The measure would obligate companies with more than 50 workers to provide employee health care coverage and pay at least 80 percent of coverage costs. Workers and union representative say that some health benefits have already been affected by market pressure from non-union employers that fail to offer insurance as well as rising healthcare costs. Workers who have not been affected fear they soon will be.

"Right now we have fairly comprehensive healthcare coverage but we don't think its fair that employers are subsidizing irresponsible companies—this creates an unfair advantage," said John Nunes, organizer at United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), local 870. Local 870 is negotiating with Safeway in Alameda County. UFCW workers at Albertsons, Safeway and Vons ended a four-month-long strike in Southern California this past March over healthcare benefits.

Of most concern to Nunes and others is Walmart, which has become one of the country's most successful businesses without offering many employees health benefits. Many organziers peg Walmart's entrance into the market as the primary reason that grocery store owners in Southern California decided to cut benefits in the last contract. If Proposition 72 is approved, Walmart will have to offer much more extensive healthcare for its workers.

But it's not only Walmart. Although many unions continue to receive good healthcare benefits, over half of the work stoppages in California in the first six months of 2003 were over health care, according to a study by University of California Berkeley Labor Center.

Local unions understand that their benefits could be in jeopardy. They are putting their money and might behind Proposition 72. The University of California workers with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local 3299 in Oakland don't pay any premiums right now. Faith Raider, a spokesperson for local 3299, said, "The current system brings the standard down. We absolutely see the problem with healthcare reform as a social problem, and we can't fix it at the negotiating table."

The measure has recently lost some of its traction with voters. In August, Prop 72 was favored 48 percent to 31, but a Field Poll from October 31 puts Prop 72 opponents ahead 42 percent to 41, with 17 percent undecided. Opposition to Proposition 72 has raised 10.8 million dollars to fight the measure compared to the 6.9 million raised by groups supporting Proposition 72.

While more than 200 organizations from the AARP to California Medical Association are behind Proposition 72, unions bring a unique strength — a paid staff ready to work on issues like these.

"In California, unions have over 10,000 paid staff who can be assigned to go do something," said Nelson Lichtenstein, history professor and labor researcher at UC Santa Barbara. "Unions raise money, but more importantly they have can mobilize people, and walk precincts to encourage people to vote."

Unions have been the primary contributors to Proposition 72, contributing about $6 million.

Unions have taken different approaches during the past 50 years to get the public to guarantee basic welfare, including healthcare.

Kim Voss, a sociology professor at University of California Berkeley, said union support of the initiative harked back to the time after World War II when progressive unions tried to build an American system of provisions, healthcare and pensions. "They failed," she said, and instead relied on meeting members' needs through contracts with employers, she said. "This worked for a while when labor was growing," she said. "Other companies would give employees benefits to stop unions from coming in," Voss said.

Nowadays, however, the pressure to provide benefits has vanished as only union membership has declined to 12.9 percent of the workforce in 2003, compared to 35 percent in 1945, according to United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Southern California grocery workers strike, which lasted four months and cost the grocery owners billions in revenue, is the most recent case of healthcare issues' failing to be addressed at the bargaining table. In the recently approved contract, new hires will have to work 30 months to become eligible for family coverage. They would then pay 20 percent of their healthcare costs.

If unionized grocery workers receive the same contract in northern California, Arindrajit Dube and Alex Lantsberg at University of California's Labor Center estimated that job-based healthcare would cover half as many grocery workers statewide. According to the study, as many as 124, 000 workers and family members would lose job-based coverage by 2007.

"We think that it's a social issue, and it's got to be fought as a social issue," said Susan Sachen, the healthcare campaign director with California Federation of Labor

"It really is about employers covering their workers," she added. "We need to enact a minimum wage of healthcare, if people work hard they should be able to see a doctor." Even if unions like the Teamsters don't pay premiums for family coverage right now, workers know that healthcare costs do affect them.

Ken Pelosi, a truck driver with Teamsters Local 70 said, "When we have to fight over dollars for wages, healthcare bites into any kind of wage increase you can get."

So far, Pelosi's employer, UPS, has absorbed the rising premium costs, but Pelosi knows that healthcare is always a factor in how an employer will negotiate wages.

"Its like fighting for your children — having to pay more of your co-payment is just a step closer to not having healthcare at all," said fellow Teamster Randy Bassett, a UPS delivery truck driver. Bassett said he is afraid that "sooner or later, we're not gonna have insurance."

Judy Goff, secretary-treasurer for the Central Labor Council of Alameda County, said members are more aware of the problem with health care than they used to be. "Everybody knows someone who is not covered," she said. "Everybody has relatives who don't have coverage, or don't qualify. It might be an adult child, a parent under 62 — the landscape has changed totally. People are fully employed with no coverage. Or they have two part time jobs."

Some union workers know what it's like to go without benefits. Carol Smith, of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877 is an usher at Oakland Coliseum. She pays about $100 per month for health care coverage.

Smith said, "We are fighting for Proposition 72 so hard because a lot of us have worked for non-union places where we weren't getting any benefits."