With a November ballot measure threatening to diminish labor's political clout in California, unions are striking back with a proposed initiative to bar corporations from spending on election campaigns without shareholder approval.
The move to curb corporate influence in Sacramento is part of a clash between labor and business that has intensified this year as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pushed an agenda fiercely opposed by unions.
Organized labor is still in the early stages of qualifying the measure for the June 2006 ballot, so its fate is highly uncertain. But the decision by union leaders to take direct aim at corporate campaign money is a notable turn in their struggle with business for political dominance in the state.
For years, unions have threatened to lobby for shareholder-consent measures across the country. But campaign finance experts said the California proposal was a rare attempt to put one into law.
Business leaders said the proposal seemed riddled with constitutional violations and probably would face a court challenge. Allan Zaremberg, president and chief executive of the California Chamber of Commerce, said it would stifle corporations trying to fight ballot measures that could "put them out of business."
"It would be inappropriate to deny them the ability to participate in the political process," he said.
The initiative sponsor, Alliance for a Better California, has spent millions of dollars this year on television ads attacking Schwarzenegger. Its members include the California Teachers Assn., Service Employees International Union, California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., California Professional Firefighters and several other unions for government employees.
Gale Kaufman, a political strategist for the alliance, said the proposal was a response to the November ballot measure that would require public-employee unions to get members' written consent to spend dues on political donations.
"The alliance feels very strongly that fair is fair," she said.
In June 1998, labor defeated a similar proposal, Proposition 226, which would have applied to all California unions, not just those representing public employees.
Conservative groups pushed that measure to stymie the influence of labor, the chief benefactor of Democrats who control the Legislature. But labor's campaign against Proposition 226 galvanized union voters and fueled the victory of Gray Davis, the union favorite in the Democratic primary for governor.
