The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that union members cannot be forced to finance political activity, and Proposition 75 merely requires that public employee unions get written consent from their members before their dues and fees are used for political purposes. Currently, union members must request specifically that their dues not be spent on politics, and there is some question about how realistic a choice this is in some unions. Shifting the burden to the union to gain the consent of a member - as Washington, Utah and other states now require - does not seem onerous, and may even encourage greater accountability on the part of union leadership.Therefore, this blogger joins the Los Angeles Times in recommending a YES vote on Prop 75.
Yes on Prop 75
Prop 75 requires that public employee unions get permission from union members before they take money from their paychecks for usage in political expenses. The LA Times said this about the measure:
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2 comments:
Union members already offer blanket consent when they join the union - which they can choose not to do. Once members, they can already opt out.
This measure isn't about workers rights, it's about the governor and his friends trying to remove what they see to be an impediment to their political agenda. Take a look at who's behind prop 75. It's not the workers rights all those multi-millionaires are protecting...
While I have no knowledge of the "blanket consent" option you refer to, when I was working in the technical field at UCLA, the technical union managed to implement a mandatory paycheck deduction mechanism. The only option I had was to designate the fee to a charitable origination instead of sending it to the union. Nonetheless, the fee was deducted whether I liked it or not. The point here is, the truth is somewhere in the middle. While you have a blanket consent option and I had the mandatory deduction scheme, others might be in the situation where Prop 75 gives them the rights they need.
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