Union campaigns put heat on Schwarzenegger

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attacks on public employees have done nothing to improve his plummeting popularity among voters. A poll released this summer by the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University shows that the governor’s ratings continue to decline, while support is climbing for unions he is attacking 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. Three of the governor’s initiatives—to weaken the rights of new teachers, cripple school funding and shut public employees out of the political dialogue—will be part of a November special election.

Much of this shift away from the governor reflects the aggressive grassroots 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 school employees, firefighters, nurses and other healthcare workers. The Alliance for a Better California has spearheaded counterinitiatives on prescription drugs and other issues that will help guarantee a good turnout of California voters in November. In late May, the alliance staged massive rallies that drew more than 10,000 protesters in Los Angeles and 20,000 demonstrators in Sacramento.

“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. “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.”

The college access and opportunity Act of 2005—the U.S. House of Representatives education committee version of the bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act this year—“goes backwards on grant availability, backwards on loan affordability and backwards on academic freedom,” says AFT president Edward J. McElroy.

In mid-September, both the House and the Senate will be working to finalize their versions of the bill. Be prepared to tell your senators and representative how you, your family and state constituents would be affected by a bill that, for example, only increases the Pell Grant maximum by $50 a year for the next six years and increases the cost of loans for low- and middle-income families. Go to AFT’s online legislative action center (www.unionvoice.org/legislativeaction/home.html) for more information.

AFT members were well represented at the annual  international safety competition for school bus drivers, more commonly known as the “roadeo,” held in July in Washington, D.C. The event, sponsored by the National School Transportation Association, includes written tests as well as a series of driving tests to gauge drivers’ skill behind the wheel.

AFT drivers in the contest included:

■ Chris Mulhern of the Nevada Classified School Employees Association, 10th in the conventional bus competition;

■ Arthur Jordan of the Orange (Fla.) Educational Support Personnel Association, 14th in the conventional bus competition;

■ Jerry Smith of Salt Lake City Bus Barn, 8th in the small bus competition;

■ Anne Woodring of the Nevada Classified School Employees Association, 9th in the small bus competition; and

■ Sundar Sathiyanathan of Salt Lake City Bus Barn, 38th in the transit bus competition.