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July
13, 2005
Vol. 1, No.
21
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Labor
The Strange
Debate
By Steven
Miller
BusinessNevada
If
you’re getting the impression that
something about the on-going spat between union
chiefs in the AFL-CIO federation doesn’t quite
compute, you’re not alone.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
boss Andrew Stern and his allies say they want
to restructure Big Labor so that it can more
often “win.” If they can’t get the go-ahead from
the other federation brass (and federation
President John Sweeney’s job), they very well
may split in order to build something “new.”
Even for many union insiders, however, that
explanation doesn’t quite work.
An example is Matt Noyes, a staffer with the
Association for Union Democracy, a union reform
group. After the March meeting in Las Vegas of
the AFL-CIO’s executive committee, he published
an article on the LaborNotes.org website titled,
“My Union President Went to Vegas… and All I Got
Was This Strange Debate.”
The discord between the two groups is strange,
said Noyes, “because both sides agree on so
much: they express their fear that labor’s
decline could turn into collapse, complain
bitterly of the anti-labor bias of the
government and the administration, bemoan the
difficulties of organizing and bargaining in a
changing economy.” Moreover, both sides admit
that union leadership failures and lack of
strategy have played a big part in Big Labor’s
decline, and both sides agree, essentially, on
the current priorities they prescribe for labor:
new organizing and political action.
[continued]
Labor
Why Are Unions Spending Member Dues on Politics?
Editorial
The Washington Times
As the
annual
AFL-CIO convention approaches later this
month, amid threats by some of its largest
unions to bolt the labor federation for lack of
organizing funds, it is worth asking a couple of
questions. First, how much does Big Labor spend
helping the Democratic Party? Second, is Big
Labor getting its money’s worth?
The answer to the second question is easy: It
has to be a resounding “No.” After all, Big
Labor and the Democrats have lost the last two
presidential elections. Also, the Democratic
Party failed at the polls in 1996, 1998, 2000,
2002 and 2004 to recapture either the House or
the Senate, both of which the party lost in the
anti-Clinton revolution of 1994.
Regarding the answer to the first question,
nobody knows for sure how much Big Labor spends
on the Democratic Party. However, it is a safe
bet that during each two-year election cycle,
hundreds of millions of dollars slushes into
union treasuries from members’ paychecks and out
to the Democratic Party, both directly and
indirectly. Leo Troy, a labor economist at
Rutgers University who testified before Congress
a decade ago, estimated then that Big Labor
spent about $500 million supporting the
Democratic Party in each two-year election
cycle.
[continued]
Budgets
Supply-Side Surge
Editorial
New York Sun
The
director of the Office of Management and
Budget, Joshua Bolten, will submit the White
House’s mid-session review of the federal budget
to Congress today, with some good news for those
who believe the federal budget deficit has been
too big. Just last February, Mr. Bolten was
predicting a 2005 deficit of $427 billion, about
3.5% of America’s gross domestic product. But
the betting is that today’s estimate will reduce
that number by about $100 billion.
The new chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers, Ben Bernanke, hinted about the numbers
in an address at the American Enterprise
Institute yesterday, saying that the deficit may
fall well below projected levels because of
growing tax revenue. “Estimates of growth in
wage and salary income have been revised upward
substantially, raising the possibility that the
labor market may be even stronger than we
thought,” he said.
[continued]
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WHY
BusinessNevada
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LVCVA
Law firm to investigate trademark
policies
By Steven Mihailovich
LV Business Press
An independent
investigation headed by a San Francisco law firm will
examine the $1 deal for which the Las Vegas Convention
and Visitors Authority sold the rights to its popular
slogan -- "What Happens Here, Stays Here."
The San Francisco-based law firm of Morrison and
Foerster, a trademark specialist, was hired by the
LVCVA's 13-member board to review the arrangement
between the LVCVA and its advertising firm, R&R
Partners.
[continued]
Government
Nevada’s
eminent-domain battles may be different
By Alana Roberts
InBusinessLV
Although the
U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that government
bodies can take away private property in the interest of
economic development, the Nevada Legislature has made
the process more difficult.
