The other day I was invited to a small conference in San Francisco’s financial district hosted by the Lennar Corporation. We gathered to discuss the Labor Council’s groundbreaking community benefits agreement (CBA) with Lennar and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency which will renovate and invigorate the depressed Hunters Point shipyard neighborhood. This area of southeastern San Francisco has been neglected in so many ways in the 30 years since the shipyard’s closing, until the Board of Supervisors finally passed a historic development plan late last year.

I was joined by a dozen leaders including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, new Oakland City Administrator, Deana Santana (Mayor Jean Quan was tied up in Oakland), Alameda Mayor Marie Gilmore, as well as representatives from Senator Feinstein’s and Leader Pelosi’s offices, among others. We spent an intense two hours discussing our project in the context of future American urban development and revitalization of a fractured modern international economy.

Associates of the Brookings Institute, a moderate but innovative think tank based in Washington, DC, came to San Francisco to learn more about this redevelopment, praise this historic urban plan, and listen to our assessment of how this is one of the best ways that San Francisco can call on community, labor, government, and planners to work together to move American urban re-growth into the 21st century. The Brookings researchers had just completed a tour of the shipyard and Conny Ford, a Vice President of the Council, and Mike Theriault, the head of our Building and Construction Trades Council, joined me, city planners and other development leaders in a discussion.

Brookings Institute analyst Bruce Katz, who worked for HUD in the Clinton administration under former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, made some observations about current urban development. Katz worked with Roberta Achtenberg, now a senior policy advisor to Lennar, who arranged the meeting. (Achtenberg, a former San Francisco Supervisor and famous for taking on the attacks from Senator Jesse Helms who challenged her credentials when Clinton nominated her as Assistant Secretary of Housing “because she’s a damn lesbian,” is a hero to many of us.)

Discussion centered on best practices for American revitalization. Some of the points Katz touched on were:

• Green economy is still minor in this country. We have made little progress despite California’s leading legislation to move our agenda to less emissions and cleaner building. He was excited to see that Lennar has many new green tools in their plans.
• It was wonderful that San Francisco community and labor organizations have pushed this plan to include good jobs and good benefits and labor rights.

He then gave his own thoughts on our 200 years-old history by stating that America, despite its massive land size, is driven by urban economies. He highlighted that some of the original American Federalist debate regarding Alexander Hamilton’s manufacturing principals vs. Jefferson’s agrarian roots are still in play—national government policy vs. states rights. He laughed when noting that the new Tea Party folks still pretend like we survive by cottage values. He said that despite our tremendous geographical size, including agricultural land, the American economy is dominated and driven by the 100 or so of our urban areas surrounded by the original travel routes (rivers and lakes) and our two major coasts—the areas that dominate our industries. He gave an example of how Paterson, N.J. became one of America’s first manufacturing centers due to its water falls that early American industries tapped and, though stagnant now, there’s a plan in place where Chinese capitol (sic) might invest in a new manufacturing enterprise with us. They might have to bring a few Chinese workers to train Americans but… Sound familiar? “The reverse of NAFTA might be happening if we are smart.”

Katz emphasized (on the side of Hamilton) that we ultimately need a national framework for economic policy as opposed to a decentralized states rights impediment, though he admitted that local projects like Hunters Point will serve as models for how investment dollars are spent.

Katz ended with a few remarks that included:
•    We are a country of bad habits.
•    Our politics don’t reflect our metropolitan economy.
•    We need to retool our investment priorities; e.g. China is investing everywhere.

My impression is that that the Brookings Institute is driven by business needs and really doesn’t reflect a good jobs agenda. Not intentionally, but, like SPUR, they don’t get that far into the details of living wage jobs and workers’ rights but are intelligently up in the Ivory Tower. But they do recognize a good urban strategy like our shipyard plan when they see it.

Last week, before this Memorial Day weekend, (where we still fight to extricate ourselves from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) was full of activity at the Labor Council.

We started last week with a press conference that featured the Labor Council’s Public Employee Committee, Mayor Ed Lee, financier Warren Hellman, and most of the Board of Supervisors, to announce the introduction of a charter amendment for pension revisions that will save city services and jobs.

I am proud of the city workers and San Franciscans who crafted this ballot measure. While governors and mayors in Wisconsin, San Jose, New Jersey, Costa Mesa, and Ohio, unilaterally decide to demonize the workers who maintain our streets, clinics, firehouses and public safety—here in San Francisco the entire fabric of government, unions, and business found a way to craft a solution to the financial hole we have found ourselves in because of the very avoidable missteps on Wall Street.

