Right-wing attack imperils union political rights

By Fred Gaboury

This article was reprinted from the February 14, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney charges that "corporations, right-wing foundations and conservative lobbying groups are mounting a coordinated campaign all across the country to silence the voice of working families in the political process."

Sweeney said the attack, the most vicious of which is Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's misnamed "Worker Paycheck Fairness Act," is coming "from those who tried to cut back on so many of the programs that working families depend on, such as Medicare and Social Security."

Sweeney said the enemies of labor are seeking revenge for labor's recent victories on the picket line, at the ballot box and in the defeat of "fast track" last November.

The most immediate danger looms in the Senate where Lott (R-Miss.) has announced his intention to introduce his legislation, dubbed by labor unions the "Silence Labor Unions Forever Act," when the Senate takes up campaign finance legislation sometime before March 6.

The bill, the most vicious of the several introduced in the Senate last session, would force unions to get annual written permission from members before donating money to political campaigns.

Lott would prohibit unions from even spending money on lobbying efforts without written permission.

Similar legislation has already been cleared for action in the House of Representatives where Speaker New Gingrich (R- Ga.), a staunch supporter of the legislation, may schedule it for action in February.

The AFL-CIO has made defeat of the Silence Unions Forever Act its first priority in the present session of Congress. Although a filibuster by Senate Democrats succeeded in stopping a similar effort in the last session, there is no assurance that such an effort will succeed this time as both sides maneuver to put themselves forward as champions of campaign finance reform.

Nor is the battle limited to the halls of Congress. Initiative measures incorporating the fundamental elements of the Silence Labor Forever Act have already won ballot status in California, Oregon and Nevada. Similar bills - some even more stringent than that pending in the Senate - have been introduced in 13 state legislatures.

California, where right-wing supporters, led by Gov. Pete Wilson, succeeded in collecting the 433,000 signatures needed to put the Campaign Reform Initiative (CRI) on the June 2 primary election ballot, is seen by many as the springboard to a wider national anti-labor agenda.

Last November Wilson promoted the concept at a conference of GOP governors last and J. Patrick Rooney, a well-known backer of reactionary political causes, boasts that a victory in California "will be a shot heard around the country."

Rooney and others have pledged to raise at least $10 million to further their campaigning at the state level.

"We're not only big," Judith Barish, communications director of the California Labor Federation, told the World. "We've one of the strongest labor movements in the country. We don't dare lose."

Barish said public opinion polls show that some 70 percent of voters support the initiative at this stage of the battle. She called its language "miss leading. It's couched in terms of 'fairness,' and who doesn't believe in fairness?" she asked. "Others say, 'We get to sign a ballot, why not sign a little piece of paper?"

Barish then pointed to what could be called the most fiendish aspect of the measure. If it passes, it will take effect July 1, leaving only four months before the election. During that time the state must prepare and distribute the proper form.

Unions must then circulate it to their members for signature. Then, and only then, will employers make the authorized deduction and forward the money to the union.

"It is inconceivable that unions would be able to collect dues or spend political funds on the November election. This is not accidental," Barish said, "It is by design."

The federation, which has adopted an "internal" and "external" strategy for defeating the CRI has set two conferences to get the ball rolling - the first at the ILWU hall in Oakland on Feb. 18 and a second a week later in Los Angeles.

"Our internal campaign is aimed at mobilizing our own forces," Barish said. "That is the reason for these meetings. But," she continued, "we're not going to stop there."

The federation has already helped organize a coalition of AFL-CIO and non-AFL-CIO unions to spearhead a mass campaign.

Barish estimates that opponents of the measure will have to raise as much as $10 million dollars in order to compete with its supporters who enjoy almost unlimited financial backing.

"In the process we will 'reposition the labor movement with issue advocacy campaigns in which unions publicly fight for and defend popular policies," Barish said.

William Burga, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO which spearheaded the successful battle against an initiative that would have gutted the state's workers' compensation program, has some advice to those fighting ballot initiatives:

* Don't be cowed by public opinion polls. "The only poll that counts is the one on election day."

* Organize at the grass roots. "We had to get 200,000 signatures to place the issue on the ballot. We got 415,000 - and from every county in the state."

* Raise enough money to be competitive. "We can never match them dollar-for-dollar, but we can be competitive.'

* Don't get side tracked. "Develop the right message and stick to it."

"That's basically it," Burga said in a telephone interview from his office in Columbus.

Opponents as well as supporters of Silence Labor Forever initiatives point to the 1992 experience in Washington state where voters approved an initiative that required annual reauthorization of PAC deductions and prevented the state from deducting any money from its employees.

Diane McDaniel, political director for the Washington State AFL-CIO said the measure resulted in a "significant decline" in union PAC money and contributed greatly to the GOP near-sweep in the state's congressional elections in 1994.