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The stock market's summer slide took a toll on public pension funds, with the assets of the 100 largest ones down 8.5% in the third quarter of 2011, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. The quarterly decline was the first since early 2010, and the steepest since the fourth quarter of 2008, when the asset total plummeted 13.5% at the height of the global financial crisis. The latest drop brought the value of investments and cash held by the biggest pension funds -- including the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the California State Teachers' Retirement System and the Los Angeles City...

Today wraps up a week of Capitol protests by the California Teachers Association and other groups that oppose cuts to the state's budget. Mark Paul, a former Bee editorial writer suggests that it refocus its efforts: Don't tell me that failure to extend the temporary taxes will result in big cuts in schools, including a shorter school year. Show me. Announce that, beginning Monday, every teacher in every school in the district of every Republican legislator who has failed to vote for the Governor's budget plan will be out sick. So will every other school employee. There will be no...

It’s going to be a very ugly day in Wisconsin. A crowd of 5,000 union protestors swarmed the state Capitol in Madison shattered windows and barricaded themselves inside amid calls for a “class war” after news got out that Senate Republicans had circumvented a Democratic blockade of a bill curbing state union power. “This is war. This is a class war that has been leveled against the working people of this country,” Moore told anchor Rachel Maddow. Some labor leaders are calling for a day of unrest and want teachers to again walk off the job in protest of the...

California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment have reached a tentative labor agreement with Gov. Jerry Brown. Here are the highlights: * 3% increase to employee pension contribution * 4% increase to top of salary step for all classes * All employees to receive 1.73 hours of additional leave * Contract protection, which ensures that should any other bargaining unit currently without a contract receive a better overall compensation package, members would be entitled to the difference.

SACRAMENTO -- As the debate over state pensions simmers in Sacramento, an appeals court Wednesday overturned part of a negotiated increase in retirement benefits for several thousand regulatory workers, saying the Legislature never approved the full increase or its estimated $40 million cost. The case involves 3,500 to 4,000 employees whose union, the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, reached an agreement with then-Gov. Gray Davis' administration in 2002 to reclassify them as "safety members" of the state's retirement system in July 2004. That entitled them to higher pensions - 2.5 percent of their pay, instead of 2 percent, for each...

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the patron saint of the American labor movement, was a man of strong character. Although he had a lock on labor's vote, he expressed caution about public sector unions. Roosevelt reasoned: "... Meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the government. All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations ... The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for ... officials...

French senators examine controversial legislation designed to overhaul France's pension system on Tuesday even as trade unions vow to continue organising strikes and street protests against government plans. Unions have staged three days of protest in less than a month, and have vowed to continue demonstrations and strikes, but the government was unbowed on the law's fundamentals after the latest rallies. The bill has already been passed by the lower house of parliament and will be examined from October 5 by the upper house, where it is expected to pass albeit after some noisy discussions. The leader of the Socialist...

PHILADELPHIA - Faced with deep budget deficits and overextended pension plans, state and local leaders are increasingly looking to trim the lucrative retirement benefits that have long been associated with government employment. Public employees are facing a backlash that has intensified with the nation's economic woes, union leaders say, because of their good job security, generous health-care and pension benefits, and right to retire long before most private-sector workers. The move to curtail retirement benefits for public-sector workers is fueled both by stark budget realities and by the resentment felt by private-sector workers who have seen their pay diminish in...

Millions of public sector workers will have to pay more into their pensions and retire on less in a purge on ' unsustainable' gold-plated funds. Teachers, NHS staff, local government workers and other state employees are then expected to be switched away from final salary schemes into less generous ones based on career average earnings. But the reforms will pitch the coalition into a major battle with militant public sector unions. Leaders are already threatening a wave of strikes as they fight to protect their workers’ pay and perks. Six million state employees enjoy generous pension schemes that are now...

California’s public pension crisis is a lot worse than anyone suspected and threatens to bankrupt the state if investment rates fail, says a report released today by the California Center for Public Policy. The report says that the state’s tax-paid pensions have made defacto millionaires out of most of California’s employees by the time they reach their late 50s. “Whether the standard is salary, working conditions, benefits or especially pensions, public employees in California receive compensation far in excess of what workers in the private sector do,” says the report. “It is illiberal and unjust.” State public employees are among...

As part of a lengthy corruption investigation, federal authorities have been examining $150,000 in consulting fees paid to a disgraced former Los Angeles labor leader under a confidential agreement signed by Andy Stern, then president of the powerful Service Employees International Union, according to documents and interviews. The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles had considered filing embezzlement charges against Alejandro Stephens, who headed the SEIU local for county government workers, in connection with the payments. They say the FBI and U.S. Labor Department investigators are focusing on whether Stern or other SEIU leaders expected Stephens to perform any work...

