Behind the Democratic Party lunch picket
Chris Daly amid the picketers. Photo: Luke Thomas, Fog City Journal
By Rebecca Bowe
Imagine it’s a sweltering day, and you’re on a crowded sidewalk in a dark suit surrounded by about 200 tough, angry men who are booing you in unison, clamoring for your resignation, and yelling inches away from your face as you pass by. Do you try to dodge the swarm and duck into the building you’re headed to? Not if you’re Supervisor Chris Daly.
This afternoon, when Daly showed up downtown for the San Francisco Democratic Party Unity Luncheon at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, a crowd of building-trades union members greeted him with shouts and jeers. With cameramen shadowing his every move, Daly paraded up and down the line, seeming almost as if he enjoyed soaking in all the negative attention, getting into heated exchanges with some of the protesters and shaking hands with others. At one point, when the tradesmen started chanting, “What do we want? Jobs! When do we want them? Now!” Daly simply joined in with the chorus, punching his fist into the air for emphasis. Once people caught on, they stopped chanting and booed him all over again.
According to San Francisco Building and Construction Trade Council head Michael Theriault, the protest was over proposed changes to the city’s planning code that would strengthen historic preservation standards, which he said he feared would “freeze the entire city as a historic preservation district” and put a drain on already-scarce construction jobs. Much anger was directed toward the Historic Preservation Commission, a city body created by Prop J -- a ballot measure authored by San Francisco Democratic Party chair and former Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin, placed on the ballot by an 11-0 vote of the supervisors, and approved by nearly 60 percent of the voters last November.
But the underlying issue was the Board of Supervisors’ 6-5 vote on April 14 that rejected Larry Mazzola Jr. as board director of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. Mazzola, who helps run the plumbers’ union, was the San Francisco Labor Council’s choice for the seat, but his appointment was blocked by the board’s six progressive members, who were more inclined to go with Dave Snyder -- a transportation expert who was deemed more qualified. “The majority of the Board of Supervisors has taken up a war against labor, and they disrespect labor. It’s all about us losing our jobs and our health coverage,” Mazzola told the Guardian just before he turned and started chanting, “Daly, resign!” about three inches away from Daly’s face.
But in an interview for a Guardian story that will hit stands tomorrow, Daly said, “at the same time the plumbers were attacking me, I was sponsoring paid sick days. It’s the six members of the board that are the most pro-labor who voted against Larry Mazzola.”
Peskin told us that when it comes to Mazzola’s rejection (which he insisted he had nothing to do with), the issue was that he just wasn’t qualified. “The Board of Supervisors would not have been doing their job if they put Mazzola out there,” he said.
Peskin also noted that there was a healthy representation of progressively-aligned labor organizations inside the luncheon too, including Local 261, Local 39, the Teamsters, IFPTE, the stationary engineers, health-care workers and others. (One notable absence at the luncheon was Mayor Gavin Newsom, but that’s a different story.)
The rally staged by the relatively conservative construction-workers, in Peskin’s opinion, had more to do with Larry Mazzola Sr. “having a temper tantrum” over the rejection of Mazzola Jr. than anything else. And “if they’ve got beef with the Historic Preservation Commission,” Peskin added, “their beef is with the voters who adopted it in November. The vote to put that measure on the ballot was 11 to 0.”
And the fact is, the new commission hasn’t done anything at all yet. The real political strategy here – and in some ways, the quiet strategy behind the Mazzola battle – is a move to pre-empt any attempt by the board to protect historic buildings and limit demolitions.
Compared to the complete collapse of development in San Francisco – the economic meltdown that’s thrown so many construction trades people out of work – the potential impact of Peskin’s commission on building-trade jobs is relatively minor.
For the bricklayers, electricians, sprinkler fitters, and other tradesmen who were gathered outside the Sir Francis Drake hotel, however, the issue was that they felt board members weren’t hearing their voices at a time when they’re suffering the staggering impacts of a tumbling economy. “They’re like, ‘we’ve got your back, labor, just give us your votes,’ but then they turn a blind eye,” said Jeff Philips, an electrician with Local 6 who represents IBW members. “They know it will benefit us, but they’ll vote against it.”
“We helped get them elected,” Labor organizer Mike Murphy with the Sprinkler Fitters union told us. “When times are bad and the city’s out of money, they want to get rid of the good union labor that’s built this city. They don’t want to keep the infrastructure strong by keeping people at work.”
While Daly’s arrival to the hotel caused quite a ruckus, Peskin told us that he pretty much went unnoticed -- because, despite the fact that people were beginning to show up with signs calling for him to resign, no one recognized him. “I walked in the door, I said hello,” he reported. “I was totally polite. They just thought I was some guest at the hotel.”
