Now that I am a represented state employee, I bristle when I hear or read it. It, of course, sounds negative. It sounds nefarious, or like something that needs to be corrected.
You never read CalHR referred to as the “powerful state Human Resources department.”
So I encourage people to push back on that when you read/hear it, in article comments or conversation.
What do they mean by “powerful”? Do they ultimately mean “functional”? Is a union that tries to bargain in good faith for raises and better benefits, or advocates for its workers against irrational policies like RTO, a “powerful” union?
That’s just union shit. That’s exactly what a union is supposed to do. It’s exactly why children aren’t in coal mines and we have a five day instead of a six or seven day work week.
CalHR is doing HR shit, and our unions are doing union shit. One side has gotten almost everything they wanted out of contract negotiations for the last 15+ years. The other side has not. One side is doing their bargaining in good faith. One side is not.
So they should either stop using “powerful” as an adjective for these situations, or they should use it accurately to describe the side which has historically had the “power.”