Labor Day this Monday, September 6, celebrates 100+ years of union history and accomplishments. Learn more about Labor Day 2010 at this special site.

This August 31 Los Angeles Times opinon piece describes the pivotal role that unions are playing in the November election cycle. Labor has already spent $14 million on advertising in favor of Jerry Brown's candidacy.
 

As this August 30 San Francisco Chronicle article outlines, by week's end the state budget deadlock will be one of the longest in California history, the longest having been in 2008. And, unfortunately, there's no end in sight.

On August 28, The Tribune, based in San Luis Obispo, published a thought-provoking viewpoint piece written by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Chapter 316 President Joan Kennedy in support of state workers. "This is a good piece by a good public servant," says CSUEU President Pat Gantt. "The Governor has tried to turn the public against us and make us scapegoats. We won't let him get away with that, and neither should the people of California." 

This August 30 opinion piece from the AFL-CIO Now Blog captures many of the most important talking points in support of public employees.

John Chiang speaks at Long Beach chapter event, CSUEU reaches agreement on expanded vision and dental coverage for adult children, new reprographics specialist series is implemented, CSEA Foundation reaches scholarship fundraising goal, and more!

This Sacramento Bee story summarizes 10 key milestones over the last three decades that have contributed to today's deep state budget problems. "It's important to know how we got to the budget problem today," says CSUEU President Pat Gantt. "In order to get the budget process back on track, Californians will need to address the issues outlined in this article."

On August 19, 2010, CSUEU and CSU met at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (CPP) in an effort to mitigate four layoffs which were announced on June 8, when CPP notified two Interpreters and two Realtime Captioners that they would be laid off effective September 7, 2010, due to a “lack of work.”

On the afternoon of August 18, the California Supreme Court allowed furloughs to start again Friday, as outlined in this August 19 Sacramento Bee article. The court stopped a lower court's order that briefly kept Gov. Schwarzenegger from resuming the controversial furlough policy. The order doesn't extend to CSU employees, because, unlike many other state agencies, CSU and other public higher education segments generally are not under the direct executive authority of the governor. Read the CSU's July 28 press release with further details.
 

Laird for State Senate this Tuesday, $365 million in CSU funding remains intact, Cal Poly Pomona decides that support for the deaf is seasonal, John Chiang set as Long Beach State chapter guest speaker, and more!