A ballot initiative, sponsored by the California Hospital Association (CHA), to require healthcare labor unions to inform members annually how member dues are being spent on political activities, specifically spending on state and local ballot measures, and require a majority of members to approve such expenditures qualified for the November ballot on June 5. The November ballot will also feature two ballot initiatives proposed by the SEIU-UHW, which would be affected by the CHA initiative, to establish a compensation limit for CEOs, executives, administrators, and managers of healthcare corporations and prohibit healthcare clinics, specifically federally-qualified health centers and related organizations, from spending less than 90% of their annual revenue on mission-related purposes.
The secretary of state reported in the final random sample count for the CHA initiative that 78% of signatures were projected to be valid, equivalent to 726,969 of the 931,534 submitted. To qualify an initiated state statute for the ballot in California, petitioners needed to collect signatures equal to 5% of the votes cast in the prior gubernatorial election (546,651 signatures).
The initiative would apply to all healthcare unions in the state with more than 50,000 members. This would include unions such as SEIU Local 2015, California Nurses Association, and SEIU-UHW.
The campaign sponsoring the initiative, Californians for Health Care Workers' Right to Vote, reported $11 million in contributions through April 9, all of which were received from the California Hospitals Committee on Issues, which is sponsored by the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.
The campaign website says, “Decisions are often made by a small group of union executives, not rank-and-file members. For one large California healthcare union, decisions on where to spend money on politics are made by executives representing one quarter of one percent of their membership. Labor unions have a right to spend money on political issues and measures. But union members also have the right to vote to decide how their dues money is being spent and a right to know exactly where their hard-earned dues money is going, including ballot measure spending.”
The SEIU-UHW has also submitted signatures for a combined law and constitutional amendment to levy a one-time 5% wealth tax on the state’s billionaires. The random sample count is due June 18. Between the three ballot initiative campaigns, the SEIU-UHW reported more than $9.7 million in cash and in-kind contributions as of March 30.
Five other initiatives and three legislative referrals have qualified for the ballot. The measures address health care executive compensation, housing, health clinic spending, vote requirements on tax measures, voter ID, public financing of election campaigns, conducting recall elections, and vote thresholds for ballot measures.
Signature verification is also pending for nine other ballot initiatives in California. To see the list of measures, click here.
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