it desperately needs more money just to pay for essential services like police, firefighters, libraries and…
Jan 8, 2014
Today we are embarking on an endeavor that can change the political and social landscape of Silicon Valley. It’s called The Left Hook-Politics with a Punch. The Left Hook will offer a progressive perspective on issues that impact Silicon Valley. With new content daily and a wide variety of writers drawn from throughout the community, The Left Hook will be…