UC Labor News

From the LA Times: A University of California workers union was successful in its fight to oust an Orange County Democrat from the state Senate after he did not support a bill it backed in the Legislature. But in doing so, the union may have helped elect a Republican who has a history of opposing organized labor.

Democratic Sen. Josh Newman of Fullerton lost reelection after American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 spent more than $1 million supporting candidates to replace him in the primary and later in ads bashing him and tying him to high gas prices and crime.

Although the union, which represents service workers across UC campuses, did not support Republican Steven Choi, a conservative from Irvine, its decision to oppose a largely pro-labor Democrat probably helped cinch the race in a close contest...

[Newman] believes that the union’s campaign against him was spurred by his reluctance to support a bill last year that would have put a measure on the ballot asking voters to enshrine basic labor standards for all UC employees. The bill was sponsored by AFSCME Local 3299 and fizzled before it ever made it to the governor’s desk, facing a long list of opponents who said it was unnecessary and unfairly singled out one group of public workers...

It’s unlikely that Choi will have much influence in the California Capitol, where Republicans struggle to get any major policies signed into law. He thinks that the union that targeted Newman knew that and chose to risk helping elect a candidate it disagrees with in order to send a message to other Democrats about what happens when you oppose them.

“I think this was a power play to show how strong they are,” Choi said. “And what kind of penalty they can play against uncooperative legislators.”

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-12-09/a-california-union-helped-oust-an-oc-democrat-from-the-senate-an-anti-labor-conservative-took-his-place.

Those who know California political history will also know that raw assertions of power don't always end happily. The name Artie Samish won't be familiar to many people. But Samish was a highly influential "liquor lobbyist" in the 1940s. At one point, to illustrate how influential he was, he posed for a photo in a national magazine with a ventriloquist's dummy representing the state legislature. The idea was to show he could make the legislure do whatever he wanted.

Needless to say, members of the legislature were not pleased to see the photo and the incident led to a series in events culminating in Samish going to prison.

Sometimes, even things that are true need not be said nor demonstrated.

You can read a brief summary of this affair at https://cal170.library.ca.gov/a-dummy-brings-down-an-empire/.