- Great moments in public employee unionism, cont’d: D.C. Metro track inspector charged after derailment with falsifying records wins reinstatement and back pay in arbitration [Max Smith, WTOP, earlier here (similar after fatal smoke incident) and here] Could be permanent? “Bus drivers’ union threatens strike over driverless buses” [Jason Aubry, WCMH (Columbus, Ohio)]
- Letting guests skip housekeeping = grievance: “Union Threatens Strike over Marriott’s Green Initiative” [Darrell VanDeusen, Kollman & Saucier]
- Stephen Bainbridge series on what’s wrong with Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposals [earlier, etc.] continues with a post on labor co-determination and employee involvement in corporate governance;
- “Public Sector Unions Win Big at the California Supreme Court: California citizens must now meet and confer with union bosses before qualifying any compensation-related initiatives for the ballot.” [Steven Greenhut, Reason]
- My Frederick News Post letter to the editor opposing Question D (mandatory binding arbitration and collective bargaining for career firefighters). More on mandatory binding arbitration in the public sector: Ivan Osorio et al on California, for Cato (see pp. 12 et seq.); Steve Eide, Public Sector Inc., 2013.
- “Waikiki, Hawaii hotel workers decline to join union; the union demands they pay full dues anyway, starts process to garnish their wages. Does the union’s conduct amount to an unfair labor practice? NLRB: No, the union made an honest mistake. D.C. Circuit: That ‘makes no sense.’ The union never apologized or said it made a mistake. Its message to the workers was, ‘We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.'” [John Kenneth Ross, IJ “Short Circuit”]
Posts Tagged ‘Hawaii’
Public employment roundup
- Striking expose of why subway construction costs so much more in New York City than in other cities like Paris and Hong Kong [Brian M. Rosenthal, New York Times]
- “The Myth of Public-Sector Unions’ ‘Free Rider’ Problem” [Trevor Burrus and Reilly Stephens, Cato, on Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, earlier here, here, and here]
- Ray of hope on Golden State finances: Gov. Jerry Brown says absurd “California Rule” on pensions must yield [Nick Gillespie] “The Legalities of Pension Reform: How Do You Get There From Here?” [Alexander Volokh, Reason Foundation]
- “Battling treacherous office chairs and aching backs, aging cops and firefighters miss years of work and collect twice the pay” [Jack Dolan, Gus Garcia-Roberts and Ryan Menezes, L.A. Times]
- Politicized pensions: NYC’s scheme to divest from oil companies is unlikely to accomplish goal but does put funds’ investment performance at risk [James Copland, New York Daily News]
Annual survey of more than 280 state-administered public pension plans finds trouble ahead [Thurston Powers, Elliot Young, Bob Williams & Erica York, ALEC] - “The missile employee messed up because Hawaii rewards incompetence” [Gene Park, Washington Post]
Occupational licensure roundup
- Adam Smith’s famous line about members of the same trade meeting together was a reference to occupational licensure — and Colorado’s unique delicensing of funeral directors in 1983 allows a natural experiment [Brandon Pizzola and Alexander Tabarrok, Cato Research Brief]
- “The Most Bizarre Licenses in Michigan: Potato dealers, foresters, butter graders and more” [Jarrett Skorup, Michigan Capitol Confidential]
- “In Hawaii, it takes an average of 988 days and $438 in fees to become licensed to perform one of many occupations under the thumbs of state regulators.” [J.D. Tuccille, Reason] More: Eric Boehm (“The Five Most Outrageous Licensing Stories of 2017”);
- A licensure infographic [Eric Boehm, Reason, using data from Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty]
- Maryland General Assembly piles absurd new continuing education mandates on licensed cosmetologists [Anastasia Boden, PLF]
- “Bottleneckers: The Origins of Occupational Licensing and What Can Be Done About Its Excesses” [Dick M. Carpenter, Federalist Society]
Puerto Rico: Administration won’t extend 10-day Jones Act waiver
Protectionism for the benefit of stateside shipping interests wins out over the rescue-and-rebuild interests of Puerto Rico and its citizenry. And yes, non-Jones ships have already been coming to help in the island’s Hurricane Maria recovery, so forget the claim heard last week that lack of port capacity and the availability of U.S. government vessels makes the law irrelevant. [Scott Shackford, Reason, earlier here and here] And given the Act’s impact on consumers in Hawaii and Alaska, how can it be that all four members of the Hawaii congressional delegation, and two of the three from Alaska, are stalwart backers of the law? [Colin Grabow, Cato] More: Tyler Cowen.