We are still assessing our Mayoral Forum from a couple weeks ago where we interviewed 7 of the 35 plus candidates who are competing in the November election. All 7 have been endorsed by labor for one position or another over the last 10 years which makes the ability of the Labor Council to endorse rather challenging. I want to remind everyone, including the candidates who complained about our long questionnaire, that the San Francisco Labor Council endorsement for any candidate is based on multiple issues—not personalities or a singular vote. We represent many industries for workers and we have an endorsement process that ultimately needs 2/3 of our representatives to agree on an endorsement.

Josie Camacho, my colleague and new Secretary-Treasurer of the Alameda County Central Labor Council, also visited our office to catch up on organizing and collective bargaining campaigns. Josie also introduced me to the new Executive Director of APALA, Gregory Cendana, who flew out from DC. Greg is young, gay, and Filipino-American and will bring great energy to the Movement. The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, one of the seven constituency groups affiliated with the AFL-CIO, is holding their national convention in Oakland this July. (SF next time!)

Thank you to those who supported Local 2 at the Intercontinental Hotel last Wednesday.

We want to acknowledge the unions who came to San Francisco for their conventions recently. It was a pleasure to address the International Bakers Union which stayed at the Hilton in Chinatown and I want to thank F.X. Crowley from Local 16 for making me get up extra early on Saturday morning to welcome the IATSE delegation to the Fairmont hotel.

For those of you who have still not bought tickets to our June 9th fundraiser to please get your final commitment to Emily. (We still need to order enough wine…)

Memorial Day is supposed to be Day 1 of summer. So as summer approaches I wish that my brothers and sisters in the building trades start to get more work hours—but when you do don’t forget to stay active in your union.

And I hope that those who actually get a hiatus from work—like our teachers—take this time to continue their activism to make sure that your union is still the one place where you have a voice at work.

Go Giants!

Tim Paulson is the executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, an organization representing over 100 local unions with a membership of over 100,000 working men and women in San Francisco.

On Friday evening after sitting for hours of public sector pension negotiations at City Hall, I stopped by the Building Trade Council’s political fundraiser at the Intercontinental Hotel. As usual the food was great and the casino night theme kept everyone in a good mood. The Council honored its President, Larry Mazzola, Business Manager of Plumbers Union Local 38. Larry is also a Vice-President of the Labor Council. Larry was one of the most respected construction trade leaders when I first worked as a business representative for Bricklayers and Tilelayers Local 3 in the early 1990’s. He was there whenever I needed advice on how to best represent our members and he still brings good counsel over 20 years later. Thanks for your support over the years, Larry Mazzola. (Photo of award at casino nite.)

At the same time, over in Oakland, my colleague Sharon Cornu was being honored by the Alameda County Central Labor Council for her years serving as political director and executive secretary-treasurer. Sharon and I both started working for Labor Councils as political directors almost 10 years ago – me in San Mateo county and she in Alameda – before we were elected officers of the Labor Council. So we have spent many hours strategizing over elections and organizing campaigns. I wish her well as Deputy Mayor in Jean Quans Administration. (photo of Sharon and I at antiwar rally)

And speaking of Oakland I can’t say that I’m too displeased with the way the Giants dismantled the A’s this weekend….

And this is a good time to announce that we will be hosting “Union Night at the Ballpark” again on Monday, August 8. Email Emily for tickets.

I also want to remind everyone that our political fundraiser is coming in less than two weeks (June 9th!) and table reservations are coming in a bit slowly. We know that times are difficult but we will still be busy this coming November. Again, we are honoring Fiona Ma for her 100% voting record in 2010 as well as our brothers and sisters who came out in November to defeat Measure B. Check out all the details here.

And don’t forget Local 2’s action at the Intercontinental on Wednesday from 7 AM to 7 PM.

Go Sharks!

Tim Paulson is the executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, an organization representing over 100 local unions with a membership of over 100,000 working men and women in San Francisco.

Two thousand teachers, public workers, parents, students and union members descended on San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza Friday afternoon to support the State Of Emergency week of action in Sacramento. All of this week California teachers swarmed the capitol to pressure lawmakers to pass a budget to support public schools and stop the pink slips for teachers. We are proud that the United Educators of San Francisco were prominent in leading the charge.

On Friday we ramped up the support from the urban areas: San Diego, Los Angeles, and, of course, in our wonderful San Francisco. Teachers union president Dennis Kelly emceed a great program surrounded by a rock and roll band (who toned it down for a “Where has all the ‘money’ gone?” outtake on the Kingston trio bestseller of 800 years ago). The crowd wrote postcards to fellow teachers and workers in Republican areas of California asking them to call their legislators and push them to do their jobs and vote for a fair budget that doesn’t close schools and decimate vital services.

