Comments on: Killing California’s Employers Off, One Paid Leave At A Time

By: Milan Moravec

Milan Moravec — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 22:25:07 +0000

Calif State assembly doing nothing to prevent $3,000,000 of waste. Yale accomplishing what UC Berkeley is paying $3,000,000 for at no cost! A legacy of waste in UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Office: easily grasped by the public, lost on University of California’s President Yudof.
The UC Berkley budget gap has grown to $150 million, & still the Chancellor is spending money that isn’t there on $3,000,000 consultants. His reasons range from the need for impartiality to requiring the consultants “thinking, expertise, & new knowledge”.
Does this mean that the faculty & management of UC Berkeley – flagship campus of the greatest public system of higher education in the world – lack the knowledge, integrity, impartiality, innovation, skills to come up with solutions? Have they been fudging their research for years?
The consultants will glean their recommendations from faculty interviews & the senior management that hired them; yet $ 150 million of inefficiencies and solutions could be found internally if the Chancellor & Provost Breslauer were doing the work of their jobs (This simple point is lost on UC’s leadership).
The victims of this folly are Faculty and Students. $ 3 million consultant fees would be far better spent on students & faculty.
There can be only one conclusion as to why inefficiencies & solutions have not been forthcoming from faculty & staff: Chancellor Birgeneau has lost credibility & the trust of the faculty & Academic Senate leadership (C. Kutz, F. Doyle). Even if the faculty agrees with the consultants’ recommendations – disagreeing might put their jobs in jeopardy – the underlying problem of lost credibility & trust will remain. (Context: greatest recession in modern times)
Contact your representatives in Sacramento: tell them of the hefty self-serving $’s being spent by UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau & Provost Breslauer.
Let there be light

By: John Seiler

John Seiler — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:46:41 +0000

How about 12.4% unemployment here compared to 9.7% nationally? California is toxic for jobs.

By: Peyton Farquhar

Peyton Farquhar — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:06:06 +0000

Oh boo hoo hoo – Employers have it so very rough in the Golden State. They hardly make any money here at all and are leaving the state en masse! Or so it goes if you believe the above referenced writer.

Chew on this – For every federal law that is tilted in favor of the employer -every privacy invading drug screen; every deadbeat employer who bounces a paycheck; every employer who would be just as happy chaining employees to a desk in a dark room without HVAC, the reality of the situation is that the State of California tilts the ground back to a **balanced** position. Labor Employment law does not just exist simply to prohibit employers from using employees as slave labor; It exists to keep in check the relationship between workers and the corporations that would otherwise require 18 hour days and pay pennies holding everyone hostage who has to work for a living to their master/slave mentality.

BTW – where is the evidence of industry leaving en masse because having to accommodate FMLA and/or the **proposed** law for time off to save the life of another human being is so burdensome? The writer would have been ten thousand times more credible if she provided solid ::PROOF:: that the claims she has made is even a tiny little bit accurate.

Facts are best. Not hysterical speculations, Ms. Grimes.