Liability roundup
- “A handful of plaintiffs’ lawyers dominates MDL (multi-district) litigation. Is that a problem?” [Alison Frankel, Reuters]
- “A. 5918: Unconstitutional, Unwise and Futile Effort to Expand N.Y. Courts’ Jurisdiction” [Marc Gottridge and Lisa Fried, New York Law Journal, earlier on would-be end-run around Daimler limits on state court jurisdiction]
- “Hawaii counties threaten to pull lifeguards off state beaches if liability bill dies” [Nathan Eagle, Honolulu Civil Beat]
- No good reason why New York municipalities should be required to pay interest rate as high as 9 percent a year on lawsuit outlays [Adam Morey, Auburn Citizen letter to editor]
- “Ohio Supreme Court orders halt in liquidation of defunct Chesley law firm” [James McNair, City Beat (Cincinnati)]
- “What Should Tort Law Do When Autonomous Vehicles Crash?” [Michael Krauss; Jones Day]
Supreme Court and constitutional law roundup
- More views on Article V convention to propose constitutional amendments [Glenn Reynolds/USA Today, Mark Pulliam/Liberty and Law, Ashley Balcerzak, Center for Public Integrity with emphasis on conservative-vs.-conservative battles; my take]. I may be debating the idea in St. Louis March 22, watch for more details;
- As part of wrongheaded efforts at tribalization of native Hawaiians, state of Hawaii keeps trying to hold racially discriminatory elections [Ilya Shapiro/Cato, earlier here, etc.]
- Taking drug preemption case would enable Court to clarify application of Wyeth v. Levine [WLF]
- “The Rise of Judicial Review for Economic Liberty” [John McGinnis]
- “Supreme Court To Rule on ‘Implied Certification’ False Claims Act Theory” [Beck quoting James Martin, Colin Wrabley, M. Patrick Yingling of Reed Smith on Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar]
- Court should review Oklahoma license plate case in which Tenth Circuit applied less protective “symbolic speech” standard [Ilya Shapiro and Jayme Weber, Cato]
- “The Tetzlaff Aftermath: Discharging Student Loans In Bankruptcy Might Be Easier Than We Thought” [Shannon Achimalbe, Above the Law]
Supreme Court and constitutional law roundup
- Supreme Court has blocked for now “an election with racial qualifications that could eventually establish a new government for so-called ‘native Hawaiians.'” [Ilya Shapiro/Cato, earlier on Hawaiian tribalization here, here, etc.]
- Some scholars seem a bit evasive about historic British use of gun control to disarm minority religionists [David Kopel]
- Occupational licensure and Connecticut teeth-whitening case: does mere protection of incumbents against competition count as “rational basis” for government action? [Timothy Sandefur, Cato]
- Class actions: some predict Court not likely to do much more than tinker [Alison Frankel, Paul Karlsgodt]
- Update: “California woman who bought Eurail pass in US can’t sue here for Austrian accident, SCOTUS says” [ABA Journal, earlier]
- Supreme Court should defend interstate commerce against extraterritorial Colorado law providing that electric power entering state must have been generated in certain ways [Ilya Shapiro and Randal John Meyer]
- “Old, cryptic, or vague” 14th Amendment: Judge Posner can’t have his Constitution and eat it too, thinks Josh Blackman.
“Colorado, Oregon Reject GMO Labeling”
Mauna Kea, NAGPRA, and science’s “turn back toward the dark ages”
Now this is welcome: the New York Times (via Ronald Bailey) has a column by George Johnson jumping off from the question of whether locating a giant telescope on Mauna Kea would unfairly desecrate the religious and ancestral heritage of (some) native Hawaiians. Johnson notes:
While biblical creationists opposing the teaching of evolution have been turned back in case after case, American Indian tribes have succeeded in using their own religious beliefs and a federal law called the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to empty archaeological museums of ancestral bones — including ones so ancient that they have no demonstrable connection to the tribe demanding their reburial. The most radical among them refuse to bow to a science they don’t consider their own. A few even share a disbelief in evolution, professing to take literally old myths in which the first people crawled out of a hole in the ground.
In this turn back toward the dark ages, it is not just skeletal remains that are being surrendered. Under the federal law, many ceremonial artifacts are also up for grabs. While some archaeologists lament the loss of scientific information, Indian creationism is tolerated out of a sense of guilt over past wrongdoings.
Even some scientists bow and go along in the spirit of reparations, while admitting the loss to human inquiry and future knowledge. Earlier on NAGPRA and the Kennewick Man controversy here, here, etc.
Food roundup
- Obama pick for USDA nutrition chief advances food-as-social-justice theme [Politico, Free Beacon and more, Jeff Stier/Des Moines Register]
- Hawaii GMO battle is one the whole nation should watch [Mark Strauss, io9]
- “Overprotective Government, Overweight Kids?” [Lenore Skenazy]
- “Cherry wars: The crazy economics of Michigan’s favorite pitted fruit” [Bridge Magazine]
- “FDA’s Artificial Trans Fat ‘Ban’: A Dangerous Step to Control Personal Dietary Choices” [Daren Bakst, Heritage via Michelle Minton, CEI]
- And in the wings: FDA readies crackdown on salt as ingredient [AP]
- French law mandating disclosure of whether restaurant food is made in house isn’t going well [Baylen Linnekin, more]