(Prop 32) Koch Brothers try to kill California unions

No sooner were opinion polls showing the labor-led campaign to defeat California Proposition 32 gaining ground by 10 points earlier this month, than the multi-billionaire Koch brothers dropped $4 million to shore up support for the anti-union measure on the November ballot.

Prop 32 would ban both unions and corporations from using payroll-deducted funds for political purposes in California. Meanwhile, corporations would have a free ride to raise unlimited funds to support pro-corporate candidates.

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The outcome of the battle over Prop 32 has broad implications nationally because California's labor movement represents more than two million members out of a total of more than 14 million nationally, making California's union membership the largest in the nation.

"Twenty years from now, this will be a point that we'll all look back and say 'This is where we lost it,' or 'This is where we turned it around.' Let's turn it around," IBEW's Norton aptly summarized what labor and other progressive social movements see as the stakes in this battle.