National Nurses United

H ere's everything you need to know about the November special election, but were too busy to ask. PROP. 74 Is it fair for teachers to be hired for life before they prove themselves? I don't get lifetime appointment, so why should they? That's a common misunderstanding. We're really talking about probationary periods here. Under current law, teach- ers serve a two-year probation. The gov- ernor wants to make it five years. This is unfair and a very bad idea. Teachers are already leaving the profession because it's so hard. They're working in overcrowded classrooms, and they don't have the sup- port or resources they need. California needs to replace 60,000 teachers in the next five years, and 100,000 in the next ten. Why is Gov. Schwarzenegger proposing firing more teachers, then, when he should be trying to keep our best teach- ers? He's trying to punish teachers for chal- lenging his broken promises on paying back the $2 billion he took from our schools last year. PROP. 75 Isn't asking members before you spend their dues fair? Of course, but union members already have that right. Union membership is vol- untary for public employees. Union mem- bers have made their choice. The governor just doesn't like the choice they made. Why is Prop. 75 on the ballot then? The backers are a small handful of mil- lionaires, billionaires, and wealthy corpo- rations who want to make it easier to weaken all sorts of worker protections and advancements to cut costs and boost their bottom line. To do that, they want to set up huge administrative roadblocks to union members having a voice. Prop. 75 sets up two sets of rules: harder ones for unions and almost none for corporations. Don't unions control politics in this state? Corporations outspend unions 13 to 1 in Sacramento, and 24 to 1 in politics gen- erally. The governor wants to make it 13 to 0 and 24 to 0. All the ballot measures weak- en the voices of nurses and the public, and give more power to the governor and his corporate donors. Isn't Prop. 75 about giving union mem- bers more say than their union bosses? At CNA, the union "boss" is the mem- ber. Every political decision, including what candidates and issues to support or oppose, is made by the board of bedside nurses that members elect. PROP. 76 Don't we need Prop. 76 to make our state live within our means? Of course it's good to only spend what you have. But California has less because corporations and the wealthy aren't paying their fair share of taxes. Corporations pay a declining share of the tax rate in California; it's now at 11 percent. Some of the state's wealthiest corporations only pay the mini- mum state franchise tax. So Prop. 76 avoids those solutions and just makes it easier to cut public programs like education and county healthcare. PROP. 77 The same people always win. Won't Prop. 77 give us more competitive elec- tions? There's actually no evidence that Prop. 77 will do that. What gives incumbents an edge and corrupts the political process are the deep pockets of corporate and wealthy donors who spend millions in every elec- tion, and the favors they get in return. If Gov. Schwarzenegger is serious about re- form, he would join us in calling for taking all money out of politics. The Legislature is too partisan in redis- tricting. Isn't it fairer to have judges do it? There's no guarantee that the districts they draw will be any better than the cur- rent ones. And it's not true that judges are not partisan; most judges are highly parti- san and are often nominated for that very reason. Prop. 77 will just make things worse. Instead of the elected Legislature, three retired judges who are unaccountable to voters, who don't reflect the diversity of our state, and who will be using out of date cen- sus numbers will be drawing the districts. PROP. 78 Don't uninsured people in California need drug discounts? Won't Prop. 78 do that? No, it won't. Prop. 78 sets up a drug dis- count program that's voluntary for drug companies. There's actually no require- ment that they participate or offer any dis- counts. Then why is Prop. 78 on the ballot? And why would they spend almost $100 mil- lion to pass it? Drug prices are too high in the U.S. and voters are getting mad. By passing Prop. 78, drug companies hope to improve their PR by tricking the public into thinking that they care about consumers. What the language of Prop. 78 really does is make it more difficult to pass more aggressive drug discount meas- ures in the future. The drug companies are more than happy to pay that kind of money to make sure real reforms are delayed. Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the Cali- fornia Nurses Association. C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 5 7 Rose Ann DeMoro CNA Executive Director Proposition Prep Everything you need to know about the special election By Rose Ann DeMoro

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