California’s looming “Right to Organize and Negotiate” offers incontrovertible proof, as if any were needed, that the state’s lawmakers are simply front men for its real power brokers — unions in general and the unions representing public employees in particular.
On June 6, Senate Constitutional Amendment No. 7 (SCA-7) was submitted to the Senate Labor Committee for approval. The measure isn’t just another pretentious virtue signal by Democrat lawmakers to union lobbyists and the state’s 2.6 million organized workforce. It effectively provides, wholesale, a space for unions to continue utilizing shady tactics to shovel millions of dollars and votes into the Democrat political machine.
By constitutionally guaranteeing the right for all California employees to join a union, the legislation “prohibits the passing of any statute or ordinance that interferes with, negates or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively over their wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment and workplace safety.”
Inclusion of this broad provision can only further entrench labor unions’ authority at the expense of individual employees’ rights. Democrat legislators and labor unions will undoubtedly use this provision as a cudgel against any future challenges raised against labor unions’ unchecked authority.
As a rule, the process to amend the California Constitution by legislative proposal is straightforward. An amendment requires both houses to approve it by a two-thirds vote. Under the legislative process, however, the governor’s signature isn’t needed.
Instead, the proposal will simply be added in the next general election for voters to decide.
SCA-7 was first introduced on May 1 and resubmitted on June 6. It is still currently pending approval after being amended by the Senate Labor Committee.
If SCA-7 ultimately clears both the Senate and Assembly, California voters will have a choice to make in November.
The timing is no coincidence. The bill comes in the wake of a tidal wave of union-backed workplace laws coming to California after being signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022. Last year saw a slew of organized labor victories that left Lorena Gonzales, head of the California Labor Federation (CLF), boasting that every single one of the CLF’s sponsored bills was signed into law.
Among these is AB 2183, which allows agricultural employees to express interest in organizing by simply signing a card rather than voting at a physical polling place. United Farm Workers (UFA) argued this was “vital to ensuring undocumented workers (would not be) deported for showing up to vote.” But critics of AB 2183 counter that it would “invite opportunities for fraud and places too much power in unions’ hands.”
Alleged fraudulent conduct on the part of labor unions, in relation to forged authorization cards, has been a point of legal contention in previously settled and current ongoing litigation efforts brought by Freedom Foundation.
AB 2183, among other workplace laws coming to California, will be virtually impossible to challenge and repeal as a result of the prohibitory provision found within SCA-7.
The provision, which bars the passing of any statute or ordinance that “interferes” or “diminishes” the “right to organize and negotiate,” effectively restrains any future attempts by local or state officials to walk back the sweeping changes these new labor laws are bringing to California.
The state’s Democrat legislators have, in lockstep, demonstrated a concerted effort to “Unionize California.” Millions of dollars have been spent by labor unions on campaigns this year to drum up support for SCA-7. All under the guise of protecting employees’ rights.
Behind the curtain, however, this amendment provides an ocean of revenue from newly collected membership dues and a surge of new voters aligned with the Left.
The Freedom Foundation remains committed to informing Americans about the dangers of unchecked union authority. A well-informed public is the enemy of corrupt political maneuvering. It is therefore critical that California voters are aware of the danger that this amendment will pose to employee and employer relations throughout the state.
