Proposition 75

The Public Employees' Right to Approve Use of Union Dues for Political Campaign Purposes Act will require public employees to sign an annual consent form if they wish to allow any portion of union dues or fees collected from their paychecks to be used for political purposes. This sounds very reasonable. The issue, however, is whether or not this reasonable sounding measure is necessary.

I recently listened to a long discussion on this proposition on public radio. It was fascinating because the proponents of the proposition were mostly representatives of large corporate interests, not union members upset about having their contributions used in ways they did not approve of. It was also interesting to hear callers, many of whom were union members, talking about their own unions and how they handle this issue. Apparently, some unions already have a simple form for their members to use to indicate their preferences regarding use of member contributions for campaign purposes. Others seem to be following a completely different set of rules and are not allowed to opt out of making campaign contributions unless they withdraw from the union. Still others say they have no problem with the political contributions made by their leaders because they vote, democratically, for their union representatives. Therefore, in the same way our elected representatives in Congress speak for us, union leaders make fiscal decisions for their members. While they may not always agree with them, they understand that this is how the system works.

The point of all this is that unions are not all alike and are not all operating under the same rules. Therefore, a single law that requires a set system to address this issue doesn't really make logistical sense, from my perspective. In addition, it is interesting to note that corporations, not individuals, seem to be behind this proposition. And, as is the case with both Prop. 73 and Prop. 74, the title of this measure makes it sound both reasonable and necessary, but the text of the measure and the context in which it is to be applied, do not.

What's more, Prop. 75 is being supported based partly on the fact that the employees involved are public employees, paid by the state. But the union is not a public organization. The dues the members pay to fund their respective unions are meant to empower the unions to work for the members as a whole. With big business and government interests often at odds with employee interests, using union dues for political purposes is unavoidable if unions wish to be effective in bargaining on behalf of their membership. Whether the money is sent directly to a particular campaign or used to lobby for the interests of the union, the point of both is to allow employees a collective voice. What corporate interests want, it seems to me, is to curtail the ability of unions to utilize the power of their collective voice. They couch it in terms of individual rights, but what they are attempting to do is actually take a powerful collective voice and convert it into an ineffective group of individuals with no venue for working as a group with shared interests.

Finally, if there are problems with specific unions failing to respect their members wishes, then why didn't those very union members create the measure and put their effort into getting it passed? Proposition 75 was conceived, created and paid for by large corporate interests. That ought to tell you something. --Laurie