Anti-Union Initiative Backers File Signatures

Taking aim at organized labor’s influence in California politics, a trio of Orange County conservatives on Thursday submitted nearly double the signatures they’ll need to qualify a statewide ballot measure that would block the way unions raise money for campaigns.

But just hours after the 775,000 signatures were filed for the anti-union initiative, a group representing organized labor filed a lawsuit in Sacramento to block the proposed measure.

The anti-union measure, which has earned the backing of Gov. Pete Wilson and a coterie of prominent Republicans across the nation, would hamstring labor bosses by requiring them to get written permission each year before spending a member’s dues on political causes.

“It really comes down to free speech,” said Frank Ury, one of the measure’s authors. “Should union members have to give up their dues without any say to support things they may not believe in? We feel that’s just wrong.”

The initiative, being targeted for the June ballot, needs 433,269 valid signatures of registered voters to qualify. The secretary of state has until Jan. 22 to certify the measure for the ballot.

Organized labor, a traditional Democratic ally, has threatened to retaliate with ballot measures attacking more than $10 billion in annual tax breaks for big business, which generally supports the GOP but has remained neutral on the anti-union measure. Another initiative being pushed by the unions for the June ballot would block the ability of business to finance political causes and candidates.

The union lawsuit was filed in Sacramento Superior Court by Californians to Protect Employee Rights, a political group formed by the powerful California Teachers Assn. and other labor unions.

They argued in the lawsuit that signature petitions in a statewide mailer from the governor to nearly 1 million voters contained a key technical flaw: The petitions didn’t have the official title and summary of the initiative at the top the page as required by the California Elections Code.

Instead, there is a fund-raising solicitation as well as “inflammatory statements clearly designed to mislead voters,” said Gale Kaufman, a Sacramento political consultant working for the unions.

Backers of the anti-union measure dismissed it as a nuisance lawsuit. “The union bosses are desperate to keep power in their hands,” said Ron Nehring, a spokesman for the initiative backers. “This is clearly an eleventh hour stunt that is without merit.”

In a brief session late Friday, Judge James T. Ford ordered a Nov. 21 hearing and requested that the state order county clerks to segregate the 120,000 to 150,000 petitions now in dispute.

The anti-union measure has earned the support of GOP kingpins such as House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and J. Patrick Rooney, an Indiana insurance magnate widely known as the father of school vouchers.

The trio of Orange County conservatives who spawned the measure--Ury, Jim Righeimer and Mark Bucher--also have strong ties to the voucher movement. Several years ago, the three got together to form the Education Alliance, which each year has backed a slate of pro-voucher school board candidates in Orange County.

Those links to the voucher movement have the CTA particularly concerned. Leaders of the state teachers group fear the initiative’s hidden agenda may be to neutralize the CTA when another voucher initiative is put on the ballot, perhaps as soon as next November. The CTA spent more than $9 million to defeat a voucher initiative in 1993.