Proposition
75 shows effort to weaken labor movement
Daniel Linck Savino
Proposition 75, presented as a way to give control back to union members, is
a thin ploy to weaken organized labor. Requiring members to approve the use of
their membership dues for political causes misses the entire point of unions,
and will continue the slow death of the labor movement.
The most common argument for voting against Proposition 75 is that it is a thinly
disguised attack by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger against California unions. This
turns the debate into a straw poll on the governor. Though such redirection may
work, especially when his approval ratings could stand a little pumping up, it
avoids the point.
When you join a group to represent you, they should be able to represent you.
Worker’s rights are not the exclusive domain of the bargaining table. Management
has to play by the rules. They can lobby state and federal legislators to change
those rules. Players in the political arena can easily reach into the lives of
union members. It is natural unions will need to continually act against such
meddling.
The purpose of unions is to represent workers. If you join one, you expect them
to work in your best interest. The democratic structure usually allows a vote
to remove from leadership an officer who is not acting honestly or effectively.
We do not get to vote on how the state budget is allocated. The public does not,
nor should it, have line item veto power. Such micromanaged democracy ultimately
drags government to a halt, slowed by a million competing interests. Proposition
75 proposes to allow such powers to workers.
Though it is dressed up in the language of “choice” and “power
to the people,” it is really a crippling attempt to allow workers to doubt
their leaders — not to control, but to doubt. They have control, via ballot,
already.
Proposition 75 is one of the more pernicious initiatives on the ballot this fall.
Union members have not been rising up in revolt, complaining of frivolous spending
by their leaders. No great struggle against an oppressive use of paid dues has
been started. If the rank and file of the unions found this to be such a needful
thing, it is reasonable to imagine they would be out in droves supporting it.
But they’re not.
Perhaps our governor has tapped into some deep-seated yet unspoken and unrecognized
need of union members. It may be that he has such keen powers of observation
that he has recognized a problem the unions themselves do not see. It would be
a testament to his munificence that he has crafted this proposition to fix it
before they even see the situation as a problem.
Somehow, it seems unlikely that Schwarzenegger is acting out of an abiding concern
for the well being of organized labor. Until union members take it upon themselves
to solve this “problem,” don’t help Schwarzenegger fix it for
them.
Daniel Linck Savino is a senior chemistry major.
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