The Legislature passed two
bills during the recent session that make it more
difficult for governmental bodies to take private
property. One revises Nevada law so that it requires
governmental bodies to meet four out of nine criteria to
condemn a piece of property before taking it. The other
forces governmental bodies who take land for open space
projects to pay the property owners not only for the
property but also for “goodwill” costs such as lost
business income.
[continued]
Intellectual property
Nevada’s Canadian drug scheme faces
challenges
By Valerie Miller
LV Business Press
Oncologist Dr. Arnold Wax is passionate when he
talks about skyrocketing drug prices in the United
States. The Southern Nevada physician has seen his
patients make difficult choices. Some have had to skimp
on buying potentially lifesaving drugs while
substituting cheaper, less-effective, alternatives in
their place.
So far none have paid with their lives, said
Wax, who is a doctor with the Comprehensive Cancer
Centers of Nevada. "Some certainly had side effects
because they did not fill them and got sicker, and
sometimes we had to come up with some alternative that
was maybe not as effective."
University Medical Center Director of Pharmacy
Don Frisch thinks the poor will have a tough time using
Nevada's Canadian drug importation system.
State lawmakers like Assemblywoman Barbara
Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said they wanted to give people
like that a better choice when they passed Senate Bill 5
at the end of the recently concluded Nevada legislative
session. The bill paved the way for Nevadans to order
their medications from state-regulated online pharmacies
in Canada. Before the ink could dry on the new law,
however, Canadian government officials began looking at
restricting drug exports to the United States.
[continued]
Development
Qualcomm center may
lead to NLV tech boom
By
Alana Roberts
InBusinessLV
Qualcomm Inc.’s
planned 265,000 square-foot facility is a big deal for
North Las Vegas and Nevada, Silver State politicians
said this week.
The fact that North Las Vegas is getting the San
Diego-based technology firm’s new secure network
operations center indicates the city is off to a good
start in the effort to attract a diverse group of
companies to Nevada, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid
said Tuesday.
[continued]
Labor
AFL-CIO
Trying to Prevent Defections
Dissident
Faction Growing in Strength
by Will Lester
Associated Press
The
AFL-CIO is doing
all it can to minimize defections from the
nationwide federation of almost 60 unions, but may not
be able to prevent the departure of its largest union.
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Adjacent Column
Commentary:
The Strange Debate
Why Are Unions Spending Member Dues on
Politics?
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Some labor leaders fear the 1.8 million-member
Service Employees International Union is very likely to
leave the labor federation in the coming weeks. With
that concern clouding the AFL-CIO’s upcoming national
meeting late this month, federation leaders are eager to
reach agreement on at least some differences with
dissident unions.
[continued]
Nevada growth
Power line debate heats up
Cities want underground wires but don’t want to pay
By Kevin Rademacher
InBusinessLV
A Battle is
brewing over the fate of the state’s power lines.
Local municipalities are clamoring to have the lines
buried in an effort to minimize public safety concerns
over downed lines and a clutter of power poles. It also
is clear that political officials and residents want the
lines underground to free their view from a web of
lines.
Nevada Power Co.—and its Reno-based sister utility
Sierra Pacific Power Co.—want to know who will pay the
increased costs of burying wires and maintaining the
underground lines.
[continued]
In Memoriam
John Walton’s
Quiet Legacy
By Andy Serwer
Fortune
It’s a paradox:
John Walton’s contributions to Wal-Mart would be
difficult to calculate, but at the same time he will be
almost impossible to replace.
The 58-year-old son of Sam Walton died after an
experimental aircraft he was piloting crashed near the
Jackson Hole, Wyo., airport on June 27. John never held
any title at Wal-Mart (except, at one time, company
pilot). But when his father asked him in the early ‘90s
to serve on the board, John jumped at the chance,
telling me in an interview last year that he was
“honored” by the opportunity.
Board members say John was noted for his clearheadedness
and moral compass. “He brought a different perspective
to the board,” says Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott. “He wanted
to increase our focus on the environment, education, and
literacy. Our reputation too. ‘We can’t just brush that
off,’ John would say.”
That type of non-insular thinking by an insider is
critically important to the retailing giant these days.
In addition to his role as a board member, John also
took the lead in his family’s philanthropic efforts,
pushing the Waltons to donate hundreds of millions of
dollars to educational projects.
[continued]
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