Should local taxpayers be forced to fund union strikes?
Milo Winter: The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, 1919. Image in Public Domain
In the OC Register, Lance Christensen analyzes SB 799, currently sitting on the governor's desk. He explains why he believes the bill—designated a “Job Killer” by the CA Chamber of Commerce—would squander taxpayer money by footing the bill for striking (instead of truly unemployed) workers.
Doomed to repeat the past, California’s legislature has proposed using already strained unemployment funds to pay Hollywood’s striking workers. Golden State taxpayers are already reeling from budget mismanagement that saw a $100 billion surplus turn to a $25 billion deficit. Now the legislature is poised to saddle the state with more debt by forcing employers and taxpayers to pick up the tab for striking workers.
Constitutionally and traditionally, striking workers do not meet the standards of true unemployment, which generally involves not having a job and actively searching for one. Whatever one’s view on the merits of the writers’ strike, it’s a private sector dispute between unionized workers and their employers. The state shouldn’t be putting its thumb on the scale let alone asking taxpayers and small businesses to pay so the writers can have a better bargaining position.
Is the state seriously suggesting that California’s farmers, factory workers and line cooks should pay screenwriters?
The California Chamber of Commerce has rightly called Senate Bill (SB) 799 a “Job Killer” and a particularly unnecessary burden for small business owners. With the state Unemployment Insurance (UI) fund still $18 billion in debt to the federal government, with hundreds of millions in interest charges on the way, passing this bill would be a dereliction of fiscal duty.
The bill’s sponsor, California State Senator Anthony Portantino, soon to run the gauntlet for a Congressional seat, has suggested, incredibly, that the crippling debt of the unemployment fund “shouldn’t be used as an excuse” to not pass his bill, which would add yet more debt to pay gainfully employed strikers. On the contrary, being $18 billion in the red is a great reason not to add more red ink.
This article originally appeared in the Orange County Register. Read the whole thing here.
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