Arnie Lets A Genie Out Of The Bottle, And What Labor Can Do About It

by Steve Soto

One of the upcoming battles here in California, as you know, is the move by Governor Schwarzenegger to convert one of the most successful public retirement systems in the country, the Caifornia Public Employees Retirement System from a defined benefit contribution plan (a pension) to a variation of a 401 (k) where the only thing defined is the amount the employee puts in themselves. Under Schwarzenegger's plan, this would apply to newly hired public employees in the state after July 1, 2007, and would in essence do away with PERS as both a successful retirement system and as an advocate for shareholders' rights and improved corporate governance.

Emboldened by Schwarzenegger's anti-union and anti-employee moves, the usual collection of right wing loonies who are hostile to labor have descended upon California to pursue other ballot initiatives. Not content to blow up the public employee pension system, conservative anti-employee activists will seek to also qualify for the ballot initiatives that would require union members to sign off on all political contributions their leaders make with dues and still another would essentially prohibit union dues from being used as contributions. These of course have been the wet dreams of conservatives, who feel that with a popular governor in office, they can finally do the lethal damage they have always wanted to do.

Aside from letting a Genie out of the bottle that he can now not control with these initiatives from the right wing kooks, Schwarzenegger will see that his moves will lead to a greater poisoning of the political environment in the state, and will in fact invite a retaliation by labor against Schwarzenegger and his corporate benefactors, at a time when cooperation was needed by many to close the remaining budget deficits that the state faces this year and next.

In fact, the state's labor community is likely to not only play defense in response to Schwarzenegger's moves and those of his loony conservative accomplices, but may also go on the offense with their own initiatives for a special election so that the state's corporations will have to spend their money as well on defense instead of simply on offense.

As a possible target of opportunity for this counterattack, I ask this. If the use of union dues in support of political activities is so objectionable to these conservatives, then why is it OK for corporations to spend their revenues on a presidential inauguration or campaign contributions, without the expressed consent of their shareholders or even their board of directors? Why exactly would unions be treated differently than corporations here?

This of course is a rhetorical question, because we know the answer. But if Democrats are looking for their own issues to throw back at the GOP and their corporate benefactors in the next several years, this would be one.