PrintSchwarzenegger takes heat for attacks on workers, school funding
Governor's push for ballot initiatives leads to declining
voter approval
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attack on public employees heats up with a November special election that includes three Schwarzenegger-backed initiatives to weaken the rights of new teachers, cripple school funding and shut public employees out of the political dialogue.
Even though votes have yet to be cast or counted, it’s already clear that “the Governator” has been hurt by his push for the costly ballot battle and willingness to align himself with right-wing interests seeking to privatize and weaken public services.
A poll released this summer by the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University shows that the governor’s support continues to plummet, while support is climbing for unions he continues to attack in a ballot battle that will cost Californians an estimated $45 million to $80 million.
Schwarzenegger’s approval ratings in the institute’s poll stood at 34 percent, down from 59 percent of Californians surveyed in January of this year. “Nearly six in 10 voters (57 percent) approve of unions,” the poll reveals. The institute also asked which side voters were more likely to support “if there’s a battle over school funding in the upcoming special election in November between Gov. Schwarzenegger on one side, and teachers and administrators on the other side.” A commanding 60 percent of voters said they would side with teachers, while 31 percent indicated they would support the governor.
Much of this shift in public opinion undoubtedly reflects the aggressive grass-roots campaign undertaken by the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and its affiliates, working as part of a coalition of labor unions that represent more than 2 million teachers, firefighters, nurses and other healthcare workers.
The Alliance for a Better California has spearheaded counter ballot initiatives on prescription drug costs and other issues that will help guarantee a sizable and representative turnout of California voters in November. The coalition also has staged spirited rallies outside Schwarzenegger $5,000-a-plate fundraisers, prompting the governor to enter and exit the events through side doors. In late May, the alliance staged massive rallies around the state to protest Schwarzenegger’s ill-conceived and dangerous agenda.
These Action Day demonstrations drew more than 10,000 protesters in Los Angeles and 20,000 demonstrators in Sacramento, with several other smaller demonstrations spread across the state.
“A lot of folks who voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger thought they were getting someone who told the truth and who couldn’t be bought,” CFT president and AFT vice president Mary Bergan reminded protesters in Los Angeles. “Instead, it turns out they elected a guy who doesn’t know how to govern in a representative democracy. He thinks it’s OK to hold costly, wasteful elections whenever you can’t convince the Legislature that your half-baked ideas should become law.”
Also speaking in Los Angeles was Marty Hittelman, president of the CFT’s Community College Council. CFT vice president Dennis Smith addressed the Sacramento demonstrators.
The ballot fight that shapes up for fall should be nothing short of fierce. Although the grass-roots alliance has shown its ability to mobilize tens of thousands of activists through an organized field program, Gov. Schwarzenegger has a cadre of deep-pocket backers for his agenda. They include major banking interests and pharmaceutical companies that have been bankrolling huge war chests to fight the Alliance for a Better California—although much of this corporate influence has been masked under the cover of a makeshift small business association.
Administratorship in Puerto Rico
AFT investigations find evidence of denying democratic rights
The AFT executive council voted at its July meeting to place the union’s Puerto Rico affiliate, the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR), under an administratorship after a council investigation found evidence of financial malpractice, repeated denial of the democratic rights of FMPR members, and violations of the FMPR and AFT constitutions.
The decision came after a council committee conducted two separate investigations in response to a January 2005 petition signed by more than 800 FMPR leaders and members that raised questions about the financial practices of the local, procedures for a delegate assembly and expulsion of members of the FMPR. Both investigations, the committee reported, revealed a pattern of abuses by the president of the local, Rafael Feliciano Hernandez, who orchestrated a campaign “to intimidate and coerce” FMPR members and leaders who opposed him.
The most alarming testimony, AFT vice president Maria Portalatin told the council, was from witnesses who described being intimidated and threatened by operatives under Feliciano’s control both during and after a September 2004 delegate assembly vote—held in violation of the FMPR’s own constitution—to disaffiliate with the AFT. Feliciano appeared at a June 7 hearing but refused to take the customary oath to provide truthful testimony that is administered to all individuals who testify in AFT investigations or hearings. Instead, he read a written statement and refused to take any questions from the committee, according to the report.
Immediately following the vote at the July executive council meeting, AFT president Edward J. McElroy announced the appointment of Felix Rodriguez, a former president of the local and leader of Puerto Rico’s historic 1974 teacher strike, to serve as administrator of the FMPR.
