Unite Here protestorsOf the thousands of hotel workers in the Anaheim Resort, only those at a few hotels are actually paying dues into UNITE-HERE Local 11 coffers. UNITE-HERE would love to change that, and to that end has been one of the main forces behind the push to change Anaheim City Council elections from at-large to by-district.

Yesterday, UNITE-HERE Local 11 poured more money into the “Yes on Measure L” campaign. In the last four days, the militant left-wing union made contributions of $13,254.82, $1,711.89 and $11,898.65. Given the specific amounts, it’s obvious UNITE-HERE Local 11 is paying for at least a couple of city-wide mailers.

That’s $26,865.36, on top of the $25,000 donated in August by UNITE-HERE Local 11, which is also the Yes on Measure L campaign’s landlord. 

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why UNITE-HERE is putting money into passing Measure L: because by-district elections provide path to changing the Anaheim City Council from majority-Republican to majority-Democrat and leveraging that power to unionize more hotel workers, which translates into more dues money for Democratic coffers. Furthermore, UNITE-HERE would like to get back into the Honda Center and re-unionize Anaheim Arena Management’s food service workers — and having a Democratic council majority as AAM’s landlord makes that easier. 

I invite any pro-Measure L Republican who out there who thinks the measure they are supporting will not help the Democrats and will not hurt the Republicans to send me a post explaining why, and I will post it. It would make for fascinating reading.

Speaking of the Yes on Measure L campaign, it filed paperwork this week to change its name from “Committee for District Elections – sponsored by One Anaheim,” to  Committee for District Elections – Yes on Measures L & M, Sponsored by Anaheim Neighborhoods Together, a Coalition of Labor, Business and Community Organizations.”  It’s a deceptive name since Measure L has no business support; it’s contributions have come entirely from union and left-wing political action committees.