California initiative to require healthcare union members to approve union political spending qualifies for the November

On June 5, a ballot initiative to require healthcare unions to disclose how they spend member dues on state and local ballot measures, and to obtain majority member approval for such spending, qualified for the November ballot in California. The California Hospital Association (CHA), a trade association representing hospitals and health systems across the state, is sponsoring the measure.

The CHA initiative would apply to all healthcare unions in the state with more than 50,000 members. This would include unions such as SEIU Local 2015, California Nurses Association, and SEIU-UHW.

The CHA campaign website says, “Decisions are often made by a small group of union executives, not rank-and-file members. For one large California healthcare union, decisions on where to spend money on politics are made by executives representing one quarter of one percent of their membership. Labor unions have a right to spend money on political issues and measures. But union members also have the right to vote to decide how their dues money is being spent and a right to know exactly where their hard-earned dues money is going, including ballot measure spending.”

In an interview with KFF Health News, Renée Saldaña, a representative of SEIU-UHW, said “we don’t see the legal viability” of the CHA initiative and called it an attempt “to silence the front-line healthcare workers.”



https://news.ballotpedia.org/2026/06/15/california-initiative-to-require-healthcare-union-members-to-approve-union-political-spending-qualifies-for-the-november-ballot/