With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expected to call a November special election, the state's largest teachers union took preemptive action Saturday, increasing membership dues to raise millions to fight his initiative-based proposals.
The California Teachers Assn.'s 800-member governing body overwhelmingly approved a temporary annual assessment of $60 per member in a voice vote during a meeting at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton. The assessment, for up to three years, will raise about $50 million from the 335,000 members, the union said.
"It's basically to make sure that we have the money to fight the governor if he calls a special election -- to fight his proposals that will not help education at all and will not help teachers," said Barbara E. Kerr, the union's president, who called the governor "a bully against teachers."
Monday is the last day Schwarzenegger can call a special election for this fall, and he has scheduled a 5 p.m. televised news conference.
The Republican governor is backing initiatives to make teachers wait longer to get tenure and to put a constitutional limit on government spending that could alter state payments to schools. He has yet to say whether he will support a so-called paycheck protection initiative, which is also of particular concern to union leaders and Democratic lawmakers who traditionally draw their support. The initiative would require that public employee unions get permission from members before using dues in political campaigns.
Kerr said the measure, which she calls "paycheck deception," is designed not just to squeeze the unions financially but to bog them down, making it impossible for them to mount political campaigns quickly.
She said she was operating under the assumption that the governor would back the measure.
"The people who are supporting him are supporting it," she said. "So I'm taking it that he is. I can't afford to do anything else."
Todd Harris, a spokesman for the governor, said Saturday that the union president was wise to be nervous.
"No hardworking teacher in California has anything to be concerned about in terms of the governor's agenda, but for the union bosses who are supportive of higher taxes and who are opposed to budget reform, they have a lot to be concerned about because the governor is going to put them out of business," he said.
