South Bay labor stresses defeat of Prop. 226

Special to the World,

This article was reprinted from the May 30, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - At the South Bay Labor Council's annual COPE Awards Banquet last week, the focus was on mobilizing for the final push to defeat anti-worker Prop. 226 in the June 2 primary election.

Speakers called on the crowd of over 1,000 to join in an intense schedule of activities leading up to election day, as representatives of the council collected sign-up cards from the audience.

The keynote speaker was AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who highlighted labor's recent achievements, including the victorious UPS strike, a higher national minimum wage, the defeat of "fast track" status for NAFTA and the organizing of nearly 400,000 new union members last year. Over 5,000 of these new members were in the South Bay area.

Sweeney warned, however, that the income gap between the wealthiest and the working people is growing, and corporations continue to whipsaw workers around the world over wages and working conditions.

A "Nike economy" in which corporations reap ever-higher profits while treating workers "like animals" exists, he said, because in many countries there are few labor laws to protect workers, while in the U.S. much enforcement is weak or absent.

Sweeney said the labor movement must insist that legislators uphold labor's right to organize. He called on the banquet audience, including the business leaders present, to join in defeating Prop. 226, which he called "a scheme to stifle the only voice that speaks for working people."

The AFL-CIO leader said the South Bay Labor Council and executive officer Amy Dean "set the standard for the entire labor movement in the fight for economic justice."

He said San Jose, under the leadership of Mayor Susan Hammer, is "on the way to becoming America's No. One Union City."

Sweeney called on the labor movement to "reach higher than you thought you could reach, work harder than you thought you could work because it's your job to challenge the entire community."

In introducing the AFL-CIO president, Dean declared that the revitalized labor movement, under Sweeney's leadership, offers the greatest hope to bridge the "deep divide between the haves and the have-nots."

Special COPE awards were given to Mayor Hammer, Senate President Pro Tem Emeritus Bill Lockyer and San Jose Budget Director Bob Brownstein. California Labor Federation leaders Art Pulaski and Tom Rankin received a special introduction.

On a related front, the Committee of Non-profits Concerned About 226 (CNCA226) announced its intention to file suit against the State of California because the measure violates the First Amendment as it applies to voluntary charitable giving. The announcement was made at a press conference in Los Angeles on May 27.

In a media advisory announcing plans to file suit, CNCA226 said the state's legislative council had released an analysis finding that Prop. 226 would have a sweeping impact on charitable giving in the state. CNCA226 said the key piece of analysis is not contained in the California Voter Guide and that the public has had little warning that their vote on June 2 could have such far reaching consequences.

The advisory added that Prop. 226 "imposes severe burdens that clearly violate the First Amendment: It directly burdens the political speech of employees and non-profits based on the political content of speech; it is overbroad and impermissibly vague. . .[and] it will prevent non-profits from exercising their constitutional right to comment on important public issues."