Yours truly is out here in Los Angeles and the big, bad news here is that labor is quite worried about the prospects for defeating Proposition 75. This is an Arnold Schwarzenegger-backed initiative that would require government employee unions to give prior notice to members before using dues on political activity.
This is an issue that the AFL-CIO and Change To Win should be coordinating together. This is definitely “an injury to one is an injury to all” situation: if the Steroid Guv is successful, it will send a ripple across the country and encourage future initiatives aimed at public employee unions, as well as unions in the private sector.
At the recent AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting, I was told by a source close to the Council that, when Prop 75 was discussed, “There was actually a little bit of tension because the public sector unions are the only ones doing any work on it out there (besides SEIU). That seems to be a pervasive problem throughout the movement – we aren’t able to see past our own members’ self interests. And it’s the reason corporations (and soon cities and states) have been able to pick off our retirement security – they have taken it to us one piece at a time. No one really rallied to the USWA’s side when their members’ pensions got decimated by the exploitation of the bankruptcy code by the big steel companies. No one has helped the airline unions as the same is happening there. And now no one is really helping the public sector as they go after our members’ pensions (the first step in CA is taking away our ability to put money into politics, then they will easily beat us when they go for our pensions).”
Below is an excerpt from a piece in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times which gives a pretty frank and grim assessment by labor leaders out here about the state of play on Prop. 75. Call your unions and get them to roll out the guns on this one.
Prop. 75 Worries Union Leaders
Many in the rank and file could support the measure, which would limit use of members’ dues. Opponents have been slow to rally.
By Michael Finnegan, Times Staff Writer
With thousands of Californians already voting by mail, leaders of organized labor are increasingly anxious about the strength of their push to mobilize union members against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s November ballot measures.
Their chief worries are that many won’t vote and that many of those who do will support Proposition 75, a measure fiercely opposed by labor leaders yet alluring to many in the rank and file.
The measure, backed by Schwarzenegger, would bar government employee unions from spending members’ dues on political campaigns without prior consent. Labor leaders fear it would sharply diminish their ability to make campaign donations, tilting the balance of political power in California toward business interests.
“We’re not winning on this thing, and we’ve got to step it up,” Steven Neal, a Los Angeles County Federation of Labor official, told scores of union leaders at a campaign breakfast last week in downtown Los Angeles. He likened the battle against Proposition 75 to a “sinking ship” in need of rescue.
The gathering, called by the labor federation, was designed to arouse a sense of urgency among union political operatives in fighting Schwarzenegger’s agenda in the Nov. 8 election.
But the event also showcased the nervousness among union leaders, who fear that the Republican governor could pull off a victory with Proposition 75. Polls have found most voters support the measure, one of four Schwarzenegger is campaigning to get passed.
Passage of Proposition 75 would be a major setback to the nation’s fractured labor movement. Unions representing more than 5 million workers have bolted the AFL-CIO this year, a rupture that has distracted the national leadership from labor’s high-stakes clash with Schwarzenegger….”
