By Doug Moore, Executive Director, UDW Homecare Providers Union

The backers of Proposition 32, a measure that would give corporations yet another political advantage over California working men and women, claim it’s about political reform. The backers of Proposition 32 are being dishonest.

The billionaires who are doing much of the backing know that the measure going before voters on November 6 is really about keeping working men and women – and the unions that represent them — from having a say in politics.

The facts speak for themselves. Prop 32 would prohibit unions from using members’ dues to fight for ballot measures and candidates they support. It would also ban union members from having dues deducted from their paychecks for this cause. But corporations would still be free to give as much as they want to their causes and candidates.

 

Prop 32 supporters claim that unions and businesses would be treated the same under the initiative because it applies to both. But most California corporations don’t use payroll deductions for political giving – they use profits. So in fact, businesses and their super PACs would be exempt from Prop 32’s controls, free to spend unlimited amounts of money to force their agenda on the rest of us. At the same time, the voices of sanitation workers, teachers, homecare providers and firefighters, to name just a few, would be silenced across the state.

Let’s take a look at who is pushing Prop 32: oil companies, super PACS, Wall Street firms, hedge funds, real estate developers, and insurance companies. And now let’s take a look at who is exempted from Prop 32’s provisions: oil companies, super PACS, Wall Street firms, hedge funds, real estate developers, and insurance companies.

Unions are already at a huge disadvantage when it comes to playing a role in politics. For every $1 a union member spends advocating for her rights politically through her union, businesses spend $15. Prop 32 is an unbalanced and unfair piece of gimmickry that will widen that gap immeasurably. It restricts unions and their members, but does not similarly restrict corporate special interests. That will create a political system that is even more skewed toward the wealthy and well-connected than it already is.

Unions – in particular, public employee unions – have historically created a route to the middle class for black and Latino Californians. Anything that significantly weakens the power of unions and limits their ability to have a say in the political process – which is exactly Prop 32’s purpose – has a disproportionately harmful effect on these workers.

Prop 32 also belies the notion of “reform.” True reform improves a system so that it works better for everyone. It doesn’t create a system that works well for one group but puts others at a disadvantage. That’s discrimination, and there is no place for it in our state or our nation.

If Prop 32 passes, it’s not hard to predict what workers in California can expect from this corporate power grab:  laws that threaten jobs, overtime pay, retirement security and the very right to form and join unions.  In short, laws that upend decades of progress in workers’ rights.

Ultimately, Prop 32 is about fairness. Rules should apply equally to everyone; no group should be exempted from real campaign finance reform;  and as citizens, all of us should have the same ability to impact our democracy.

(Doug Moore is Executive Director of the 65,000 member UDW Homecare Providers Union.)

 

If you think that the recent “protest” against American Muslims in Orange County is the only example of bigotry and hatred in the county,  think again.

The OC Register has reported  a number of recent incidents of hate speech and vandalism against Catholics, Asian-Americans, Latinos and others–including a death threat against Gov. Brown.

This letter to the editor from the county leader of the UDW Homecare Providers Union spells it out:

RE: Graffiti messages threaten to kill governor; Hate messages spray-painted on churches, buildings

Dear Editor:

It is with sorrow and anger that we condemn in the strongest possible terms the death threats to Gov. Brown and other recent hateful acts in our county aimed at Catholics, African-Americans, Asians, Latinos and others.

These actions are not merely teen-age pranks, as some have suggested.  The woman arrested for the most recent threats is 53-years-old.

They also are more than “just” acts of vandalism.  They are symptoms of a deeper hatred. And they warn of the potential for more serious acts of violence in the future.

Our nearly 15,000 members provide care for thousands of Orange County’s most vulnerable citizens.  We-and-they come from all racial, religious and ethnic groups. We-and they-are testimony to the diversity that makes our county great.

It is time for all good citizens of Orange County to stand up to these hateful acts of terrorism, and say: “Not here, not now, not ever.”

