Prop. 75 Will Be a Meaty Issue for Unions at Labor Day Picnics

Public employee unions have a special reason to be worried this Labor Day weekend.

The reason is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s special election in November -- because the one ballot initiative that’s a good bet to pass is the anti-union measure, Proposition 75.

Conservative backers call it the “paycheck protection” initiative because it would require public employee unions to obtain annual, written permission from members to use their dues for political purposes.

Many members “don’t support the political agenda of the union bosses, and it’s not right that they are forced to contribute to political candidates and campaigns they oppose,” reads an argument for the measure in the official state voter guide.

“Paycheck deception,” counters Art Pulaski, who heads the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, which represents private-sector unions. He notes that public employees already can opt out of union membership and refuse to allow their money to be spent on politics.

For members, says Pulaski, Prop. 75 “would diminish union democracy. Unions run on majority rule.”

Labor contracts, if approved by a majority, are binding on all members. If the members’ elected reps vote to help a certain candidate, or fight an initiative, that also should be binding on all dues-payers, unions argue.

After all, many Americans object to their taxes being spent on the war in Iraq -- or on abortions for poor women -- but that’s democracy and majority rule.

The real goal of Prop. 75, Pulaski asserts, is “to silence the capacity of unions to speak out against Arnold’s programs.”

Schwarzenegger has remained officially neutral on the initiative, although his political allies raised money to place it on the ballot. The governor also has publicly supported the measure’s “concept.”

Soon after the Legislature leaves town next Friday for a four-month recess -- and there’s no longer even a faint chance of the governor and Democrats working together -- Schwarzenegger is expected to formally endorse Prop. 75.

It’s an open question whether Schwarzenegger’s endorsement will help or hurt the measure among voters. But it will help among out-of-state donors, who want assurance that the governor is backing the proposal before they kick in their money.

Most of Schwarzenegger’s political effort will be focused on Proposition 76, his proposed spending cap. Business bankrollers have been nervous that he might not run for reelection next year, leaving them vulnerable to vindictive Democrats who then probably would control two branches of government.

So to pump up donations for his “reform” initiatives, Schwarzenegger is expected to declare sometime in September that he’s running for reelection.

Of the ballot initiatives, Prop. 76 would have the biggest impact on public policy, affecting all state spending. But Prop. 75 would have the biggest immediate impact on politics.

(Proposition 77, seizing political redistricting from the Legislature and giving it to retired judges, wouldn’t be implemented for years. Even then, the result could be less substantive than symbolic.)

Prop. 75 would change the political rules, benefiting the GOP.

All spin about “paycheck protection” aside, this is about weakening the muscle of public employee unions that give almost exclusively to Democrats and help fund liberal ballot causes. Why else would the state GOP contribute $200,000 to the initiative-qualifying campaign?

“This will level the playing field,” says Republican state chairman Duf Sundheim, a Palo Alto attorney.

Democrats scoff at that sort of comment, noting that corporations spend at least 10 times more on politics than do unions.

Perhaps, Sundheim replies, but corporations also give to Democrats who are in power.

Whatever, this is about Republicans versus Democrats.

Backers also are trying to make it about taxpayers versus unions that, through politics, have acquired good public employee pensions and benefits now threatening to bankrupt some governments.

That tune may be striking a receptive chord with voters. A poll released last week by the Public Policy Institute of California showed 58% of likely voters supporting the measure. Even Democrats slightly favored it.

But, in a caution to business players, the poll found even more support for the notion of restricting corporate contributions. Unions have a “shareholders protection” initiative ready for 2006 if Prop. 75 passes.

This initiative was the main stumbling block that prevented Schwarzenegger and Democrats from reaching a bipartisan compromise on the governor’s “reform” agenda. He had offered to remain neutral on the anti-union measure if they could agree on the other initiatives. But Democrats demanded that he outright oppose Prop. 75. Republicans would have considered that heresy and probably rebelled.

“The party activists think ‘paycheck’ is the single most important initiative out there,” says Karen Hanretty, the state GOP communications director.

So Democrats and unions decided not to deal, figuring that the governor was so unpopular they could beat his initiatives and humiliate him.

It would be ironic if the initiative they fear most is the only one that passes.

In 1998, voters rejected by about 7 percentage points a similar measure that would have affected both public and private sector unions. In California, there are roughly 2.4 million union members -- 1.3 million public, 1.1 million private. That’s a huge army of potential precinct walkers.

“If we don’t beat this,” says the AFL-CIO’s Pulaski, “they’ll be coming after us next.”

That will be labor’s message this weekend at picnics and rallies all over California.

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George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.