CPC's Janus Project reveals union membership hit 20-year low despite CA governments' hiring frenzy.

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** California’s government unions continue steady decline.
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Dear John,

Boosted by Covid emergency funding, California governments have gone on a hiring frenzy, but membership in California’s government unions has hit a 20-year low, documents obtained by California Policy Center show.


State and local government payroll records, obtained by CPC under the state’s Public Records Act, reveal that governments have added some 200,000 new employees after four years of declining employment. At the same time, government union membership continued its decline. Since the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v AFSCME, the state’s unions have lost a total of 378,000 potential members.


In Janus, the Court declared that governments cannot require their employees to join unions without violating those employees’ First Amendment rights of speech and assembly.


“This decline is most remarkable because it comes despite that massive hiring boom,” said Jackson Reese, Vice President of California Policy Center and director of CPC's Janus project. “Every time a worker resigns union membership, her union loses close to $1,000 in dues per year. And, of course, that means $1,000 annually goes into the employee’s pocket.”


Reese, who led CPC’s documents review, said his team calculates that the membership losses produced a decline in annual union dues income of just under $337 million.


“That’s money the unions no longer have to finance campaigns, engage in political activism or lobby government officials — and that’s a key purpose of our work here,” Reese said.


Some of the most notable declines took place in the California University system where almost 45% of faculty and staff are no longer paying into their unions. Internal records report 29,403 employees have decided union membership is no longer for them.


On the opposite side of the spectrum, many firefighting unions are still retaining the bulk of their membership — despite the California Professional Firefighters consistent endorsements and financial support of progressive candidates statewide.


CPC has spent about $4.5 million for its part in helping government workers resign from their unions.


“Wherever we deploy our resources, the documents show a steep decline in union membership,” Reese said. “Without intervention, union membership remains even or rises just a bit.”


“We’re winning the fight to liberate government workers from unions that work every day against the interests of California’s working people,” said CPC president Will Swaim. “But the fight continues. The unions have controlled state and local government for decades — decades in which the state has become more and more dysfunctional. They’re not going to disappear because we ask politely.”


If you know government workers who think they’re trapped in their union, help them resign. Send them here ([link removed]) .


** Factchecking the factcheckers.
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Among the most diabolical innovations of late-twentieth century newspapering was the so-called “factcheck.” Factchecking pretends that reporters are godlike — objective, neutral, free of bias. That itself is a fact that needs checking.


Take the once-esteemed Associated Press ([link removed]) and its recent “factcheck” of a statement by the Florida GOP — and the connection of that “factcheck” to education in California.


The story begins with this early September tweet from the Florida Republican Party: “When Governor DeSantis took office, Florida ranked 26th in the nation for teacher pay. Today we are 9th. Every year he fights to ensure Florida teachers get the support and funding they need.”


A few days later, on September 16, AP reporter Ali Swenson donned a surgeon’s scrubs and gloves to examine that claim. She determined that the Florida GOP’s claim was “false.”

Swenson arrived at this conclusion after examining “national salary data” which, Swenson says, “contradicts [the party’s] numbers.” But Swenson admits her numbers come from “the National Center for Education Statistics ([link removed]) ” which, along with several other online sources, “get their salary information from the NEA, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, which compiles most of its data from state education departments.”


Quoting Staci Maiers, an NEA spokesperson, Swenson says the NEA data shows that Florida “ranked 48th in the 2020-2021 school year, giving teachers an average of $51,009. The state is estimated to continue to rank 48th for the 2021-2022 school year.”


Ranking 48th is a far cry from ranking 9th. And the salary implications of that ranking would seem to be bad for Florida teachers. The same NEA report shows that California teachers earned a whopping $84,531, making them No. 2 in the nation, just behind New York.


Now, let’s factcheck the factchecker.


First, asking the NEA what it thinks of Florida teacher salaries is a little like asking Vladimir Putin what he thinks of Ukraine.


