Who really runs California and how unions seized power

Who really runs California?Most people would answer the same way.Voters elect a governor, legislators, county supervisors, city council members, and school boards, and those officials debate policy, pass laws, negotiate budgets, and make the decisions that shape life across the state.But anyone who has spent years watching politics in Sacramento and city halls across California knows there is another layer of influence, one that rarely gets the attention it deserves.The state’s public employee unions have become among the most powerful political institutions in California, and their reach extends well beyond negotiating wages, pensions, and working conditions.They help elect the officials with whom they then negotiate.

They spend extraordinary sums to influence elections and ballot measures.They lobby legislation and shape regulatory policy.These unions occupy a position unlike almost any other organized interest in American politics.

Businesses negotiate with the government.Environmental organizations lobby it.

Taxpayer groups try to influence it.Public employee unions do something fundamentally different: They negotiate directly with the officials whose campaigns they often helped finance and whose elections they often helped win.Nothing like that exists in the private sector, where unions know they operate within limits set by the market.Every dollar for wages or benefits comes from a company that must stay profitable to survive.

If labor costs become too high, the business will loses customers, relocate, or fail.In the public sector, unions behave as if constraints don’t exist.

That’s because when labor costs rise, the government can raise taxes, cut services, borrow, or defer the costs.In the private sector, business executives and union leaders are on opposite, independent sides of the table.

The United Auto Workers does not elect the CEO of Ford.California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.

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