Union Lowdown

The University of California system has become ground zero for violent push back against budget cuts to cope with the on-going state budget crisis with everyone deciding they need to get in the act. Rioting students and their faculty enablers have been getting all of the headlines, but some of the other UC stakeholders are also raising a stink: Union Tries Personal Tactics On Some UC Regents

Dozens of custodians, gardeners, bus drivers and cooks from the University of California snooped around picturesque Fort Baker in Sausalito the other day, trying to figure out where investors from Blum Capital Partners were holding an annual meeting.

They spied the group entering a building. Rushing in, they squeezed past the stunned financiers and marched around a meeting room chanting, "Dick Blum, you can't hide! We can see your greedy side!"

Blum, the company's chairman and a UC regent, is one of several high-profile university leaders to encounter the dramatic, in-your-face tactics of UC's lowest-paid workers.

Blum is the husband of Diane Feinstein and, more important, a classic gentry liberal; so it's hard not to crack a grim smile at seeing him hounded like this. But this sort of intrusive, thuggish behavior is only going to get worse as the state tries to cut more from the budget. What makes these guys so special? Nothing, except they are working for UC instead of a private business. Not sure why this entitles them to do stuff like this with impunity:

The employees staged a candlelight vigil at the Beverly Hills home of Regent Joanne Kozberg. They brought morning coffee and pastries to the Los Angeles home of Regent Monica Lozano, head of the finance committee. They knocked on the door of Regent Charlene Zettel in San Diego. And they leafleted at a gala for the After-School All-Stars hosted by Regent Paul Wachter and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - then donated $1,000 to the charity.

Unions and other leftist groups benefit from a sort of quasi-immunity from prosecution for this sort of harassing behavior. Like a congressman invoking the "speech & debate" clause at the scene of an accident, unions can get away with behavior for which Randall Terry has spent time in jail. Not hard to see why. Unions are as much a part of the permanent political class as the diplomatic corps or the Sierra Club, so no one ever really calls them on their tactics, despite their essential lawlessness.