Thursday, January 19, 2012

Thursday Must Read: Oakland Sends Out 2,500 Layoff Notices; Brown Opposes Plan to Extend Redevelopment Until April

Politics / Education / Transportation Robert Gammon — Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 7:00 AM

Stories you shouldn’t miss:

1. The City of Oakland sent out 2,500 layoff notices yesterday, and raised the total number of potential job losses to four hundred as officials scrambled to deal with the fallout of Governor Jerry Brown and legislature’s decision to kill redevelopment statewide, the Chron reports. City officials decided to issue layoff notices to nearly every worker inside City Hall in order to provide the city council maximum flexibility in deciding how to overhaul Oakland government and deal with the loss of up to $30 million in redevelopment funds each year. The council will make the layoffs decision next week. The only departments exempted from the layoffs are police and fire because their union contracts prohibit more job cuts.

2. Brown, meanwhile, said he opposes a bill in the legislature that seeks to extend the deadline for eliminating redevelopment from February 1 to April 15. “I don’t think we can delay this funeral,” Brown said. In his state of the state speech, Brown also pushed hard for high-speed rail, urging the legislature to approve $2.7 billion in bond funds for the controversial project and labeling opponents “declinists,” the Chron reports. Brown also pushed for his November tax measure and his proposed overhaul of K-12 education financing. The governor wants to give local school districts more power over how to spend taxpayer money — a move that some oppose because it could result in larger class sizes.

3. The Oakland’s A’s lease at the Coliseum expires in 2013 and some local officials want the team to pay higher rent, noting that Oakland has leverage over the A’s right now, the Trib reports. The A’s are in a bind because they have nowhere else to play. Even if Major League Baseball approves the A’s move to San Jose, the team’s new ballpark won’t be ready for several years and there are no other baseball stadiums in Northern California suitable for baseball — other than the Coliseum. The only other is AT&T Park in San Francisco, but the Giants say the A’s are not welcome there.

4. Ward Connerly, the former UC regent who led the fight to kill affirmative action in California and other states, is being accused by a former longtime employee of using funds from his nonprofit for personal gain, the LA Times and Chron report. The employee, Jennifer Gratz, said Connerly’s nonprofit was in financial disarray in part because it was paying Connerly more than $1 million a year in compensation — far more than it could afford. Gratz also said the nonprofit is being investigated by the US and state departments of justice for financial irregularities.

5. And President Obama announced yesterday that his administration will block the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project — a move hailed by environmentalists. The pipeline would have expanded the extraction of dirty tar sands oil in Canada and was heavily supported by the oil industry and Republicans. Obama said his decision was prompted by a requirement from Congressional Republicans to rule on the pipeline’s fate by February — a timeline that he said didn’t provide enough opportunity to thoroughly study the issue.

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Employed must prepare for unemployment. Employee loyalty arrests employment in the job market. As businesses, higher education, states, counties, cities stumble through the recession some are in a phase of creative disassembly. University of California Berkeley Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau ($450,000 salary) and his $7 million outside consultants use “Operational Excellence (OE)” to fire 2,200. OE removes Birgeneau created inefficiencies and wordsmiths them as “savings”. Birgeneau doubles instate tuition/fees.

Yet many cling to an old assumption: the implied, unwritten management-employee contract. Management promised work, upward progress for employees fitting in, employees accepted lower wages, performing in prescribed ways, sticking around. Longevity was good employer-employee relations; turnover a dysfunction. None of these assumptions apply in the 21 century economy. Businesses, universities, public institutions can no longer guarantee careers, even if they want to. Managements paralyzed themselves with a strategy of “success brings successes” rather than “successes brings failure’ and are now forced to break implied contract with employees – a contract nurtured by management that future can be controlled.

Jettisoned employees are discovering that hard won knowledge earned while loyal is no longer desired in employment markets. What contract can employers, employees make with each other?

The central idea is simple, powerful: job is a shared partnership.
• Employers, employees face financial conditions together; longevity of partnership depends on how well customers, constituencies needs are met.
• Neither management nor employee has future obligation to the other.
• Organizations train people.
• Employees create security they really need – skills, knowledge that creates employability in 21st century economies
• The management-employee loyalty partnership can be dissolved without either party considering the other a traitor.

Sustained employability in the 21st century economy is security. Your employability: have you verified your employable in today’s job market? It is not what you think.