The CSEA Victory Club needs you
Please join the non-partisan CSEA Political Education Fund, the expanded Victory Club, that enables CSEA’s political arm to reach federal as well as state and local candidates. Together we can win the rights, retirement and respect that classified employees have earned through their dedication to public education and the students we serve. Upon joining, you will receive the newly designed Victory Club pin in recognition of your important contribution. If you are already a member, please submit the new Victory Club application today so that CSEA can convert your membership to the new Victory Club and send you the new Victory Club pin. For additional information on the new Victory Club, select Victory Club Questions and Answers.
Victory Club funds help us to:
- Fully fund education and insure that the promise of full funding for our schools is kept.
- Protect and preserve our pensions. We need to stop legislation and initiatives to take away guaranteed pensions and force employees into risky 401k style plans.
- Provide access to affordable health care. We need to campaign for legislation and ballot measures to insure every classified employee has quality, affordable health care.
- Elect a Governor, legislators, congressional members and school board members who support public education, classified employees and organized labor.
- Pass school bonds, so we can build, update and renovate our school facilities.
- Stop privatization and outsourcing of classified jobs to the private sector.
How much does it cost?
CSEA Victory Club members contribute a few dollars to the Victory Club through payroll deduction, yet the combined contributions of tens of thousands of Victory Club members makes a big difference, bringing in close to one million dollars a year. This means political power for CSEA in Sacramento and in Washington D.C. CSEA encourages members to join at the $3.00/month or higher contribution level. See Victory Club application for more contribution information.
How is the money spent?
The Victory Club helps fund school board campaigns, school bond elections, statewide ballot campaigns, congressional and legislative races. This year it will help CSEA elect a Governor who support public education and the work we do. Victory Club money cannot be spent on CSEA operational expenses.
Who is eligible to join?
CSEA members and retirees are eligible.
How do you contribute?
Automatic payroll or PERS deduction is the only option for active members and PERS retirees to join the Victory Club. Retirees who are not members of PERS can join through an annual check contribution as shown on the new Victory Club application.
What are the levels of membership? The new Victory Club does not have different contribution levels, such as VIP and Sponsor. CSEA believes every member’s contribution is equally important to the growth of CSEA’s political education fund.
The Corporate Deception Power Grab is a ballot measure designed to silence the voices of workers and strengthen the political influence of giant multinational corporations. This initiative has qualified to appear on the November 2012 general election ballot.
Proponents of the initiative claim it would rein in campaign contributions by both unions and corporations, but in fact, the deceptive wording of the initiative specifically targets union members, while a big loophole leaves corporate campaign contributions essentially unscathed and unchecked.
Attempts to enact a similar ban have failed in recent years, including a 2005 initiative backed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Get the facts about this initiative
In deceptively simple language, this initiative seems like it treats both corporations and workers equally and fairly. It appears to ban all “special interest money” in the future. It won’t. In reality, this initiative would put a chokehold on working families’ participation in the political process and further tilt the balance of power in favor of wealthy interests.
• The backers of this initiative are NOT “good government” groups. It’s being funded by billionaires and corporate lobbies who want to control our state without any opposition. The key backers are the same corporate groups that have been forcing a race to the bottom that lowers standards for everyone—slashing wages, outsourcing our jobs and eliminating benefits and retirement security. These are the same corporate interests that have poured millions of dollars into opposing Wall Street accountability while calling for the privatization of Social Security and even repealing the minimum wage!
• It takes away workers’ right to pool our money together so we can have a strong voice in the political decisions that affect our jobs, families and communities. Working families have the right to be heard in the American political process. Without our voice, there would be no employer-provided health care, no vacation and sick leave, no minimum wage, no overtime pay and no job safety protections.
• It paves the way for more cutbacks in our standard of living. Especially in this economy, unions are among the only strong advocates for workers and the middle class against Wall Street, multinational corporations and unfair trade “partners” that have cost millions of Americans their jobs.
• Californians have twice rejected similar measures at the ballot box, so that’s why backers are pretending to limit corporate contributions this time around. But read the details: the only corporate contributions this measure bans are employee payroll deductions and direct contributions from corporations to candidates. However, that’s not how corporations make their political contributions.
• Workers already have a choice. No worker can be forced to fund a union’s political and legislative activities. Workers who disagree with union political activities can choose not to pay the amount of dues that goes for those activities (this right is protected by law). Corporations, by contrast, don’t give shareholders, employees or customers any say in their political activities.
• The devil is in the details. While unions and other worker organizations collect most of their political contributions through payroll deduction, corporations funnel most of their contributions directly from their mega-profits to political action committees (PACs)—and this initiative places no restrictions at all on those contributions! In the 2008 election cycle, corporations outspent unions by 19-to-1! Under this initiative, they can continue to relentlessly write fat checks to their PACs, which will then simply turn around and write fat checks to the candidates. Meanwhile, these deceptive measures impose an “extremely costly” and “significant” burden on a union’s political activities, according to the Washington Supreme Court, which declared a similar measure to be unconstitutional.
The Chapter Leadership Team
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The chapter executive board usually consists of the following elected officers:
president, vice president(s), secretary, treasurer, and public relations/ communications officer.
Depending on the chapter’s constitution, other officers such as an elected chief job steward may also be included on the executive board.
