SAN FRANCISCO—About 2,000 union demonstrators protested against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s package of proposed reforms outside a hotel where the governor was raising money for a slate of ballot measures.

Nurses, teachers, firefighters, police and members of several public employee unions have been staging noisy protests against the Republican governor for months. On Tuesday night, they aired their complaints outside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in San Francisco with one protester as it left the hotel.

“He picked the wrong group,” said Deborah Burger, president of the 60,000-member California Nurses Association. “We don’t have a lot of money, but we have connections with the community.”

Nurses have been demonstrating against Schwarzenegger since November, when he issued an emergency rule delaying a new law easing nurse-patient ratios in California hospitals. A Sacramento County Superior Court struck down that ruling last month.

Other unions have joined the nurses in recent weeks as the governor has begun pushing his reform measures, which include paying teachers according to merit rather than seniority and converting the state’s public pension system into 401(k)-style retirement accounts.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Rob Stutzman dismissed the protest as a union-inspired event that did not represent average Californians. He said there were risks in “attributing much significance” to the event, alluding to the city’s strong union base and tradition for free speech.

Outside the hotel, a plane flew overhead carrying a banner reading “ARNOLD: CALIFORNIA IS NOT FOR SALE.” Some protesters carried signs, one of which said “ARNOLD CAN’T BE BOUGHT, BIG BUSINESS ALREADY OWNS HIM.”

Tim Paulson, the executive director the San Francisco Labor Council, a coalition of unions that helped organize the event, called Schwarzenegger the worst governor in the history of California.

“We are going to stop this fake superhero and really fight to keep it on the streets for the real heroes of California—the working men and women,” Paulson said.

Martha Puhl, a nurse at Children’s Hospital in Oakland who has attended many of the recent protests, said patients and their families have been very supportive.

“I do get the sense he is listening,” Puhl said. “Before he said he wanted to kick the nurses’ butts. His message now is that he likes nurses but he is attacking unions. But that is going to backfire as well because what are unions but groups of nurses, teachers and firefighters.”

Schwarzenegger has promised to raise $50 million to promote his proposals, saying national unions could spend as much as $200 million to oppose his efforts.

Those who attended the San Francisco event paid at least $1,000 a plate to dine with Schwarzenegger, said Reed Dickens of Citizens to Save California, an organization promoting the governor’s initiatives. Since late February, the group has raised about $5.5 million, much of it coming from real estate developers, insurance interests and technology companies.

Dickens said the growing demonstrations outside Schwarzenegger’s events have backfired on protesters, strengthening the resolve of the governor’s supporters.