August 1, 2011 By Jon Coupal
There’s an old joke about the
intimidation tactics of the Teamsters' union. “How many Teamsters does it take
to screw in a light bulb?” Answer: “Four -- you gotta
a problem with that?”
As much as we would like to
think that labor unions have abandoned their threatening and often illegal
behavior to get what they want, in the public sector things are only getting
worse. It is only a matter of time until a jilted (and honest) public sector
employee says “I coulda been a contender.”
The latest bit of thuggery is an advertising campaign launched by the unions
to dissuade voters from exercising their rights to sign initiative petitions.
As reported in several media outlets, a union-backed effort has created a
website and begun running radio commercial under the name "Californians Against Identity Theft.” These scary ads warn that anyone
who signs an initiative petition -- frequently gathered in front of big box
stores -- runs the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft.
Usually, even the most
deceptive political ads have at least a grain of truth. But
not here. There is no factual basis for the suggestion that signing a
ballot petition would put one at risk for identity theft. Indeed, the signature
data gathered by those who collect those signatures is prohibited by law from
being disclosed. Interestingly, voter registration information (which consists
of more data) is a matter of public record.
This latest thinly veiled
effort at stopping initiatives they don’t like is backfiring badly on the labor
groups responsible. From newspaper stories, the blogosphere
and from good government groups, the verdict is that this union hack job is not
only misguided, but will further erode the credibility of public sector unions
in California.
Derek Cressman,
western regional director for Common Cause (hardly a right wing anti-union
group) said "It sounds like they're trying to intimidate people from
exercising what is a constitutional right" to sign a petition. In
addition, the Sacramento Bee quotes Pedro Morillas,
legislative director for the California Public Interest Research Group, as
saying that "there is as much risk of identity theft involved in signing a
petition as there is in being listed in the phone book."
Turns out, after a little bit
of sleuthing, that the state building trades union is one of the major funders of Californians Against
Identity Theft. What a surprise. The group itself, Californians Against Identity Theft, has no connection whatsoever to any
legitimate group created to protect consumers from identity theft. Nor does it
appear that the group has registered as a campaign committee. Media efforts to
get more information ran into stony silence by unions.
It doesn’t take a rocket
scientist to figure out what motivates the union bosses for this latest scheme.
As noted by the Sacramento Bee, “the timing of the ad launch raised
questions about whether the campaign is a veiled attempt to derail one of
several controversial proposals currently circulating petitions to qualify for
the 2012 ballot, such as an Amazon-backed effort to overturn a new law
requiring some Internet retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases made by
Californians.” In addition, it is no secret that the unions are deathly afraid
of the Stop Special Interest Money Now Act, also in circulation, that would
reduce union political influence by prohibiting government entities from being
the collection agents for unions for political funds from their members.
In any event, it is clear to us
that the unions need to hire a new communications consultant. Instead of
dissuading voters from exercising their constitutional rights to engage in the
direct democracy rights of initiative, referendum and recall, the labor groups
have brought even more unwanted attention to themselves for their overreaching,
loutish behavior. (As if the pension scandals weren’t enough to drive public
perception of public sector unions even lower).
Our advice to the union bosses
-- which, of course, they will ignore -- is to argue the merits of these
initiatives as warranted. If you think the Amazon referendum or any of the
other measures in circulation reflect is bad public policy, say so. Don’t try
to mislead people into thinking that their identities are at risk. The only
thing at risk here is any notion that unions play by the rules.
Jon Coupal
is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association -– California's largest grass-roots taxpayer
organization dedicated to the protection of Proposition 13 and the advancement
of taxpayers' rights.
http://hjta.org/california-commentary/latest-intimidation-tactic-public-relations-disaster-unions