Sacramento — Scores of people convicted of crimes such as rape, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon are permitted to care for some of California's most vulnerable residents as part of the government's home health aide program. State and county investigators have not reported many whose backgrounds include violent crimes because the rules of the program, as interpreted by a judge earlier this year, permit felons to work as home care aides. Thousands of current workers have had no background checks. Advocates and unions note that nearly half of the 400,000 employees of the In Home Supportive Services...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California Supreme Court says furloughs of state workers can resume while it reviews whether governors have the authority to mandate unpaid days off. The announcement Wednesday was a victory for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has sought to save the state money by imposing another round of furloughs. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear says furloughs for about 150,000 state workers will begin Friday.

"A state appellate court ruled in Schwarzenegger's favor Friday, but the state controller, who issues state paychecks, says he can't comply. One reason given by Controller John Chiang, a Democrat elected in 2006: The state's computer system can't handle the technological challenge of restating paychecks to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour."

Clerical workers at several terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike after their contract expired early Thursday. There was no extension when the labor contract elapsed at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, said Stephen Berry, lead negotiator for the Harbor Employers Association. Berry said the shippers rejected the latest proposal which called for a wage increase of 21% over three years. Berry said the shippers countered with a proposal that includes a 10% increase in monthly pension payments and protection from layoffs. The shippers want to use new computer programs allowing customers access to booking information....

An ocean of purple washed over the west side of the state Capitol today as thousands of SEIU Local 1000 members wearing the union's signature t-shirts rallied for a new contract and held signs that pushed a new message, "I am California." Guadalupe Gonzalez carried a sign that read, "Hey Arnold, I can't feed my dog on minimum wage! Why do you want to kill my puppy?" Gonzalez said she makes less than $30,000 per year working in a Los Angeles-area office of the Department of Food and Agriculture. She's worried that just one or two months of her pay...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he was wrong to say during the campaign that he could change the state worker contract that Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine negotiated. Corzine reopened the workers' contracts in late 2008 after state revenues plunged and New Jersey's budget deficit ballooned. Under the renegotiated deal, the unions put off a 3.5 percent pay raise for 18 months and took furlough days in exchange for a no-layoff-pledge through December 2010. Christie now said his lawyers have told him that laying off state workers would accelerate the raise payment schedule under the current contract. The Republican said...

Are Union members to blame for for California's budget crisis or is the Union leadership?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will direct his administration to send 5,000 layoff notices to state workers Friday, according to a source familiar with the governor's budget plan. The Republican governor plans to eliminate 5,000 workers by the end of June, ..

SACRAMENTO — Thousands of protesting employees from the state's largest union, working without a contract since June and pay increases since 2003, threatened Monday to strike if they do not get a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars from deficit-plagued California. "I'm ready to strike" was the mantra of the day at a Capitol rally, both from union officials and members. A strike would affect government services of all kinds across the state. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's aides declined to comment on the 87,000-member union's strike-authorizing vote, scheduled for Monday. But administration officials said they are ready to begin negotiating...

About 6 million, or 4% of American workers, largely in government jobs, don't pay the taxes or get the pension - and most prefer it so. In some plans for revamping Social Security, there's a call to make the system mandatory.You're forgiven if you thought it already was.Roughly 4 percent of American workers - as many as six million - are outside the system. And most of them have no desire to get in.The vast majority are state and local employees, including members of police and fire departments in Philadelphia and throughout the country.Most state and municipal workers in most...

Sacramento -- Thinking about heading to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew your registration? Or going to a Franchise Tax Board office for help on a tax return? Don't go on Thursday. The doors to state offices will be locked for the holiday honoring Cesar Chavez. It's one of 13 official holidays that 200,000 state employees enjoy, along with a floating paid personal day that can be taken at their pleasure. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed eliminating two state holidays, eventually saving the state $17.6 million annually. "We're looking to achieve savings large and small," said H.D. Palmer,...

California auditors uncovered state employees submitting false expense reports, sleeping on the job, getting paid for unperformed work and living rent-free on state property, according to a report released Tuesday. In the state's latest semi-annual report on whistle-blower complaints, the Bureau of State Audits pinpointed at least eight cases of employee or agency misconduct between July and December of last year, costing the state $250,000 or more. The bureau has seen a sharp increase in complaints since 2002, when a law took effect requiring state agencies to notify employees about California's whistle-blower hotline. "It's very helpful because there have been...

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) - A Michigan couple and two employees of the Secretary of State's office were accused Friday of selling forged driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and wanted criminals, officials said. According to police reports, Rogelio Gonzales took payments and steered undercover officers posing as illegal immigrants to the Secretary of State office in Pontiac. At the office, Gonzales' wife acted as an interpreter while two employees issued fraudulent driver's licenses, said Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca. Secretary of State employees Andrea Cortez, 23, and Melinda Garrison, 37, were charged with conspiracy to sell forged driver's licenses and selling...