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The State of California vs. Volunteerism

Brian Doherty | 4.5.2004 1:26 AM

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Thanks to a 2001 provision of California's state labor codes, the Sacramento Watersheds Action Group has been ordered to pay $50 grand in back wages and fines for the crime of using student volunteers on a creek restoration project.

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Brian Doherty is a senior editor at Reason and author of Ron Paul's Revolution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired (Broadside Books).

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  1. matt   22 years ago

    I love it. Something in the same spirit happened here in Salt Lake last x-mass. A few civic groups volunteered to ring the bells for the salvation army's buckets. It turns out the ringers get a cut of the take and for some of the regulars this was their sole annual income. There was quite a stink.

  2. jc   22 years ago

    California didn't seem to have any problem with prisoners "volunteering" to fight the wild fires.

  3. rst   22 years ago

    Looks like textbook law of unintended consequences, coupled with traditional union greed: "They had a lot of heavy equipment out there," [Gary Sharette of the Laborers Union Local 185] said. "That's construction work." . Boo hoo.

  4. dj of raleigh   22 years ago

    UNIONS are DIVISIVE

  5. Patriot   22 years ago

    Government protected unions and mandatory enrollment unions are divisive.

  6. Charles   22 years ago

    I remember when former Governor Davis wanted to force public school students to volunteer for their diplomas. Mandated volunteerism morphs into prohibited volunteerism. Whatever.

  7. Will Spencer   22 years ago

    I just love to see big-government liberals forced to eat their own dog food.

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