New attack on worker's rights

Nathan Nayman, Committee on Jobs


Downtown Business Leaders push City to attack City Employee’s Rights

Last week, the Committee on Jobs, a downtown business advocacy group, announced that they polled San Francisco voters in early January. They asked voters their opinions on requiring that city workers contribute to their pensions every year, rather than have the provision subject to contract negotiations, as is now the case; restricting comp time; a cap on vacation time, using merit over seniority and contracting out public sector work, otherwise known as privatization.

Recently, an internal memo from the Committee on Jobs was recently leaked to the press, and they boasted to their members that the current administration turns to them for guidance on the budget, consolidation of departments, appointment of department heads, taxes, and the elimination of positions in government. The document also mentioned that the group had targeted Supervisor Jake McGoldrick in his re-election bid and put considerable (wasted) money and resources into defeating him.
Currently, the City is facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis and next year the City will face a $130 million deficit. Business leaders hope to persuade Mayor Gavin Newsom that taking away worker rights and contracting out work is a better path for the City to pursue than raising revenue. They plan to put an initiative on next November’s ballot for SF voters to approve.

The Committee on Jobs will argue that the private sector can provide the same level of service as the public sector, but more cheaply. Meaning that the workers will be paid substantially less and more than likely not have benefits. Some would argue that they hope to turn City Government into Wal-Mart. They will also push to make sure that City workers permanently pay their retirement contribution.

Unions have fought long and hard for protections in the workplace and face attacks on the federal, state, and local front. On the State level, Schwarzenegger hopes to take away retirement security by converting the state's pension system to a 401(k)-style retirement plan. This plan would leave all public sector workers depending on the ups and downs of the stock market, rather than on years of service. After the Enron debacle, many are fearful of letting the stock market determine their retirement fate. Schwarzenegger claims he is taking government back for the people, but some argue that he is taking it back for corporations. He continues to take money from big tobacco, the oil industry, and big developers, while he disingenuously frames the debate as a fight against “special interests” and noting that the special interest can be recognized by their purple shirts meaning SEIU. Ironically, Schwarzenegger has raised twice as much money as former Governor Davis ever did.

Like Bush’s plan to do an advertising blitz to create a sense of crisis about Social Security, Schwarzenegger plans on hitting up donors from across the country to sell his idea that public pension plans hurt California. He is likely to hit up Wall Street investment houses who have a financial stake in creating a new client base. If the Republicans are successful here in California, the idea could sweep the nation.

How does this relate to what is happening in San Francisco? Bush and Schwarzenegger are implementing a plan to starve the public sector of money and support hoping that the safety nets of the local governments will collapse. Mayors across the nation are rising up to protest the Republican plans, but in the mean time, San Francisco has lost over 100 million dollars per year from the state alone. Remember that our local deficit is about $130 million dollars. Between the loss of state money and the loss of the gross receipts tax, we are in a deep hole.

As noted before, Mayor Newsom faces tough decisions. Will he side with labor or the Committee on Jobs which now claims to be the de facto City Government?
When money is short, it is easy to start questioning what is more important: delivery of services or worker protections.

Labor activists cheered last fall when Mayor Newsom told Hotel Owners that San Francisco is a Labor town and joined the striking Hotel workers on the picket line during the lockout. And some argue that Mayor Newsom will use his political capital from those actions when he revamps City Government. Time will tell.

Rank and file members of SEIU who are the frontline City workers have consistently spoken out against cronyism, patronage jobs, and mismanagement of City resources. They argue that it makes more sense to cut from the top since managerial positions make more money. One local progressive writer has argued that the City needs to do away with Health Care benefits for City employees who have worked for the City for more than five years which has been costing the City a great deal of money. His article assumes that rank and file frontline City employees are the beneficiary of this program. His assumption is wrong. Most of the beneficiaries tend to be in management since they tend to work for shorter periods of time for the city. Most 790 members work for a long time for the City.

But this begs the larger question of whether Mayor Newsom side with the workers or will he let the Committee on Jobs run the show during the next year? Time will tell. But we can’t sit passively on the sidelines while the Committee on Jobs writes legislation taking away worker’s rights that we have fought long and hard for over the last few decades.

We must organize against these efforts.
Call, email, or fax Mayor Newsom to tell him to reject these attacks on working people. He can be reached at:

Mayor Gavin Newsom
City Hall, Room 2001 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415) 554-6141 TDD: (415) 252-3107 Fax: (415) 554-6160 Email: gavin.newsom@sfgov.org


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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/21/BAG27ATAJ71.DTL

Group Brags about power in SF affairs
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/28/WBGAMAT6KV1.DTL

Governor Seeks Outside Donors for Campaigns
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-arnold29jan29,1,847640.story