Thanks to all of you who came out. And thanks to the elected’s who showed up even though we wouldn’t allow you to speak: State Senator Leland Yee, Supervisors John Avalos and Ross Mirkarimi and School Board Member Hydra Mendoza.

With this event we continue our fight for fairness—it almost made me forget that the Sharks beat the Detroit Red Wings to advance to the Western Conference Stanley Cup finals. Go Sharks. Go the Labor Movement!

Tim Paulson is the executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, an organization representing 150 local unions with a membership of over 100,000 working men and women in San Francisco.

This week workers are descending on Sacramento to protest the Republican legislators’ unbelievable ability to do nothing to about our state budget. Led by the California Teachers Association, workers will be joined by teachers, students, parents and other public workers to demand that schools and vital services be funded.

Here in San Francisco we will be mounting a day of action on Friday, May 13th at 4pm at Civic Center Plaza (across from City Hall) to support the actions in Sacramento. See the flier (and all other notices) on the Labor Council’s website. In addition to the rally we will also have tables set up where we can call fellow union members in targeted Republican Assembly and Senate districts and ask them to urge their representatives to vote for a fair budget that doesn’t target schools and other vital services. We want this to be as large as our April 4th march through the Financial District. Similar events will be taking place in San Diego, Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. Please turn out your co-workers, fellow union members, neighbors and family members to support California, public education, and worker rights.

Also, for Labor Council delegates, mark your calendars for Monday, May 16th, when we will be holding a Mayoral Forum with a select panel of leading candidates. This event will take place from 6-8pm at the Plumbers Hall and will be for our delegates and affiliate leaders. This Forum should be the perfect educational setting to hear the ideas these candidates have regarding the future of San Francisco. Many of the candidates have been previously endorsed by us for other offices so this November’s election might be quite a show. Note: We will not be endorsing at this Forum.

Speaking of education, I had the opportunity during my vacation in Vietnam last month to meet with my good friend, Kent Wong, from the UCLA Labor Studies Department. Kent arrived in Hanoi the same night I arrived, along with Elaine Bernard, Chair of the Harvard Trade Union Program; Abel Valenzuela Jr., Chair of the UCLA Cesar Chavez Chicano Studies Department; and Greg Mantsios, Director of the Murphy Institute for Worker Education & Labor Studies at The City University of New York. We were picked up by leaders from the national Vietnamese General Federation of Trade Unions whom I had visited with Kent three years previously. The San Francisco and Alameda Labor Councils and the Asian Pacific American Labor Association have twice hosted leaders from the VGTU for labor exchanges as well. Kent had organized this conference with American and Vietnamese labor scholars to exchange ideas regarding organizing policy, the role of labor education and labor law between the two countries—one country controlled by capital and the other gradually allowing corporations to “invest” in its economy. They invited me to participate before I continued my vacation.

I was feeling guilty about taking a vacation while thousands were marching in Madison to protect collective bargaining—but at least I would spend the first two days of my vacation talking to those in Vietnam who were discussing how collective bargaining and union recognition needs to more thoroughly integrated into government economic policy. Vietnam is still an agricultural society, a developing nation, and during my previous trip I heard much about how Vietnam learned from the debacle of the collapse of the Soviet Union where workers were thrown under the bus. But this was a vacation and I spent the next two weeks wandering throughout the north in Hanoi, Hue, Danang, and Hoi An, and Ha Long Bay, as a traveler, not at work, and had a chance to relax and get refreshed for the battles ahead in San Francisco and the United States when I got back. (One focus was to set up this blog.)

Two other notes:

1. Buy tickets to our June 9th Committee on Political Education fundraiser at the San Francisco Hilton where United-HERE Local 2 just settled their contract. Contact Emily at emily@sflaborcouncil.org to reserve tickets and program ads. We are honoring Assemblymember Fiona Ma for her 100% labor voting record in 2010, as well as acknowledging some of the many affiliate unions who did extraordinary turnout for last November’s election. Please put this event on your calendar. We will need resources for THIS November!
2. We begin this week with the SF Giants sweeping the Colorado Rockies at beautiful AT&T Park. Sweet.

A budget proposed by the Republicans that would gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security… Hmmm.

A budget crisis in Sacramento where Democrats have already voted for painful cuts to offset half of the deficit… OK. Kinda.

