Unions Plan Ambitious Political Campaign in State

With union ranks depleted and labor protections under attack in the Republican-controlled Assembly, state labor leaders are preparing to wage what they say will be their most aggressive political effort in years, perhaps ever, in California.

Hoping to recapture the Assembly for Democrats and maintain Democratic control in the state Senate, union leaders are denouncing Republican proposals to cut wages for construction workers and repeal workplace rules requiring companies to pay overtime for work beyond eight hours in a day.

In addition, to give union members and occasional voters more reason to go to the polls, organized labor expects to have five initiatives on the November ballot.

The main lure will be an initiative to boost California’s minimum wage to $5.75 by 1998, from the current $4.25. The proposal has such wide support that Republican pollster Arnold Steinberg says “It’s silly for Republicans to fight it at all.”

Emboldened by aggressive new leadership in the national AFL-CIO, labor leaders in California hope to pour millions into state elections. But cash is only a part of labor’s arsenal. Bay Area Teamsters leader Chuck Mack, for instance, pledges to deploy 2,000 experienced campaign workers for Democratic campaigns in Northern California.

“The campaign this fall is going to be the most hard-fought, bloodiest, dirtiest ever,” GOP political consultant Alan Hoffenblum said. “It’s going to be mean. It’s going to be down and dirty. Labor will play a major part, and they are singular in giving to Democrats.”

Labor fired an opening salvo in the March primary, at Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian (R-Carlsbad). Kaloogian entered the election season with almost no money for a campaign. There didn’t seem to be a need. No Democrat was challenging him. He did have a primary opponent, Dolores Clayton, but she had never run for office, and the GOP was solidly behind Kaloogian.

Then, 10 days before the March primary, Kaloogian became the target of a biting television ad campaign, paid for largely by firefighter unions. Firefighters are among the few labor organizations that donate to Democrats and Republicans. But Kaloogian had infuriated them with proposals to turn many government functions, including firefighting, over to private enterprise. They saw it as a threat to the jobs of government workers, almost all of whom are in unions.

The television spots took the form of a game show, complete with ringing bells and flashing lights, and a chirpy announcer inviting viewers to “Name That Kook.”

“Who said we have a responsibility to overthrow the government?” the announcer said as pictures appeared of Oklahoma bombing defendant Timothy McVeigh, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and, finally, Kaloogian. “Kaloogian is correct!”

Kaloogian survived, but not without scrambling to raise $105,000 to fight back. He expects a challenge this fall. Kaloogian is confident he will be reelected. But some Republicans worry that labor’s effort could result in GOP losses at the Capitol, at a time when they can’t afford any defeats. Republicans hold 41 of the 80 Assembly seats, and 16 of 40 state Senate seats.

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“If we Republicans can’t articulate our agenda and why working people benefit from it, we could be in for a rough time this November,” said Assemblyman Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga), the main architect of the Republican victory in the Assembly two years ago.

Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), leading the GOP election effort for the Assembly this year, dismisses the union threat.

“We’ve always planned the election strategy [assuming] labor is going to heavily support Democratic candidates. That’s nothing new,” Pringle said. “I’m sure the campaign contributions will reflect the fact that they support people heavily who support a straight labor line.”

Pringle says he has “never supported a government imposed minimum wage,” and like most Assembly Republicans, he opposes labor’s probable ballot measure to boost the minimum wage to $5 next year and $5.75 in 1998. It will force companies to eliminate jobs, he said.

“Our caucus isn’t here to try to run jobs out of California. Our caucus is focused on creating jobs,” Pringle said.

Union leaders, however, are using the issues to stir up the rank and file, saying the GOP proposals will cut their paychecks. One such proposal would relieve companies of having to pay overtime to workers who put in more than eight hours in a day. They’d receive overtime only for working more than 40 hours in a week.

Backers say the change would make it easier for companies to set up work weeks of four, 10-hour days, to provide workers with more flexibility, and to make manufacturing in California less costly. Unions characterize it as the “repeal of the eight-hour work day,” and say it would cut wages of 8 million Californians.

A state Senate committee last month voted down the Assembly version of the proposal. But it’s not dead. Gov. Pete Wilson is urging that his Industrial Welfare Commission make the change administratively. Several hundred union members showed up in protest at a recent commission hearing in San Diego.

At Wilson’s behest, the Industrial Welfare Commission also is considering changes in the so-called prevailing wage, a complex formula that ensures construction workers earn top union scale when they work on school, road and other taxpayer-financed public works projects.

The prevailing wage proposal would cut the cost of road construction by 1.6%, perhaps $200 million a year, the Wilson administration estimates. Union leaders say that money would come out of construction workers’ pockets, slashing their pay from an average of $28,000 a year to $22,500.

