The working people of California and their unions flexed their electoral muscle and knocked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s anti-labor "reform" program off the state’s political agenda. All four of his ballot measures were decisively beaten, and the two he was most personally invested in were smashed. The results have left him and his re-election bid next year reeling.

With much bravado Schwarzeneg-ger challenged the state’s unions with a series of ballot measures. His meanest one, an attempt to eliminate the defined benefit pensions, the retirement security, of public employees, crashed and burned in the signature-gathering phase when a legal analysis of its poorly written language showed it would also delete the death benefit payment for the families of firefighters and police killed in the line of duty.

But he plowed on with the others. Prop 74 would have curtailed the union rights of teachers, extending the probationary period when they could be fired without a cause or a hearing from two to five years. It was soundly defeated 44.9 percent to 55.1 percent, a more than 10 point difference.

Prop 75 would have made public employee unions (including teachers, nurses, firefighters and police) get annual, individual approval from members to use any dues money for political campaigns. The cost and bureaucracy of the requirements would have effectively taken these unions out of the political process. Polls in June showed the measure with a 57 percent lead, but then the unions mobilized and got their message out. The measure went down 46.5 percent to 53.5 percent, a seven point spread. In the process the unions’ political clout and organization gained strength rather than being crippled as Schwarzenegger planned.

The two measures the governor was most closely identified with, Prop 76 that would have allowed him to unilaterally cut and reallocate the state’s budget, and Prop 77, that would have changed how the state’s legislative districts were drawn to give Republicans an advantage, both lost hugely. Prop 76 went down 37.9 percent to 62.1 percent and Prop 77 went down 40.4 percent to 59.5 percent.

Perhaps most encouraging for the unions, particularly in light of the governor election next year, is that identifying Schwarzenegger with any of the initiatives was the most effective way to win opposition to them. In the eyes of the public, the governor has become his own anti-spokesman.

—S.S.