A move in Costa Mesa, Orange County, to give pink slips to local union firefighters and contract-out local fire stations to a multinational corporation like Hachenhut…

Now our legislators are following Governor Brown’s lead to propose that the rest of the short-term deficit be covered by continuing the current tax rate, and putting it to a vote of the people.

But Republicans refuse to let us vote.

Democrats have a huge majority in both the Assembly and Senate in Sacramento. We are finally rid of Governor Schwarzenegger (thanks to the union members who worked so hard for Jerry Brown and other candidates who care about jobs, healthcare and retirement). Yet, in California, we need a 2/3 majority of legislators in both the Assembly and Senate to put measures on the ballot – just to allow voters to decide if they want to fund schools, firehouses and basic services.

As of now, every Republican has refused to allow us this vote.

Californians spoke loudly when they elected Jerry Brown and all the other constitutional officers. Californians voted to return all Democratic Congressmen and Congresswomen to Washington, DC.  Californians in Sacramento voted to take an Assembly seat from a Republican, the first time since our late Congressman Tom Lantos defeated a Republican during the Reagan onslaught on worker rights.

Here in California union members and voters are in sync. What’s wrong with the new Republicans?

In other news, the San Francisco Labor Council’s Public Employee Committee’s (PEC) negotiations over pension protection continue in the most intelligent, productive, and collaborative forum of any major metropolitan city that I’ve witnessed. The negotiations are being conducted under the leadership of our chair, Bob Muscat from IFPTE Local 21, along with the leadership of all of the public employee union leaders who have been deliberating these many weeks.

We are also keeping pressure on the streets to fight back against right wing corporate legislation attacking civil rights and worker rights and trying to eliminate workers’ voice at work and collective bargaining rights. We hope to see you at the bank action at Wells Fargo on May 3rd and gear up for Friday, May 13th at 4 PM when we will gather at Civic Center Plaza to protest the budget cuts in Sacramento which will devastate schools and state services.

And, if you have time after fulfilling your union duties, stop by the Democratic Convention in Sacramento this weekend, where we’ll be strategizing how to stop the Republican attack on worker rights and stem the tide to give the corporations control of how we do our jobs. Also, I am running for re-election to be the labor chair for the Democratic Party. The labor caucus convenes at 4:30 this Friday in Room 313 at the Convention Center in Sacramento. We will have a strong and open agenda. Speaker Perez will give us an update on the state and we will get updates from our colleagues at the California Federation of Labor on the attacks in Wisconsin, Ohio, and the California crisis that the Republicans are permeating. Superintendent Tom Torlakson and Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones will also stop by. And, as only labor and workers can guarantee, there will not be a silent moment in our labor caucus, the largest constituency of the Democratic Party.

Seems that what’s happening in Wisconsin is still the focal point of attacks on American workers by those who are too greedy to care. The ubiquitous Sarah Palin decided to hold a rally in Madison this weekend and supported the Republican’s unprincipled votes to eliminate workers’ rights, even after Wisconsin public workers, police, firefighters, nurses, teachers, and construction workers who repair and maintain our bridges, streets and highways agreed to concessions during this difficult time. Wisconsin is more intelligent than Sarah Palin and not many people showed up. (McCain and the Republicans must really be struggling with the lack of talent in their corporate camp…) Republican legislators are shameless and spineless and we shouldn’t spend much time dealing with the personal careers of a Governor Walker or a Sarah Palin. It’s Corporate America that is seizing this painful economic downturn to advance their anti-union, anti-worker agenda.

American corporations don’t care about America. If they did they would be lending money to stimulate the economy, especially after the U.S. government bailed out the banks that got us into this mess. Instead they are waiting to take their wealth and invest on the best margin, even if it means that the next deal is a non-union, outsourced factory in Mexico or Southeast Asia.

I will give you one sad example. My union, the brothers and sisters in the Bricklayers, Tilelayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) is on strike in Las Vegas. Why? Because of the 30-40% unemployment rate and people “sitting on the bench,” the tile and marble contractors imposed a contract that cut high-skilled journeymen wages by over $9 per hour. Hey, let’s punch workers while they’re down. Take advantage of the downturn to increase our profits when work finally starts again.

Public workers, private sectors workers—it doesn’t matter. Republicans and the corporations that fund their elections will stop at nothing to destroy our voice at work, our rights, and our standard of living—all for a business model that is about nothing but Greed. The fights we are in now are defensive, but our resolve will be fierce and we will organize American workers—our union members and the million who want to be represented—to reshape our government to reflect the values of American workers.