Operation Push SEIU aside

Make way for Ken Hamidi, says Ken Hamidi--and Jon Ortiz of the Sac Bee, at least, takes him SEIUously--cause he's won some big fights before;

...the Iranian-born Franchise Tax Board employee has won some admirers for his never-say-die spirit and for winning a landmark California Supreme Court case a dozen years ago. He’s also drawn the ire and the ridicule of SEIU officials, who dismiss him as a self-aggrandizing blowhard and a buffoon.

Now he has renewed efforts to replace the union’s exclusive representation of half of California state government’s organized workforce with an association that he would head.

The law requires that 30% of the covered work force sign petitions before a decertification election will be held. In this case, that would be about 28,500 signatures from approximately 95,000 state employees. Hamidi is confident he can get to that number, if the state government doesn't interfere with his efforts. And it sounds as if they won't, as Governor Jerry Brown's;

...administration did send out a statewide memo to managers acknowledging it “received notice from an employee organization of its effort to decertify an exclusively recognized state employee organization.” It also reminded agencies that they must “uphold the state’s position of strict neutrality during a decertification effort” and that the state “could be exposed to allegations of unfair labor practice” should any manager take any action that shows bias.

IOW, please don't do anything to hinder Hamidi that would give him a chance to sue. Considering that some powerful people aren't thrilled with the prospect;

“Ken Hamidi is a state worker who relies on televised theatrics, falsehoods and exaggerated claims to attack Local 1000,” Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker said in an email to The Sacramento Bee. “Like his candidacy for governor in 2003 and for Local 1000 president in 2008, his 8-year-long campaign to weaken the union hasn’t attracted any meaningful following.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article36630864.html#storylink=cpy

that

 that was the least Brown could do. Now it's a race for Hamidi to find and submit the requisite number of signatures before November 2. That's the deadline according to state law, since the SEIU's current contract runs out July 1, 2016.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article36630864.html#storylink=cpy