Second, rating teacher pay is, in fact, more complicated than the AP suggests — certainly more difficult than asking a propaganda unit of the teachers union what it thinks.


First, you have to examine the cost of living. In that case, you’d find Florida teacher salaries go much farther than California teacher salaries. That cost-of-living metric is missing entirely from the AP’s “factcheck.” The overall cost of living ([link removed]) in Florida is 43 percent less than in California. In the key category of housing, Florida is a remarkable 72 percent less expensive than California. This is largely a function of government regulation and taxes.


Nor does the NEA report note that California teacher pay does not include the cost of benefits like pensions and retiree healthcare — costs that account for some of the state’s record $1.6 trillion in debt ([link removed]) . Principle and interest payments on benefits increasingly limit what local governments and districts can spend for basic government services — services like education.


If you raise the salaries and increase the benefits of teachers and other government employees, you raise taxes for everybody. And because people don’t like to pay California taxes, some of them leave our state — moving to low-tax, reasonably regulated places like Florida. That phenomenon is so common that it has a name: The California exodus ([link removed]) .


AP’s hatchet job suggests that their story selection and NEA sourcing have something to do with the fact that AP is actually a partisan organization, looking to provide comfort to those who fear DeSantis as the greatest threat to Democrats in the 2024 presidential campaign. You don’t have to love Ron DeSantis to find this kind of “reporting” outrageous.


The true ranking of teacher salaries ought to include this consideration: what did taxpayers get for their money? By most measures of student achievement (here ([link removed]⊂=MAT&sj=&sfj=NP&st=MN&year=2019R3) and here ([link removed]) , for example), Florida ranks near the middle of the states. California ranks dead last.


Read the full article ([link removed]) by CPC president Will Swaim.



** Parent Union hosts parents’ rights forum in Santa Ana.
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CPC’s Parent Union is presenting a special forum “Understanding Your Parental Rights in Your Child’s Education” on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 from 6:00-8:00pm. The event will be hosted in Spanish and feature education leaders who will discuss key topics such as:

* Understanding your rights as a parent
* What role the teachers unions play in the public school system
* How schools are performing on education basics like reading and math
* How to advocate for your child at school
* Knowing what services and resources are available for families



Speakers will include Cecilia “Ceci” Iglesias, founder of CPC’s Parent Union and former School Board Trustee, Santa Ana Unified School District; Magda Gomez (parent and school choice advocate); Araceli Justiniani (parent advocate); Jorge Valdes, 1st District Trustee, Orange County Board of Education; and Lance Christensen, Vice President of Education Policy and Government Affairs at California Policy Center.


When: Thursday, October 13, 2022

Time: 6pm-8pm

Location:

2609 W 5th St
Santa Ana, CA 92703


The event is free and light dinner will be served. To RSVP for dinner, please email Rebecca Holz, Director of CPC's Parent Union, at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .


SUPPORT CPC ([link removed])
New Podcast ()
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** Radio Free California #245: Gavin Newsom, World Governor
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On this week's podcast with CPC president Will Swaim and CPC board president David Bahnsen: Gavin Newsom signs some 40 bills to save the planet, Leonardo DiCaprio’s climate-saving initiatives depend upon slavery, and the truth about high gas prices. Listen now ([link removed]) .

More from CPC ()


** Class Size Lies
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The number of kids in the classroom has no effect on educational achievement, but that doesn’t stop the teachers unions from making it one of their top issues. Why? Because smaller classes means hiring more dues-paying teachers, increasing unions’ bottom line. Read the article ([link removed]) by Larry Sand.


** Are Government Pension Funds in Crisis Again?
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With today’s uncertain outlook for stocks, bonds and real estate, it's timely to take a look at the financial health of California’s pension systems. CPC senior fellow Edward Ring takes a deep dive in his latest article ([link removed]) .


** Quote of the Week
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"California's government unions spend $2 billion every two years on politics. That's why California is wrecked." — CPC president Will Swaim ([link removed])
SUPPORT CPC ([link removed])

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