by Ron DeLord | Nov 27, 2016 | Collective Bargaining, Labor, Police, Politics, Unions
HARRISBURG – Gov. Wolf on Monday vetoed a controversial bill that would have strictly limited public officials’ right to release immediately the names of police officers involved in shootings. “While I am deeply concerned for the safety of the...
by Ron DeLord | Nov 27, 2016 | Collective Bargaining, Fire, Health Insurance, Labor, Police, Politics, Public Employees (Non-Sworn), Unions
State officials want to remove health insurance benefits from new union contracts with state and local government workers, eliminating those items from Iowa’s collective bargaining law for public employees. Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday the proposal is...
by Ron DeLord | Nov 27, 2016 | Collective Bargaining, Fire, Labor, Pensions, Police, Politics, Unions
DANVILLE – In 1989, the city owed the police and fire pension funds about $16 million because the city officials had reportedly underfunded both accounts since 1935. Today, the combined unfunded liability for the public safety pensions is more than $103 million — for...
by Ron DeLord | Nov 27, 2016 | Collective Bargaining, Fire, Labor, Pensions, Police, Politics, Public Employees (Non-Sworn), Unions
Mayor Lenny Curry threw down the gauntlet earlier this month by proposing to eliminate pensions for all future city employees, upending what is widely viewed as a bedrock of government service, particularly for higher-risk employees like cops and firefighters. The...
by Ron DeLord | Nov 27, 2016 | Collective Bargaining, Fire, Labor, Police, Politics, Public Employees (Non-Sworn), Unions
Thunderclaps have an echo; the bigger the boom, the bigger the reverberation. On November 8, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, revealing the smarty-pants set in Washington DC to be not so smart after all. Ten days later, on November 18, the...
by Ron DeLord | Nov 27, 2016 | Collective Bargaining, Fire, Labor, Pensions, Police, Politics, Public Employees (Non-Sworn), Unions
SACRAMENTO — A year after his 2010 election, Gov. Jerry Brown made a rare appearance at a legislative committee hearing to confront lawmakers about the steep cost of public employee pensions — and to demand that they pass his 12-point pension overhaul....