Text Box: From the Executive Director…   Governor Raising Millions from Out of State Big Business Interests. SEIU joins Teachers; pledges to raise $30 per member statewide to fight attacks targeting public employees in November’s ‘Special’ Election   Most of you know that SEIU has a strong presence in Sacramento with a reputation for working hard to oppose anti-labor measures and supporting pro-worker legislation in the Capitol.  This operation is known as the SEIU “State Council” and I have the privilege of representing you on our State Council’s Executive Board which is comprised of SEIU Local Union Leaders from all over California.   The SEIU State Council has correctly identified Propositions 75 & 76 on the ballot this November as direct threats to public employees, our jobs, our benefits, and the programs we work on for the public good.  Specifically, Proposition 75, known as the “Paycheck Deception Act” in labor circles, is designed to appeal to people’s ignorance about how Unions work and effectively silence our voices in Sacramento.  Proposition 75 would require all public employees to annually reauthorize the use of money to support or oppose candidates or legislation in our interests.   What’s the big deal you might ask; shouldn’t we all be able to refuse to support political candidates or issues with our money?  The big deal is that you already have the right to refuse your dues or fees being used for political purposes.  Feepayers can “object” and opt out while members all make their election on Local 620’s membership application when they do or don’t check the box allowing the Union to use dues for politics in our best interest and can revisit this decision at anytime.  So the big deal is in “sun setting” these authorizations every year and forcing public employee Unions to spend considerable time and effort in resigning our members every year in order to keep our funding for politics healthy and viable.  In states where anti-labor big business forces passed such anti-worker legislation funding for Union’s political work has dropped 90- 95%!   Every Local 620 Member must take this threat seriously!  I can assure you that our leadership does and is taking steps to ensure that this hypocritical attack on public employees will fail at the ballot box and moreover will be the first step in labor’s campaign to get this anti-worker Governor out of office for good.   Prop 76 the so called “State Spending and School Funding Limit” initiative would finish the job Prop 75 starts by giving the Governor the power to cut budgets without the approval of our elected legislators!  Thus, if these two initiatives pass public employees will have our voices silenced and the Governor will have a free hand to unilaterally cut our pensions, (as he has promised to do), cut school budgets (as he has already done by reneging on his promise to restore education funding), and to cut the programs we work on!   In the face of these unprecedented attacks upon public employees the SEIU State Council voted to raise additional money to fight these initiatives and mandated that every SEIU Local in California contribute the equivalent of $30 per member.  SEIU thus joins the California Teachers Association as the second largest public employee union in California to make a special assessment to fight back on this November’s special election.   Local 620’s Leaders Consider How to Raise the Funds   Local 620’s share of this statewide effort is $96,000 (3,200 members x $30) so our Executive Board created a committee to study the situation and make recommendations on how to fund this important obligation.   The Committee has met twice and considered a number of different mechanisms to raise the needed funds finally narrowing (Continued on page 2)

 

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Gov. Raising Millions

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Housekeeper Victory

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SB City Hourly Emp

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Special Election

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Register to Vote

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Mental Health Act

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Mental Health Cont’d

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