A California ballot initiative could once again spark a nationwide campaign -- this time to virtually eliminate unions from electoral politics. PNS commentator David Bacon, a veteran labor organizer, writes on labor and immigration issues.

OAKLAND, CA -- One question on the California ballot in June could change the state's politics for years to come.

Proposition 226 would drastically limit the electoral activity of labor unions. It is the opening salvo of a national campaign which already has spread to more than ten states.

The measure is the product of James Righeimer, Mark Bucher and Frank Ury, a trio of Republicans whose political umbrella, the Education Alliance, is dedicated to electing Christian conservatives to school boards in Orange County. Although the three are bit players statewide, their idea has been taken up at both the state and national levels.

California governor Pete Wilson is the honorary chair of their campaign, and personally appealed to voters to sign petitions to get the measure on the ballot. Nationally, Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform -- which is dedicated to eliminating income taxes, unions, social security and Medicare -- has announced plans to raise $10 million for similar initiatives in other states. Norquist is very close to House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Another prominent financial backer is J. Patrick Rooney, CEO of the Golden Rule Insurance Corporation and also a Gingrich associate. Rooney and Norquist have each donated just under $50,000 to the California campaign -- and just below the threshold requiring they be listed as sponsors.

The Orange County three were heavy backers of a school voucher initiative defeated in 1993. The present proposal may be their revenge against teachers' unions, the key force in defeat of the voucher plan.

Proposition 226, portrayed as a campaign finance reform measure, would force unions to obtain annual authorization from each member before any employer-deducted dues money could be used to make a political contribution or for any other political purpose.

It will appear on the state ballot along with another measure, Proposition 227, which would abolish bilingual education. Both are wedge issues, expected to draw conservative voters to the polls.

In Washington state, where a similar measure directed against public employees passed in 1992, the number of teachers' union members contributing to political campaigns fell from 48,000 to 8,000. Republican representation in the state increased substantially.

If 226 passes in June, it would have immediate effects. Labor contributions would be barred in this year's election because the bureaucratic process required by the initiative for new contributions could not possibly be in place in time.

This is crucial because California's next governor will be in office during the census year 2000 and so will preside over the reapportionment process which includes redrawing all district boundaries in the state.

The AFL-CIO has promised at least $8 million to defeat Proposition 226, and plans to send in organizers from around the country.

The initiative has been well-received, according to polls, because it is portrayed as a form of campaign reform, a way to get money out of politics and give rank-and-file union members a say over use of their contributions. It is evidently less clear to potential voters that the measure includes provisions that would bar lobbying on basic workplace and consumer issues, and that it would only restrict unions, not business.

The California Labor Federation, which reinstated the state's health and safety act by initiative after it was eliminated by former Republican governor George Deukmejian, and fought Governor Wilson's more recent efforts to abolish daily overtime after 8 hours, will have to connect these popular issues to the negative consequences of Proposition 226 in order to defeat it.

Forty years ago, when California Republicans put a right-to-work measure on the state ballot, unions mounted a campaign against it which was so effective that Republicans lost all statewide offices, a U.S. senate seat and a number of legislative seats for the first time in decades. Today, when unions are less popular, unions will need to forge alliances with others if they are to gather popular understanding and support for their effort to defeat Proposition 226.