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Comments (11)
Marc is having a problem with his heroine shot. He just doesn't seem to understand that the BTC is in existance so that the average working person, with no college education, can get experience, acquire skills, and feed their families. I don't know of ANY other industry where you don't need a college education to get in but will make much more than minimum wage. As a matter of fact, most industries that require a 4 year degree will start their employees out at not much more than minimum wage. They are not paid $15 plus medical, dental, and vision benefits like the members of our local unions.
Are the BTC's and unions greedy? Not if you think that being able to sustain a living wage is too much to ask for. Construction workers work HARD. Both physically and mentally. Back breaking work is a literal term in this industry. So, when you give up your body, I think that a person should be able to ask for financial reward in return.
The BTC didn't creat the horrible financial market that we are in. It also didn't create the horrible realestate climate. It did ask for money to build these buildings that you and everyone else enjoy, and we build them on time, on budget, and up to code. These are well built buildings that are going to grace the skyline of the bay area and San Francisco for the next hundred years. And, according to Marc, they should be built for free. Well, Marc, you get what you pay for. And San Francisco has used Union Labor forever because they know that this is a true statement.
It is a VERY tough economic climate and the world will ride out the storm. But the Unions and the BTC's will continue to be here to support the little guy so that genious's like Marc wont be able to get something for nothing.
Posted by Jesse Chavez | April 22, 2009 10:31 AM
These building tradespeople are like meth addicts, always looking for the next fix. And unlike most drugs, the crystal that the BTC have been doing has escaped into the bloodstream of the economy and now threatens us all.
Once we see a return to prudent mortgage lending, then the housing market will get warm but never red hot.
And once the commercial real estate market goes underwater as we are beginning to see deleveraging in that sector (NYT free marketeer/globalization booster columnist Thomas Friendmans' wife's Mall Sprawl company "General Growth Properties" went bankrupt this week) then we will see a slack commercial market as well.
The building trades people have been snorting the economic equivalent of crystal meth for the past ten years, and we've all seen the before and after pictures of how that plays out. There is no free lunch, the highs are only high when measured against the inevitable lows, which end up further down in magnitude than the highs were up.
The building and construction trades have just begun to jones for more rock, and if they'd not been so greedy by boosting unsustainable economics, they there'd still be some work. But now they are victims of their own "success."
-marc
Posted by marcos | April 22, 2009 11:35 AM
No matter what the industry, when the industry puts its own well being above that of the economic and environmental contexts in which it operates, it not only does itself harm, it hurts others.
I am glad that you've found an industry where some lucky few can get in and make relatively good coin for a hard day's work when the winds are blowing your way.
But the fact that you all have that skillset does not mean that the economy or ecology can absorb the products of your labor sustainable. In fact, the BTC has allied itself so closely with the practitioners of bubble finance, that it ignored calls for moderation as labor-baiting as happens here.
Your business model is based on the most selfish versions of infinite growth and construction. That was in vogue during the bubble but is not viable now and never was sustainable. Wasn't it just ten years ago that you all were clamoring to put the interests of your famililes above those of the San Francisco Bay ecosystem by urging we pave the bay for airport runways that we ended up not needing?
The BTC has led the way to urban sprawl, led the way to the financial bubble and for what, fractions of pennies on the dollar compared to the money made by the developers and bankers. In San Francisco, the BTC has been at the forefront of displacement.
It is a sad testament to the ineffectiveness of organized labor today that those crumbs paid the BTC suckers by developers and bankers amount to high wages, and even sadder that we have to pick up the pieces of the sprawl-induced real estate led financial crisis that is doing much more harm to many more people than the BTC have earned in compensation.
Don't expect sympathy from those of us who have seen flat and falling wages over the past 40 years because organized labor has abandoned the field except when it counts for them when you all lose Your Good Thing.
As Chris Daly said: "Solidarity is a two-way street."
-marc
Posted by marcos | April 22, 2009 01:27 PM
It makes ya wonder why anyone would wish to be a political encumbent or player and that is what we need to delete from public policy (the unknown perks and passions that cause people to be angry at one another). As for the 'construction trades', the ONLY construction that should be happenning now is in the refurbishment of older units in a way to improve the standard of living for common people. They need to take all the 'empty units' now owned by banks and/ or defunct owners and put them on the rental market at a fair price (not build more empty ones).
Posted by Tharon Chandler | April 22, 2009 01:45 PM
Construction was my family's business, and anyone who thinks a preservation ordinance is going to cramp jobs (or is cramping jobs) is tripping.
There are plenty of parking lots in this town... that's where new buildings are going up and where they should go up. Those aren't protected by any historic designations.
Further, renovation of historic buildings is one of the more well-paying areas of the construction field. Let's check hot air against reality.
