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As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

CA Special Election - No on 75

Proposition 75, on next Tuesday's ballot in California, would force public employee unions (teachers, nurses, cops, firefighters) to check every year in writing whether or not they can use their members' dues in political campaigns. Sounds simple; it's even called paycheck protection. Problem is, it's already the law.

Public employees can already opt out of having their dues used for political advocacy (1 in 4 do). All this does is set up an unwieldy bureaucratic standard for unions in an effort to silence them. Shareholders have no say in what political campaigns corporate dollars finance. This sets up an unequal playing field. Unions are Gov. Schwarzenegger's fiercest critics. He wants to shut them up. Prop. 75 is union-busting, plain and simple. Vote NO.

[UPDATE] Absolutely great in-depth analysis by Jennifer Ancona about why we must support unions and defeat this measure. I'll excerpt a short bit:

Why is limiting labor's contribution in California politics so dangerous to those who care about social justice?

Not only do labor unions fight for protections and benefits for the workers they represent, they have been on the forefront of larger movements for social change throughout history, from ending child labor to bringing basic human rights to farm workers.

Unions have helped to reduce wage inequality in the workplace because they raise wages for low- and middle-wage workers, blue-collar workers and for workers who do not have a college degree. Over time, unions have fought for wages that are now on average about 20% higher than their non-union counterparts. Unionized workers are also up to 28% more likely to have health care provided by their employers, and up to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.


And yet somehow, Democrats over the last 40 years have run away from this core constituency. It's shameful.

Go read the whole thing, she's really done her homework.

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