Sing the above line to the song “We wish you a Merry Christmas” three times next time you are Christmas Caroling. Last year, a group of community advocates and labor activists sang that song to the GGRA when the GGRA filed a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco to stop the implementation of our local groundbreaking universal health care ordinance. Accompanying the Caroling advocates was the Grinch who handed GGRA members lumps of coal at their annual Holiday party. This year the GGRA handed us a lump of coal.

Today a Federal judge ruled in favor of the GGRA. The health care legislation, sponsored by Supervisor Tom Ammiano, required SF employers to pay a small hourly wage towards the health care needs of their employees. City Attorney Dennis Herrera was quoted as saying the City would be filing an immediate appeal to the Ninth Circuit tomorrow. Tangerine Bringham, the Administrator of the program, promised to keep a limited program afloat.

A federal judge scaled back San Francisco’s groundbreaking health insurance law Wednesday, overturning a requirement that employers cover their workers or pay a fee - the key to the city’s plans to provide coverage to all 82,000 uninsured adult residents next week.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White described San Francisco’s goal as “laudable” but said its ordinance - the first of its kind in the nation, and a potential model for other California cities and the state - conflicted with a 1974 federal law that prohibits state and local governments from regulating employees’ benefits.

The GGRA would sue to stop the earth from turning, if it would make them a nickel.

(Seen below: SEIU 1021 Worksite organizer Cristal Java as Tiny Tim, Supervisor Chris Daly, SEIU 1021 Healthcare leader Ed Kinchley as Scrooge, and the Grinch played by former SEIU worksite organizer Dan Harper.)

Click here to watch Chris Daly’s speech outside of the GGRA holiday party.