Posted by JoshB | April 22, 2009 05:12 PM
A line is a line and a scab is a scab
Posted by Chris P | April 22, 2009 05:45 PM
Chris Daly may have a reputation as a hothead but he was remarkably cool; he walked up to almost every worker and tried to engage in a dialogue, even as the mob yelled and chanted slogans and tried to taunt him. He said, "I'm Chris Daly and I'm pro-worker" and told the picketers he had brought more construction jobs to the city than any other supervisor.
Posted by worker | April 23, 2009 09:21 AM
Of course, the conservative politicians which the BTC support have gone all out to impose and retain the H1-B visa program which was designed by the federal government to put downward pressure on the wages of computer scientists.
One field which held the promise of a good wage for those without advanced or specialized degrees is the field of computer software. But when the government encourages the outsourcing of jobs and changes the normally strict immigration rule to allow South Asian engineers to flood the job market, how can American workers compete?
So long as labor only cares for its own, ignores any environmental consequences of its action and the burdens of solidarity with other working folks, there are going to be divisions like this.
Had labor expanded its base over the past few decades instead of turning insular and against its own, then labor would have political credibility in circumstances like this. For those of us out of work due to the economic policies of elected officials supported by organized labor, it is difficult to show solidarity with those who have no time for us.
-marc
Posted by marcos | April 23, 2009 10:07 AM
Marco, all of your arguments are valid. Fortunatly you make the exact argument that organized labor has been making for years. We protect the rights of American workers. We protect industries that have been infultrated by undocumented foreign workers. We protect the wage and benefits that you went to school to try to provide for yourself. Unfortunatly you are only one man and have zero voice in the world of business. It doesn't matter what you think, period. You can cry on this blog all you want, but until you have a united front of THOUSANDS of skilled craftsmen behind you, you will continue to be a gnat on a dogs ass. I hate to be the one, no I am happy to be the one to break it to you; if you were in a software engineer union you would have all that you ask for. Your job would have some protection and you would get the salary and fringe benefits that your degree SHOULD command. You have went to college and trained in your craft for NOTHING!!!!! You take home a wage that is not even comperable to a general laborer with barely a high school education. How does this make you feel? Obviously upset. Obviously furious. But, with no voice and no union behind you, you have no recourse. You have to take it in the shorts. You have to get on this blog and rail about the system, but the system is not the problem, the problem is the fact that you whine but DON'T ACT!!!! Grab your balls, get with a union, and begin the process of taking your life back. Put the degree to work for you. Have your own Collective Bargaining Agreement. If you don't you have yourself to blame. Not the BTC, not the unions, and definately no one but yourself. Really? The BTC can influence the economy? What else can they do? Shit out hundred dollar bills?!?!
Posted by Jesse Chavez | April 23, 2009 04:45 PM
Jesse, back in the day when the world wide web was small enough to get your hands around, I suggested to the small but burgeoning community that we should form a www users union to be sure that the rights of users were at the table. The response I got back was uniformly negative because the union label had become tattered. More an idea guy than an organizer, I didn't follow through. BTW I've worked with others on political campaigns where we've organized thousands and won more than 100K votes, giving organizers tools with which to better do their jobs.
That said, those with organizing capacity, expertise and resources--I've worked on some amazing winning campaigns with labor over the years--have been AWOL for folks working in our industry. Admittedly, the geek patrol has not been receptive. And there has been some animosity on some of the labor left to people making the kind of money geeks can.
But the end result is that, with Democratic Party assent, government has taken proactive steps to undercut the position of American tech workers through immigration policy and outsourcing and that exerts a downward pressure on all wages and undermines organized labor's position. Mi casa es su casa.
Solidarity is a two-way street. The difference to my progressive mind is that the onus is on those with relatively more power to do proportionately more in solidarity than those with relatively less power.
We all need to put a roof over our heads and feed ourselves and we all have to make tradeoffs. But the choices we make on how we do that matter. For some in organized labor, all work is good and the consequences of that work are ignorable. But to my progressive mind, the consequences of what we do actually matter. I've gone without work because my ethical standards, values and principles are important to me and the jobs on the table were not consistent with them.
The economic and environmental consequences of sprawl and gentrification which have been encouraged by the BCT unions are just now beginning to hit. And it was not like some of us did not see these twin crises coming from afar.
Congratulations, you've managed to ensconce yourselves in the only higher paying jobs which, by their geographical nature, cannot be outsourced yet have contributed towards visiting untold travails on the environment and your fellow working stiffs.
-marc
Posted by marcos | April 26, 2009 06:36 PM
I just found your blog. Great articles and well written. Thanks for all the info. Namaste!
Posted by construction trade journal | November 18, 2009 01:12 AM