I read an article over the weekend regarding the financial crisis in California as a result of the power of the California public employee unions. I have always thought that the only way to get things under control again would be to outlaw public employee unions as existed prior to the 60's. I know that will never happen given the state of things in California. The next best thing would be to try to make California a right to work State -- again, never going to happen. However, it occurred to me that what might work is to create a ballot initiative that prevents the automatic withdrawal of union dues from an employees paycheck. My guess is that most union members would prefer to not pay the dues if they could figure out a way to get out of it. The unions might eventually get "their" money but they would have to work for it, plus it might motivate union members to withhold funds and maybe even rebel against the mandatory membership requirement once they saw how much money it would save them by withholding payment. This them might set the stage for an initiative to make California a right to work State with union members blessing.