President Denounces Union Dues Initiative

President Clinton on Monday denounced a California ballot initiative designed to prevent the use of union dues for political contributions without members’ permission, saying that the real motive behind the effort is to “muffle” the voices of average Americans.

“This is just an attempt to put unions at a disadvantage to other organized groups in the political marketplace and thereby diminish the voice of working men and women,” Clinton said at a $5,000-per-couple breakfast in Beverly Hills that raised funds to defeat Proposition 226.

Clinton’s statement marked the second time in recent days that he has come out against a California ballot measure. Last week, he voiced opposition to Proposition 227, which would effectively end bilingual education in the state.

The union dues initiative would require annual written consent for any money deducted from dues or payrolls and used by unions for political contributions. Republicans first targeted the issue after the 1996 campaign, when organized labor spent $119 million to help Democrats nearly retake the House.

Later in the day, before heading to Chicago for a fund-raiser, Clinton used a housing development in Sylmar as the background for announcing his administration’s new initiative for energy-efficient buildings. And he praised El Camino Real High School academic decathlon champions whom he met briefly at Los Angeles International Airport.

The political centerpiece of the day, however, was Clinton’s attack on Proposition 226.

Clinton argued that the initiative would have national consequences, robbing him of labor’s campaign muscle in lobbying on core issues like family and medical leave, health care and increases in the minimum wage.

California Democrats in Congress quietly have expressed concern that if the initiative passes, it would devastate the party in the state financially and politically.

Backers of the initiative, written by three Orange County businessmen, counter that corporations too would be required to obtain annual written consent to use payroll deductions for political action committees. Most corporations, however, fund political activities out of corporate funds, not payroll deductions.

In the debate over federal campaign finance reform, Republicans have been demanding restrictions on funding from union dues.

A Los Angeles Times poll last month showed that few Californians knew about the initiative, but when told what it would do, voters overwhelmingly supported the measure. Among registered voters, support for the measure was 65% to 24% and even among union members it was 58% to 28%,

Supporters of the initiative said that the president’s comments and his efforts to quash their initiative were predictable.

“President Clinton has taken millions in unapproved union dues from rank-and-file workers for his campaigns,” said Kristy Khachigian, a spokesman for the pro-Proposition 226 forces. “Just like union bosses, Clinton is out of touch with what the voters in California want.”

Clinton’s back-to-back critique of two California ballot measures signals the national significance of the referendums as a political bellwether.

So far, however, Clinton has had little ability to sway voters’ views on initiatives. In 1994, he opposed Proposition 187, which denied benefits to illegal immigrants. Two years later, he spoke against Proposition 209, which prohibits state affirmative action programs. Both initiatives passed.

But Clinton said he believes that the majority of Californians will reject the initiative once they learn more about it.

“This is not a real problem,” he said, referring to the use of union dues for political activity. “This is an attempt to create the impression that individual members of unions are being put upon when they aren’t. And it’s being done to alter the balance of power in the political debate.

“I thank you for being the voice, all of you, not only for your members but for those who are not members of organized labor,” Clinton told the 50 people at the breakfast, which included AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Clinton Meets Decathlon Champs

Clinton’s other activities on this last day of a four-day California stay were considerably less controversial.

At the airport, he posed for pictures with the El Camino team that won the national decathlon championship last month in Providence, R.I., becoming the third Los Angeles school in five years to earn that distinction.

Clinton asked the students for a couple of quiz questions--going one for two, correctly answering a question about modern world government, but having no clue on a music theory query.

“He knows his history,” said Adi Zarchi, 17. “As for the other one, it was a tough question, which most of us couldn’t get anyway.”

The meeting was short--a photo, some autographs, time for the students to give Clinton a white “Team CA” baseball hat, a California Academic Decathlon T-shirt and a chocolate medal. But the team members seemed impressed.

“It’s not even a once in a lifetime thing,” said Steve Chae, 18. “I mean, not everyone gets to meet the president.”

Clinton’s pitch for the energy conservation initiative came during a visit to Village Green, a 186-unit development that will be built on an undeveloped parcel next to Sylmar’s Metrolink station.

Energy Efficient Technologies

Village Green is supposed to employ many of the technologies that Clinton hopes to see used nationwide. The development will be the largest mass transit-based housing project in Los Angeles County and the first in the area to incorporate energy efficient technologies into affordable housing units.

Enthusiastic local officials said the development will put the northeast Valley on the map as the home of the development of the future.

“I don’t know another place that has transit, housing, energy efficiency, child care and affordable housing in the same place,” said former Assemblyman Richard Katz, who represented the area for many years.

The administration’s initiative is a partnership with the home building industry, intended to cut energy use by 50% in homes built over the next 10 years and reduce energy use by 30% in 15 million existing homes.

Clinton said the goal can be reached by relying on new energy-efficient advances such as washing machines that use 50% less energy and 30% less water than current machines and windows with thermal coating that block out heat during the summer.

“If we achieve that goal, it means by the year 2010 we’ll save consumers $11 billion a year in energy costs, reduce annual carbon emissions . . . by 24 million tons, equivalent to the amount produced each year by 20 million cars,” Clinton said.

In addition to saving energy, the new technologies would save homeowners more than $230 a year on their gas and electric bills, Clinton predicted.

The program would use about $100 million to study new technologies and provide some incentives for home builders to use energy-efficient techniques.

But the major funding for the effort will only come if Clinton can persuade Congress to approve a $6.3-billion package of energy-saving measures included in his budget.

In the meantime, the White House plans to use the bully pulpit, a World Wide Web site, https://www.pathnet.org, and its public-private partnership to promote the initiative.

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Times staff writers Jodi Wilgoren in Washington and Amy Oakes in Los Angeles contributed to this story.