Labor pushes on with petition to block union dues rules

Thursday, June 11, 1998 | 3:56 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Labor officials still plan to file their statewide petition Monday to block the regulation of union dues even after a petition that would have required workers to say how they want their dues spent was ruled unconstitutional.

Claude "Blackie" Evans, executive director of the Nevada State AFL-CIO, said Wednesday that organized labor has collected more than enough signatures to qualify for the November election ballot. The deadline is Tuesday.

Evans made the announcement hours after Clark County Chief District Judge Myron Leavitt struck down the rival GOP petition as unconstitutional and ordered Secretary of State Dean Heller to keep it off the November ballot.

"We're tickled to death by the judge's ruling," Evans said. "I imagine they (the GOP) will appeal that to the (Nevada) Supreme Court. We will fight that battle when it comes."

Gov. Bob Miller, who with Evans was one of the trustees of the Nevadans for Fairness political action committee that filed the lawsuit to keep the so-called paycheck protection initiative off the ballot, said the GOP petition would have "stripped workers of their right to participate in the political arena."

"This initiative was a strictly partisan effort to try to fool the voters," Miller said. "It would have denied workers their First Amendment rights of free speech and association. It would have caused government intrusion into the affairs of private organizations, and it would have stripped workers of their ability to participate in the political arena."

The Nevada State Education Association, which was a party to the lawsuit, called Leavitt's ruling "a victory for education employees, workers and familiess throughout the state."

Leavitt, whose bid for state Supreme Court has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, found that the GOP's "paycheck protection initiative" to require unions to seek permission from workers to use dues for political purposes -- breached the First Amendment right of association.

Leavitt agreed with union lawyers that the initiative, if approved, would have created a state law that contradicted federal collective bargaining laws. Because Nevada is a right-to-work state, the state cannot impair labor contracts by "allowing employers to ignore the terms and incur no liability for doing so," Leavitt wrote.

Richard McCracken, who presented the case for the unions, said Leavitt's ruling "will spare Nevada an extremely expensive and divisive fight over an idea that was dead on arrival anyway."

Leavitt said his authority to make a ruling before the petition was filed came from the state constitution. Once a notice of intent to circulate a petition is filed with the Secretary of State, anyone can raise the constitutional question before the signatures are submitted or a vote is taken, Leavitt said.

The Nevada Supreme Court in 1992 made a similar ruling against a proposed Congressional term limits initiative before it was placed on a ballot.

The ruling has drawn praise from national labor leaders who have helped defeat similar ballot initiatives in 19 other states, most recently in California. AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee, who called it a "blow to extreme right-wing conservatives who are trying to silence working families."

But Charles Muth, a spokesman for state Republicans pushing what they call the "workers' rights initiative," said Leavitt's ruling "is one of the little setbacks in life. We anticipated it could happen."

Leavitt gave the GOP 30 days to file a suit before his order takes effect. Lawyers will meet with state GOP Chairman John Mason to decide the next move, but it is likely the party will appeal.

"It's unfortunate that one judge can stop the people from voting," Muth said. "We have 60,000 people who signed it. This is part of a nationwide effort and yet we're stopped even before we submitted the petitions."

Muth said the party will push forward with the signature drive, because if the court overturns Leavitt's ruling, the Republicans will have their petition filed and be poised to get on the ballot.

SUN REPORTER Jeff Schweers contributed to this story.