Christine Nguyen

Orange County Chapter Chair

UDW Homecare Providers Union

Member, OC Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance

“Backed by anxious supporters, some on crutches or in wheelchairs, nearly two-dozen passionate speakers on Tuesday railed against “Gestapo” tactics of Stanislaus County home care fraud investigators…” Modesto Bee, Sept. 1, 2010

A flawed and mean-spirited attack by right-wing ideologues on some of California’s most vulnerable citizens has begun to sprout poisoned fruit in California’s Central Valley.

Using some of the millions of dollars distributed by the Schwarzenegger Administration in the name of fighting fraud in the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, Stanislaus County earlier this year created a Special Investigations Unit.  Agents from the unit have been conducting unannounced raids on homes; harassing and intimidating elderly, blind and disabled citizens; and arbitrarily cutting people’s homecare services.  

Agents-some wearing bulletproof vests-have confronted people in walkers and wheelchairs.  Two reportedly demanded to see an elderly woman’s underwear drawer. Two others forced a woman with severe Arthritis to try to lift her arm over her head (she couldn’t do it.) Several people were so traumatized by these raids that they were subsequently hospitalized.

More from the Modesto Bee:

“I’m afraid, my wife is afraid, and I don’t think people should live in fear,” recipient Donald Smith said after limping to the speaker’s rostrum. “I’m not trying to cheat the government,” he said.

Linda Ibrahim of Modesto and daughter Holly Yonan described a relative with Downs Syndrome who became terrified after he was awakened by agents who “stormed in” and searched his bedroom, Yonan said.

The 51-year-old man urinated on himself, then locked himself in a bathroom, wouldn’t come out for hours and now awakes in fear at all times of night and is afraid to leave the house, they said.

“It was a horrible experience,” Ibrahim said. “We’re not criminals. We’re decent people…”

To make matters worse, agents have claimed that many of these people are guilty of IHSS fraud and have arbitrarily reduced their homecare service hours. Administrative law judges have already overturned some of these reductions because of lack of evidence or improper procedures.  Many other cases are being appealed.

Despite this, the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors voted recently to continue to spend taxpayers’ money on this program because of its “success.”

Here’s some background on how this sorry state of affairs came to pass.

Last year, Gov. Schwarzenegger launched a campaign aimed at branding the 450,000 IHSS consumers and the low-wage providers who care for them as “fraud criminals.”

Unfortunately, despite the fact that his absurd claims of “massive” fraud in IHSS (a fraud rate of 25%) remain unproven, the governor was able to force the State Legislature to appropriate tens of millions of dollars in last year’s budget for an IHSS “anti-fraud” program. Among other things, this sent millions of dollars to the counties so that they could start their own anti-fraud efforts.  

Even though the state’s anti-fraud protocols (designed by a working group dominated by administration officials and district attorneys) are not scheduled to be released for review until Sept. 16th, several counties have jumped the gun.

So far, Stanislaus has been one of the most zealous. But the county’s uniformed “fraud squad” may be a precursor of what will happen all across the state unless the public demands that these abuses stop.

In the meantime, people are still presumed innocent until proven guilty-except, it seems, in Stanislaus County

Don’t tell us our governor doesn’t care. He just signed into law a new requirement to insure the humane treatment of chickens whose eggs are sold in California.

Very nice!  I’m sure the thousands of homecare recipients who the governor wants to force into nursing homes or onto the street will appreciate (and perhaps be a little jealous) of his treatment of our feathered friends.

Here’s how SEIU-ULTCW portrayed it:

Governor Schwarzenegger just took an impressive step toward reforming In-Home Care.

For chickens, that is.

The California governor Tuesday signed a bill into law requiring that all eggs sold in California come from hens that aren’t crammed into small cages.

It was quite a compassionate move.

We only wish the governor’s compassion would extend to the hundreds of thousands of Californians who depend on the state’s actual In-Home Care program for their lives and livelihoods. Governor Schwarzenegger still wants to slash half the funding for IHSS — the program that provides lifeline services to California’s seniors and disabled citizens and provides care givers with meaningful employment.

Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will start to think it is true.

Meg Whitmen has already spending more than $70 million doing precisely that. And she’s about to spend millions more doing it between now and the election. So Jerry Brown was wrong…how?