Nov. 9—Working family voters elected two pro-worker governors, defeated anti-worker propositions in California and voted to create good jobs in Ohio Nov. 8.
“Labor’s voice was not silenced—we spoke loud and clear. This victory was the result of a massive effort by all of California’s unions,” says Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, which successfully mobilized to defeat all four of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ballot measures attacking union members’ political freedom, teachers’ jobs and school funding.
In Virginia and New Jersey, working families mobilized to elect union-backed governors, while Ohio voters capped off a successful off-year election for working families by approving a ballot measure to boost the state’s economic vitality and create jobs. Also in New Jersey, the state AFL-CIO continued to build on its strong year-round political mobilization efforts, with voters electing more than 40 union members to state and local offices.
“These election results should put every elected official on notice: Working people are fed up with the anti-worker direction of our country and ready to get involved to change it,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
These wins follow an important victory in Colorado last week, when Coloradans voted to suspend their Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the strictest government spending limit in the nation, and give up more than $3 billion in tax refunds to help the state bounce back from a recession.
Voters Defeat Schwarzenegger Attack on Employees’ Political Voice
In the California campaign, Golden State unions used a massive union-member-to-union member mobilization to counter Schwarzenegger’s attack that was “financed chiefly by business interests, including real estate developers, technology executives, auto dealers, agribusiness and Wal-Mart heirs,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Schwarzenegger, who rode to office on his Hollywood fame and a promise of a bipartisan and moderate administration, targeted the state’s public employee unions after they successfully fought his efforts to privatize state employees’ pensions, cut funds for schools, hospitals, health care, infrastructure and public safety.
Proposition 75 was the heart of Schwarzenegger’s attack on working families. The paycheck deception measure sought to silence public employees’ voice in politics by placing massive reporting and administrative burdens on unions before union dues could be used for political expenditures—such as educating members about issues and lobbying for pro-working family legislation.
If Prop. 75 had passed, more than half of the state’s 2.4 million union members would have had their political voices silenced.
In Virginia, working families helped propel Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine (D) to the governor’s office over Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (R). Political analysts say Kaine’s win was a slap in the face to President George W. Bush who engineered a last-minute, election-eve visit to Virginia to rally support for Kilgore. Kaine, a supporter of workers’ freedom to form unions, faced a vicious smear campaign by Kilgore, who as attorney general has prosecuted striking union members. Just days before the election, Kilgore’s campaign mailed a large, four-color brochure purporting to be the official Democratic ballot, endorsing the third-party candidate, Republican Russell Potts, who ran as an Independent, according to the Associated Press.
More than 400,000 members of Virginia union households and the 50,000 new members of Working America—the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO—were a deciding factor in an amazing win for Gov. Tim Kaine in a state Bush carried handily just a year ago.
New Jersey working families also turned back a smear campaign by Douglas Forrester (R), electing U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (D), who as senator has a 100 percent AFL-CIO voting record on policies backed by working families.
In Ohio, working family voters approved a ballot issue creating construction and high-tech jobs through a special $2 billion “Jobs for Ohio” bond issue to finance infrastructure improvements and encourage high-tech employment. Several other ballot issues that would have reduced the influence of Big Business on elections and put in place other critical reforms failed.
Union-Community Coalition Mobilized Voters Statewide
The Alliance for a Better California, a coalition of more than 50 unions and their allies, says Schwarzenegger and his corporate backers pushed Prop. 75 “as a smokescreen to push their real agenda”—one that opposes raising the minimum wage and strengthening retirement security while supporting cuts to education and health care.
Along with huge financial support from his corporate backers, Schwarzenegger’s anti-union measure was a favorite of the state Republican Party, which donated more than $1.4 million to the pro-Prop. 75 campaign in the last days before the election, the Los Angeles Times reported.
But California union members, from both public and private sector unions staged a huge people-powered counter attack that included distributing more than a million workplace leaflets, made more than 400,000 member-to-member phone calls from union phone banks and put more than 11,000 get-out-the-vote volunteers in neighborhoods across the state on Election Day.
The member mobilization also fueled the defeat of Schwarzenegger’s two other anti-worker ballot initiatives—Prop. 74 that would have reduced teachers’ job security and contract protections and Prop. 76 that would have allowed the governor to make devastating mid-year budget cuts if revenues fall below expenditures. If passed, the measure would have gutted a proposition voters approved in 1988 to guarantee minimum funding to public schools.
“When Arnold ran for office, he promised to have everyone at the table. Instead, he built a private tent in a protected courtyard to share cigars with his corporate allies. Now Arnold should listen to voters and stop trying to bully union members. We challenge him to work with us to improve California for all of us, not just for his corporate donors,” says Pulaksi.
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