Originally Posted By Darkbeer California Recovery Team Press Release.... Union Bosses Caught in More Campaign Lies SACRAMENTO, CALIF. October 20th, 2005 – The anti-reform campaign being waged by Sacramento’s union bosses was caught in still more lies today, this time in the form of a press release about the California Recovery Team’s (CRT) recent Yes on Prop 75 mailer. The press release from the Alliance for a Better California (ABC) repeats a series of uninformed claims about the CRT’s postal mail rates made today in a letter to the CRT from ABC attorney Lance Olson. “Mr. Olson appears to be very poorly informed about postal law,†stated postal law expert and attorney Jim Lacy. “His letter evidences a complete misunderstanding and misrepresentation of postal rules as they impact ballot proposition elections. There is absolutely no substance or truth to his letter. He is trying to intimidate our organization from exercising its Constitutional rights to support a ballot proposition.†A copy of Mr. Lacy’s response letter to Mr. Olson is attached. Additionally, the ABC press release today reported that “A fake union bug on the Proposition 75 mailer identifies the piece as being printed by a union shop in Los Angeles, but no such printer exists.†Again, absolutely, positively, 100% untrue. In fact, not only is the print shop used for this mailer a union shop, but it is the second-largest union print shop in Los Angeles. Interestingly, it is the same print shop used by none other than Lance Olson himself on other pro-labor campaigns. In addition, the shop has regularly done work for the unions themselves. “California Offset Printers, Inc. ("COP") currently has employees subject to a collective bargaining agreement and has had employees subject to a collective bargaining agreement since 1963,†stated COP President William Rittwage. “COP has a license agreement with the International Allied Printing Trades Union to use the Union's ‘Bug.’ If you have any questions, please contact COP's representative Andrew B. Kaplan, at (310) 282-9400.†“The campaign being waged by the union bosses has a real problem telling the truth,†stated California Recovery Team spokesman Todd Harris. “There is no limit to the lies they will tell, big and small. First, they lie all summer about the Governor’s education funding record. Most recently, they put bogus No on 74 ads on TV that even the media has called “false†and “not true,†and now this is the latest example. The public is growing tired of the Big Lie campaign from the union bosses.â€
Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/12959406.htm" target="_blank">http://www.mercurynews.com/mld /mercurynews/news/politics/12959406.htm</a> >>The governor's team late Thursday released details showing that the ballot committee -- known as the California Recovery Team -- is indeed registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit, tax-exempt social welfare organization. Hiltachk called the attack a desperate attempt to take attention away from the real campaign issues. ``Like we haven't ever seen the American Heart Association support a tobacco tax,'' Hiltachk said, ``or the unions, which are also non-profits, spend a little money to support their position. Give me a break.'' Renee Focht, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said provisions in the U.S. postal code do allow many organizations to send political mail at the reduced non-profit rate. Paul Krenn, national spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said that the alliance's complaint had not yet reached his office but said it was something his office would probably look into. ``We hear these allegations quite often, but quite often there is nothing there,'' Krenn said. ``Raising the allegations has become a common tactic between competing groups -- politics is a nasty game these days.''<<
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Here is another Union LIE!!!! <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/atoz/article_727120.php" target="_blank">http://www.ocregister.com/ocre gister/opinion/atoz/article_727120.php</a> >>The Issue: Whether the governor purposely tried to eliminate death and disability survivor benefits for police and firefighters. The Spin: One of the ads against Proposition 75, the "paycheck protection" initiative, says that "When Gov. Schwarzenegger tried to eliminate death and disability benefits for police and firefighters," the public sector unions fought the proposal, and now the big bad governor wants to silence them. The Unspin: In January of this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed pension reform for government employees as part of his overall plan to reform state government and curb spending. A key feature of the plan was to change from a defined-benefits plan, in which a certain level of pension benefits is guaranteed (ultimately by the taxpayers in the case of government employees), to a defined-contribution plan. This is similar to a 401(k) plan, with the employees deciding how much to contribute and what mutual funds their money will be invested in. Numerous private companies and some governmental entities facing pension crises are making this switch. Police, firefighters and others complained that making the switch the way the initiative was drafted would eliminate death and disability benefits. The drafters of the initiative argued that it wouldn't, and that it certainly wasn't their intention to do so. Then state Attorney General Bill Lockyer (a highly partisan Democrat) offered an official opinion that the initiative as written would inadvertently eliminate those benefits. For a couple of days the governor and other proponents argued that Lockyer was wrong, then argued that fixing the initiative after it was passed would be simple and straightforward. Finally they acknowledged that there was a drafting error and withdrew the initiative from consideration. Bottom line: The governor and his allies did not set out to eliminate death and disability benefits intentionally. When they were finally convinced the initiative as drafted would do so inadvertently they withdrew it.<<
Originally Posted By cmpaley An extremist right-wing Op-Ed piece in a notoriously anti-worker newspaper does not prove anything.
