Mr. Eric Alegria did not attend this Forum because he was attending to his duties in a Statewide Commission, he still works with.
Ms. Cynthia Smith remains MIA, it appears.
An Email was recently sent out that commented on the prospect that members of our city's staff may seek to unionize.
I am a great supporter of unions and having more workers seeking benefits associated with becoming unionized, but learning of this before the election puts union-supporting staff members in a bad light for me and others.
It was bad enough that Marymount College officials placed into consideration, during this election season their "20-1,200" plan, in my opinion. That could pose problems for all of the candidates for the three Council seats. Now they may need to answer voters' questions as to their support or opposition to Marymount's new plans.
Now our own city staff comes along, again during the election season, bring forth comments that may have been placed to sway the election one way or another.
And it might, good, bad or ugly.
There are going to be lots of far 'wrong' conservatives madder than heck at some staff members trying to sway this election by even mentioning unionization.
I wish they would have waited and I write this acknowledging that I am basically on their side, but they put a 'Marymount affect' into the process, which I find ugly.
With the falderal concerning pay and pension benefits that have been swirling around staff and elected officials recently, I think union-supportive staff members have a very good reason to create an outlook that suggest they will try to unionize.
As we have witnessed recently in our city's politics and even in National politics, unions and their members have been under attack and now it appears our little city might be a new cornerstone of workers turning back anti-union and anti-worker rights by having our staff becoming unionized.
I don't blame them for doing this one bit and I personally view it as a way of defending themselves against the prospect of a far too conservative Rancho Palos Verdes City Council being seated on the first Tuesday in December.
Especially over the last 3-4 years we have seen workers get trounced by big business and conservative governments who seek to lower the way of life for the middle class by using workers' rights and pay as weapons.
I think that some members of our city's staff have looked down the road and have considered their best defense against what they may feel as a loss of pay, benefits and retirement options by too conservative members of decision-making bodies is the more natural reaction we see today.
If the writing on the wall looks to see Susan Brooks, Jerry Duhovic, and/or Ken Dyda join Anthony Misetich and Brian Campbell on our Council, some staff members would not be very willing to work with that setup of Council membership, as far as union organizing goes.
We heard some leanings by candidates at tonight's Forum that strongly suggest they are totally against workers organizing into a union, especially folks who work on our city's staff.
It is just my opinion, but I feel the best way to create the best atmosphere where staff members consider not joining a union is to have Dave Emenhiser and Jim Knight joining Brian and Anthony, along with probably Ken Dyda as the fifth Council member.
I think that 3-2 more conservative split is the best alignment to dissuade city staff members form more actively seeking unionization.
If folks like Jerry Duhovic, Susan Brooks join Anthony and Brian and Dave or Jim on the Council, staff members supportive of unionization will work much stronger and longer to become unionized...and I'll stand with them in that.
Should Brian and Anthony be joined by others on the Council, not including Dave and Jim, not only will the staff members work even harder to become unionized, that effort may bring more news making to our city and more 'outside' influences into our politics...for many reasons.
I have no intention of supporting groups of conservatives or progressives coming into this city to fight for or against our staff members unionizing because that all takes away from some very important work we ALL must do. This is one reason I truly believe Dave and Jim can work with Brian, Anthony and one other new member to keep all this to a minimum.
So in the end for me, shame on Marymount and some staff members, for bringing up issues when they should have been left until after the election. But I do think that, because of some current issues surrounding staff these days, efforts to become unionized may be in their best interests, no matter how much it costs all of us.
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