Nurses, Teachers, and Firefighters Take On The Terminator & His Corporate Masters
Republished From Random Lengths News
By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
On August 24, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger complained about being forced into “begging” for money.
“Let me tell you, this is very hard for me to do,” he told the San Jose Mercury News. “I have never, ever asked anyone for money, not ever in my life. Now I have to go out there . . . and beg people for money, and it’s tough to do,” he told them. “But I have to because it’s the only way we get the message on television and communicate with the people.”
But to critics, it sounds just like the old bully’s line: It all started when he hit me back.
“Arnold started this fundraising war,” noted Doug Heller, Executive Director of the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumers Rights (FTCR), referring to the fact that Scharzenneger is the one who called the special election in the first place—which will cost the state an estimated $80 million, and which 60% of likely voters say they don’t want in the latest poll from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
In fact it goes back even further, Heller noted, to last December, when “he stood up in Long Beach and said that California nurses were a special interest and he kicked their butts every day.” The nurses’ fight to preserve new staffing ratios signaled Scharzenneger’s first stunning defeat this year.
“Instead of spending time working in Sacramento, Scharzenneger has been chasing fat checks around the country.” Heller noted. “It’s incredible. I think he’s spent more time out of state than any politician in history…. He’s gone fundraising in Texas, in Floridaa, in Chicago, in Boston, in New York, in New Jersey and Virginias. He’s gone to Nevada. It’s like a Presidential campaign.”
FTCR is a non-profit watchdog group that mercilessly criticized Schwarzenegger’s predecessor, Democrat Gray Davis, for the same sort of special interest fundraising—fundraising that Schwarzenegger has far surpassed.
“When the Governor called the special election, he basically kicked off 17 months of non-stop campaigning,” said State Senator Deborah Bowen, who represents the South Bay and Harbor areas. “Voters can look forward to a barrage of television commercials between now and November 8th, then people are going to turn around to start gearing up for the June 2006 primary election, and before you know it, it’ll be time for the November 2006 general election.”
Regarding the purpose behind it all, public service union leaders are particularly clear, seeing their members, and the people they serve right in the middle of the Terminator’s cross-hairs.
“Gov. Schwarzenegger’s “reform” proposals on the Nov. 8 ballot would gut school funding guarantees, attack teacher job security, and undermine union political power,” said A.J. Duffy, President of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). “It’s a special election for the special interests. Arnold’s initiatives will hurt our families and communities,” Duffy added.
As for who’s doing the begging, Heller has a different view.
“I think that the big corporate special interest are begging to give Arnold money, because it gives them influence,” Heller told Random Lengths.
“I don’t know if he’s begging when he meets them, but he ends up on his knees when the industry donors come to him for action, because every time one of his contributors has had an issue before the governor, Schwarzeenerger has bowed to their demands. Every time. With prescription drugs, with the car buyers’ rights, with the health care system, and with the energy companies.”
PPIC found that all of Schwarzenegger’s initiatives were in trouble, and that just one supported by his allies—but not yet endorsed by Schwarzenegger—was above 50 percent among “likely voters,” generally a more conservative group than the electorate as a whole. Schwarzenegger himself had a 34 percent approval rate among all Californians, and 41 percent approval, among the whiter, older group of “likely voters.”
His redistricting initiative (Prop 77) is opposed 49-34 percent, while a similar measure that would redraw districts after the census is working its way through the legislature, with bipartisan support. Schwarzenegger wants mid-census redistricting, a tactic Republicans have used in Texas and elsewhere to leverage slight majorities into supermajorities.
His budget initiative (Prop 76)—which would give him more power, and permanently cut school funding—is even less popular, opposed 61-26 percent.
His “teacher tenure” initiative (Prop 74) is leading, but under the 50 percent mark deemed necessary for propositions. It’s supported 49-42 percent.
Only 36 percent of likely voters believe it’s better to hold the special election.
“None of the propositions favored by the governor’s administration are inspiring much passion or enthusiasm among voters,” PPIC’s survey director Mark Baldassare observed.
In short, Schwarzenegger’s claim to represent “the people” against “the special interests” seems to have turned into a laugh line, helped out by his repeated attacks on popular public service employees—nurses, teachers, firefighters and home healthcare workers, who have fought back in a series of highly effective ads accusing the governor of trying to scapegoat them for his own failure to act as the unifying force he promised to be.
Publicly, Schwarzenegger remains upbeat about his chances to reverse public opinion, once all the money he’s raised begins to saturate the airwaves. And opponents are taking nothing for granted. But perhaps the greatest concern is focused on initiatives pushed by his allies, but which he has so far not championed. Chief among these is Prop75, would prohibit using public employee union dues for political contributions without individual employees’ active prior consent, which currently has 58 percent support.
There is no restriction on using corporate profits for political contributions—regardless of consumers or shareholders views—nor is one contemplated. Indeed, utility ratepayers routinely have the money they pay used to lobby against their interests. This is part of the story of how California’s energy crisis, and multi-billion dollar looting came about. But unions—though vastly outspent by business interests—represent the largest organized source of campaign money to offset the power of corporate special interests. So efforts to stifle union participation in politics have been a recurrent part of the rightwing agenda to “defund the left.”
“This is a deceptive measure with a hidden agenda to essentially clear the field of opposition to cuts in education, health care and retirement security,” said Sarah Leonard, Communications Director for No on 75.
Indeed, just two boardmembers are listed on the website of the organization behind Prop 75. One of them, Jon Coupal, was the proponent of a pension-busting initiative that would have stripped public service employees—such as police and firefighters—of survivor benefits. Schwarzenegger dropped support for it under severe criticism, but if Prop 75 passes, it would be much easier to pass a pension-busting initiative next year, Leonard and other Prop 75 opponents warn.
There are broader reasons to defend union power, explains economist Sylvia Allegretto, of the Economic Policy Institute. Union jobs pay more—11.5 percent more per hour on average, 12.7 percent more for blacks, and 16 percent more for Hispanics—and union political power helps protect those jobs, and raise standards for all workers.
“We have child labor laws, we have vacations and holidays, a lot of the battles for things we see today as normal everyday employment practices that people accept without thinking came from hard fought battles that unions won,” Allegretto explained.
Overtime pay is another result of union political power Allegretto pointed to, noting that millions of workers lost overtime protection because of Bush Administration rulemaking last year—an action made possible by declining union power.
“We call Prop. 75 the ‘Paycheck Deception Act,’” said UTLA’s Duffy, closer to home. “This deceptive initiative is about politics, not fairness. It’s sponsored by corporate sepecial interests who want to limit the political voice of teachers, nurses, police and firefighters.
“At UTLA, our members voluntarily contribute to our political action program. By law, only $5 a year from UTLA dues can be used for political purposes. With politics affecting just about every aspect of our professional lives and what happens in our classrooms, we must have a strong voice. Prop. 75 would silence that voice.”
On the other side, nobody’s silencing Schwarzenegger and those lining his pockets…yet.
