California Prop 50 | White Collar Unionization

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AM six forty bill Handle.

It is a Monday morning, October thirteenth. The Cairo Peace Summit is on its way right now. The President just arrived in Cairo and his limousine Wistoma off the tarmac and he's on his way to meet with twenty world leaders as Hamas and Israel signed their cease fire, not a formal peace accord yet, where all the terms have been finalized. Now let's get local for a moment, and this has to do with Prop fifty. Prop fifty is the proposition that we're going to see in November next month.

That's it. It's Prop fifty.

And the governor put Prop fifty on the ballot and there's a special election for one proposition.

How important is it? It is a butte Okay.

So here is sort of the underlying facts, the backstory here.

Every ten years the.

Census comes out with a population where people live in California and other states, there is an independent committee that decides what the district bounds are.

Democratic. Well, just what redistricting does.

What they do is they look at the map and they look at demographic changes, and they go, Okay, here is the district thing that we're going to do. It's independent here in California. And the reason it's independent because of the politics, because whoever was in charge, the Democrats and the legislature would do a Democratic version and the Republicans would do a Republican version just to take advantage of the ability to redistrict. And it has to do

That's it. Fire with fire.

The people against Prop fifty are arguing.

It should be independent.

How can you take this away from an independent commission. Are you going to bring this down to politics? And when you ask them how about Texas? The answer is it should be independent. We should not have the legislature do this. We have an independent commission that is fair. But wait a minute, look what Texas did? Deflection, deflection, deflection. So now come, well, I just did my ballot and I am in favor of Prop fifty.

I mean I had no problem. I do not like what.

Texas did, or if I did like what Texas did, we got to be able to do the same thing.

No problem with that.

So the people who are against Prop fifty are running the ads saying fair and we need an independent commission and we can't have the legislature involved. Okay, by the way, when they go to tech Texas, it goes the other way naturally. Now, the anti the pro Prop fifty people, I'm looking at commercials and I'm going, what are you

What does that have to do with ending? And he's a bad guy.

So if he puts money in and he's in favor of if he's against fifty, therefore you have to be in favor. I don't know why they just the message is simple, Hey, Texas is doing this, we have to fight Texas Prop fifty. There's the ad.

There's the ad.

If they're putting five Republicans up there, we have to put five Democrats up there.

That's it. What am I missing here? What I don't understand. I don't get how how is it any different?

So Texas is doing it because they're defending themselves against the Democrats, right, Okay, because it's now California, which had a law, so it is different than Texas because the people have already voted on it.

Right.

So if you can do anything based on defending yourself against the other side, then no side is wrong.

Texas wasn't wrong in what they did. No, you can't at all.

Okay, So you can't say California is defending itself against Texas because Texas was defending itself against Democrats.

I mean, it's all it's all the same. It's equally hypocritical.

It made like the process of them doing it, and therefore you stand on that or you don't.

It's to your point.

It is uh, Texas has allowed itself or allowed its legislature to do this.

California has not.

Because Texas allows itself and did do this, the Republicans, which control the Texas legislature have given themselves a new advantage.

Here we go.

We have five new Republican congress people California, which passed the law saying we can't do that.

It's like it's now like an amendment for the California they're trying to over there, overturning an amendment.

That's right, they're overturning a proposition Texas did. Yeah, Texas never had this, Texas never had an independence.

They were allowed to do it.

Yeah, of course they were. It's not a question if they're not allowed to do it, it's all we can launch.

It's wrong for Texas. I think it's wrong for California. I don't disagree.

I think everybody should have independent commissions to take as much of the politics out. The problem is the problem is it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way, so you can't come to now we stop the progress. Oh yeah, absolutely, welcome to America. I mean there is only politics, and so the pro Prop fifty people, Well, I'm pro Prop fifty only because you know what, I'm

And owned by him now because yes, all he's got to do is say something and you encounter that's correct.

Well no, no, no, no, not at all what he says, you want the opposite. No, that's not true. That's absolutely not true. There's plenty of what he says. I agree with, plenty of what I agree with. My problem is whatever he says. The legislature, which is supposed to be a different branch than the executive, does everything the president wants. The President says, you jump off of building. The Republicans line up. They're pushing each other out of the way to jump off the bill holding first.