Defending the proposal as being “for the greater good,” Wilson press secretary Sean Walsh said: “You’re not necessarily taking wages from the average working Californian. You’re spreading additional dollars. You’ll have more money for more projects.”

For unions, however, the proposed cut in the prevailing wage is proving to be a powerful organizing tool. More than 12,000 hard-hats descended on the Capitol in February. Thousands more rallied in Los Angeles.

Republican pollster Steinberg terms labor’s effort this year a “last gasp,” and is skeptical it will translate into major Democratic gains. He notes that union leaders oppose the November initiative to abolish affirmative action in state hiring, contracting and college admissions. But Steinberg believes union members will side with Republicans, and vote for the measure.

In past years, Steinberg and others say, many of the rank and file split from their leadership and voted Republican because of social issues, such as GOP support of the anti-illegal immigration Proposition 187 and for gun owners’ rights. This year, however, Democrats and labor leaders hope economic issues will be dominant.

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“The Republicans’ attack on the people’s paychecks is the opposite of the ‘wedge’ issues,” said Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles), a labor lawyer. “What Wilson and the Republicans are bringing forward are ‘glue’ issues. They bring Democrats back together.”

In part, labor’s re-energized political activism is born of necessity. Union membership in California is 1.8 million, says Jack Henning, longtime head of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

That’s 13% of this state’s 14.3 million work force, and a drop of 200,000 since the recession of the early 1990s. A decade ago, union members comprised 20% of the California work force, and almost 40% at the unions’ peak in 1955.

The renewed activity also reflects new leadership out to make its mark. The labor federation, the state arm of the AFL-CIO, is undergoing a leadership change, similar to the national AFL-CIO, where John Sweeney was elected on a pledge of greater activism.

After 26 years, Henning, 80, is stepping down in July as head of the labor federation. Henning’s replacement is expected to be Art Pulaski, 43, known for his street-level political activism. Pulaski’s second in command will be Tom Rankin, currently the federation’s Sacramento lobbyist.

“We’re going to take it back to the streets where our members work and live,” Pulaski said. “We want to get back to the hands-on, nitty-gritty politics.”

After not sponsoring an initiative since 1988, the federation is a main backer of the minimum wage initiative. The minimum wage measure is one of five labor-backed initiatives headed for the ballot.

The California Nurses Assn., worried that cost-cutting in the health care industry will mean fewer jobs for its 25,000 registered nurses and poorer patient care, intends to plunge $120,000 into a health care initiative. It would create a commission to regulate the industry, and tax health care companies that close hospitals. Additionally, the nurses more than doubled their budget for state races to $400,000, from $185,000 in 1994, said Kit Costello, the nurses’ president.

The Service Employees International Union will be among the most active unions this year. With 300,000 members in government and private business, the SEIU campaign coffer brims with $650,000--after spending $750,000 to help qualify four initiatives. In addition to the minimum wage initiative, SEIU is taking major roles in:

* A health care proposition establishing minimum staff levels in hospitals and protection for doctors who fully advise patients about treatment options from retaliation by medical corporations. It conflicts with the nurses’ measure.

* A proposition reinstating upper income tax brackets on individuals who earn $110,000 or more in taxable income, and couples who earn in excess of $220,000. All the money would go to local government.

* A campaign financing proposition which requires candidates to raise much of their money from their districts.

“It’s time to start creating an agenda for working people, one that allows people to go to the polls and say, ‘Yes, workers need a raise,’ ” said Dean Tipps, executive secretary of the State Council of Service Employees.

Besides funding their initiatives, California unions plan to work to ensure Democrats maintain control of the state Senate. “Hell, we should borrow money, there’s so much at stake,” said Bruce Lee, a vice president of the Los Angeles County Labor Federation.

The contrast between the upper and lower houses is stark in their respective labor committees. Sen. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte), who chairs the Senate Industrial Relations Committee, gave $20,000 to help place the minimum wage initiative on the ballot. In an interview, she talked of joining sweatshop raids and being appalled at conditions such as a single filthy restroom for 70 workers.

In the lower house, freshman Assemblyman George House (R-Hughson) chairs the Labor Committee. He opposes the minimum wage raise and introduced a bill to reduce fines imposed on farmers who fail to maintain proper sanitation in the fields. In an interview, House suggested that labor unions could amass too much power and that “the ‘have-nots’ by vote can take from the ‘haves’ till there are no ‘haves.’ ”

Not surprisingly, House is target of labor unions in his San Joaquin Valley district. Said Tom Aja, a Central Valley union leader, “He’s the bull’s-eye.”