PRO: MEASURE CAN DEFEND BASIC RIGHTS.

Byline: Lon Jacobs

THE premise of Proposition 75, paycheck protection, could hardly be simpler and more straightforward. It states that the citizens of California will not allow anyone to take money from the paychecks of public employees like me for political contributions without our permission.

Clearly understood, there's not a whole lot of room for disagreement on that declaration of a fundamental human right of us state government employees: to decide for ourselves which political candidates and causes we will support. Proposition 75 is supported by an almost two- thirds majority, according to some opinion polls, and that support extends into union households.

Given the clarity and widespread support for Proposition 75, the special-interest groups opposing it - mainly the union bosses - have no choice but to use their overwhelming financial muscle to make it sound like Proposition 75 is something other than what it is.

Their big lie, on which they pound away in ad after ad on television, is that paycheck protection silences the voices of working people. In fact, once Proposition 75 passes, union members will be able to donate even more to political causes, if they wish, than before, and so can their unions.

What Proposition 75 actually does is make it illegal to force state government union members to donate to political causes they oppose. If forcing working people to donate their hard-earned money to political causes they oppose isn't silencing their voices, then what is?

Union leaders also claim that Proposition 75 is unnecessary because union members already have the right under the 1988 Beck decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to opt out of unions and pay ``agency fees'' to the labor union, while not having to make any political contributions. In fact, it is almost always extremely difficult for union members to exercise this right. The labor unions engage in foot dragging and excuses when union members request to opt out, and workers who opt out are often subject to workplace retribution.

The Beck decision has never been properly enforced by federal and state governments, and labor union members who attempt to exercise their rights often receive little protection. Workers who opt out most often lose grievance and voting rights on union contracts and union officers, thus paying agency shop union dues but once again truly having their voices silenced in their own unions. And the claims of unions - especially public-employee labor unions - about how much they spend on political lobbying are often outright falsehoods.

My own union, the Safety Employees Benefit Association, won't let you opt out of paying the money at all. The organization demands that you pay, but will direct the money to its charities - or so the union bosses say. I've never seen an accounting for that. Bottom line: You still pay. And my own voice in my union has been silenced altogether after being kicked out of the union for simply expressing my views, different from those of the union leadership.

The labor-union bosses owe us an explanation as to why, if we public-employee labor-union members already have the right to refuse to fork over money to political causes we oppose, they are spending millions upon millions of dollars to block that right. Could it be they know that most of their members would take advantage of the new union democracy put in place by a paycheck-protection law to follow the dictates of their own conscience?

When voters understand what Proposition 75 really says and does, they immediately want to vote for it. The union bosses have therefore been left with smoke screens of phony claims about what Proposition 75 would do - allegedly cut public-school funding, or cut death benefits to police officers and firemen killed in the line of duty, or slash health care benefits. They hope that, if they throw enough mud at this battle for human rights, the voters will no longer be able to see it for what it is.

Proposition 75 - for paycheck protection - aims to secure fundamental human rights for workers and to give us the dignity and respect we deserve. On Nov. 8, the voters will be able to strike a blow for fairness and justice for the public employees of this great state of California.