That's why California will do anything against Trump regardless.

Oh yeah, even though they voted.

For this, Well, California didn't. I mean it was overwhelming. California is an overwhelming blue state. But the point is is that we're not talking about the California legislature that hates everything.

We're talking about the.

US Congress and the Democrats hate hate Trump and the Republicans love Trump. The only difference is that the Republicans will take a bullet for Trump. The legislature there's no independence at all. That's the problem I have. That is the problem I have. Okay, now that we've told you that Neil doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, is that right?

That is completely right. We will not look, we will trying to be Trump. Now, No, we.

Will know a great California tribes. California tribes.

Let me tell you.

What's going on with casinos and the tribe. Look how late we're going because of you, Neil. Now, let's get local.

Okay.

The Indian tribes in California have a deal with California, and that is they have exclusivity for gambling. All right, that was given to the Indian tribes, started with the bingo stuff, and now you've got a whole it's basically Las Vegas.

All right, we go there.

As a matter of fact, Tim Conway has his birthday party next week, which Neil and I and whoever else is going to be there. And it's owned by an Indian tribe and it's gambling.

I mean, it's a full casino.

So there are also card rooms you go to commerce for example, these massive card rooms where you play poker and you also gamble, and what the Indians, the tribes have said, no, no, that's illegal because that's in violation of our agreement. And they've sued, and they have gone togslature, and they have gone crazy, and they've lost it every turn.

So I'm fine with that. I'm also fine with you know the card halls, you know the card rooms. Why not? Well, what do the card rooms do?

They take away business from the casinos, don't they?

So it's over. And here's what the judge said. It has nothing to do with the merits of the case.

It's federal law controls this, and you're relying on state law and you're relying on what the state can and cannot do.

That's not where you go. It's federal law that controls this.

Thank you, You're done, chow baby, and Of course, the card room industry applauded and went, just this is fantastic and I love this. You can tell that someone has hired a pr person to write this crap. We are encouraged by today's decision. Fair enough, that's the California Gaming Association president.

Here's a fun one.

Our member card rooms will continue to support good jobs, vital public services, local economies across California while upholding the highest standards of integrity, accountability, and compliance. As people jump off of the parking structures because they lost all of their money in the card rooms, but we offer to clean the pavements. We will press your wash the payments every time someone's head hits the pavement after they commit suicide.

Hey, you know what, go figure.

The chairperson of the California Nation's Indian Gaming Association said this outcome is especially troubling given it was a state law and acted just last year that explicitly gave tribes standing in state court, and the judge said, nah, federal law controls here, and the tribe's lawsuit alleged that all of those gambling halls throughout California.

I think the biggest one is it in commerce?

I was just driving the station from my house in Orange County the other day. There's a big sign going along the five and those big sign in commerce as the world's largest card room is there. I have no idea I've been to. I don't think I've been to a card room once or twice when I really I was driving along the freeway and I really had to pee and it was desperate, so I pulled in and Man,

Not quite.

It's a real lorez is the type of clientele that goes to a curry.

Yeah, it's it's a pretty interesting group of people that go to those card rooms.

Yeah.

So in any case, the the the tribes, of course, are appealing everything that's happening, and they're saying that those card rooms are illegally offering card games blackjack and pie goal poker that they now offer and that's cutting into the tribes gambling revenues. Think about this, It all started with bingo at the tribes at the inside the reservations. A quick word before we bail out of here and

All right.

Now, let me tell you what's going on in the world of commerce, business the workplace here in the United States, and that is unionization, white collar unionization. Now you don't think of white collar jobs as being unionized, for example, law firms. I mean, who unionizes a law firm? You don't.

It's actually it's blue collar.

It's your electricians, it's your plumbers, it's people that do labor. And I'm talking about union labor. We're talking pretty high level labor. I'm not just talking about guys who dig ditches. I'm talking about and by the way, they have labor unions too in the construction industry. Nope, we're talking about unionizing jobs that heretofore were not unionized. Oh here's a little factoid. Oh I love this. Okay, what was the first union in the United States? Neil, any idea. This

Was it cars? Cars?

No? No, no, it goes back further than that a little bit. Seventeen ninety four? Really, yeah, yeah, it was the word waners union guys who made Guys who made shoes, not cobblers. Cobblers, by the way, are repair shoes. Early on, they didn't make shoes, of course at all, morphed into one.

But it was the.

Cord weaners union shoe guys who made shoes out of leather. New leather didn't repair. That was the first union that it wasn't dangerous. It was just the unionized. That's all they decided. You know why, why is the union created better benefits, work conditions, better money.

That's what unions are about.

And therein lies a story that has to be told about unions, and that is a little bit of the history of the unions.

Uh.

They are critical to any workforce and any economy. They are the most dangerous for any workforce or any economy, and it depends on the historical cycle.

Desperately needed.

For example, in the late eighteen hundreds, because you had the economy the Industrial Revolution, which wiped out the ability of a workingman to make any money. I mean, the robber barons took it over. And then you had the economy swinging the other way back in the fifties, for example, where unions were insanely.

Powerful, way too much.

Today they very few people are unionized, but they're moving into unionization.

I'll explain what that is.

And then there's a personal story or two I want to share with you the unionization of America and the workforce. We are also unionized here at KFI, at least the quote talent.

I love they call us talent.

I don't know where they ever came up with that concept. Talent anybody behind a microphone. We are members of sag AFTRA, you know, Screen Actors Guilt, which is not us, but the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. We are artists, fantastic. We're not just workers in radio, right, We're not just people who put together things and are manufacturing.

No, we are artists. We are artists.

The listeners ears are your canvas.

God, life is hilarious.

Okay, We're gonna finish it up with the unionization of white collar jobs. Employees at law firms and banks and tech companies which we never heard about unionizing. Well, guess what they're unionizing. And the reason is that jobs are scarcer now AI is taking over. Entry level jobs are basically gone. At tech firms, they don't exist.

Uh.

And law firms, for example, new lawyers, well a research.

You don't know.

You no longer need researchers, so fewer lawyers are being hired. I mean, it goes across the board. So what's the answer. Unionize and unions do two things. One Uh, they better better benefits, better pay better work conditions, and they keep you working. And herein lies the problem with unions. Unions are either priceless or they can really screw things up. How powerful can unions be. I'm going to give you

Now what is the caboozman. Well, if you look at any.

Of the the films deal with early trains or the steam trains, and you see a caboose at the back of the train, and the caboosemen they're the ones that picked up the mail, for example, that were hanging on this device, hanging on a hook, because that's the way mail was picked up so the train didn't have to stop. There's a bunch of reasons you would have a caboose. Well,

And the union said, okay, they didn't mind.

But they still had caboose men who weren't on the cabooses, who still got paid. That is a union, I'm telling you, that is a powerful union.

So the point is it gets ridiculous.

On the other hand, look at the history of unions when the workforce was working, when they had kids working sixteen hour days, six days a week or six and a half days a week, and you had, starting at the modern day union starting in the late eighteen hundreds, first one being the Ladies garment workers because women were working in these sweatshops, so that became a powerful union.

For the workers, almost always.

And management companies hate unions hate them why because they don't decide how much the employees get paid as a negotiation with the union.

Collective bargaining does it.

And whenever on handle on the laws, someone calls me about a problem with a company. I've been fired, I've been transferred. They won't give me a raise. They promised. I'm been there for twenty years and they promised me. This first thing I said, are you unionized? And if the answer is yes, go to your union rep. They have power. That's where you want to go. So if you are working in a bank, in a law firm,

That's it, guys, We're done.

Gary and Shannon are up next tomorrow morning all over again with Amy and Will Will Coleschreiber, who will be eating the entire show. Yes, and then Neil and I come aboard at six am and we're here till nine. And of course Ann and Kono. I have no idea what they do, but they do something on the show.

Okay, we're done.

This is KFI AM sixty.

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