Teachers beat San Diego union in remarkable rematch

By California Policy Center
06/16/2023
Take a break from doom scrolling California stories to celebrate the victory of charter school teachers over the union that came to crush them.  Teachers at Gompers Preparatory Academy, a public charter school in the Chollas View neighborhood of San Diego, have successfully voted to remove San Diego Education Association (SDEA) union bosses from their...

TAGS: California Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, City of San Diego, San Diego County Central Labor Council

San Diego’s 2012 Pension Reform at Risk

By Edward Ring
03/20/2019
“The ruling is also an implicit endorsement of the state Public Employment Relations Board’s conclusion that the employees hired since the measure took effect must be made whole and get a pension equivalent to what they would have received pre-Proposition B.” – Editorial, San Diego Union Tribune, March 18, 2019 The ruling in question is the...

TAGS: City of San Diego, Edward Ring, pensions

Unions Fail to Retain San Diego Mayor's Office Despite Advantages

By Kevin Dayton
02/14/2014
Republican City Councilman Kevin Faulconer handily defeated Democrat City Councilman David Alvarez with 54.4% of the vote in a February 11, 2014 special election runoff for Mayor of San Diego. The result went against usual expectations. Contrary to the common perception that campaign spending by “big business” often overwhelms humble community-based union-backed campaigns, more money...

TAGS: Chris Reed, City of San Diego

Take the Filner Challenge: Advance the Union Political Agenda

By Kevin Dayton
08/06/2013
An article in the August 3, 2013 UT San Diego newspaper (Labor Continues to Back Filner) reported on what political insiders in San Diego already recognized: Mayor Bob Filner’s “list of supporters has shrunk to just one major group – organized labor and its allies…labor is steadfastly refusing to call for him to leave.” It...

TAGS: City of San Diego, San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council, Tom Lemmon

After 33 Years, San Diego Submits to State Prevailing Wage Law

By Kevin Dayton
07/30/2013
This afternoon (Tuesday, July 30, 2013), the San Diego City Council voted 5-4 to cease taking advantage of its constitutional right to establish its own policies concerning government-mandated wage rates for construction contracts. It adopted a proposal from Mayor Bob Filner to submit to state law and require its construction contractors to pay “prevailing wage”...

TAGS: California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, City of San Diego, Lorena Gonzalez, State Building and Construction Trades Council v. City of Vista

Finally Got It! Secret Union Deal for San Diego Convention Center

By Kevin Dayton
07/08/2013
Through relentless and tedious persistence and a willingness to disturb “the Establishment” of the country’s eighth most populous city, the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction (based in California) has finally succeeded in obtaining and exposing a document revealing how the office of former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders (a Republican) arranged a secret and...

TAGS: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, City of San Diego, City of San Diego Proposition A (June 2012), Clark Construction, Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction (CFEC), Greenmail, Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, San Diego Convention Center Expansion, San Diego County Central Labor Council, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders

Election Gains for California Unions in 2012 Drive Push for Project Labor Agreements

By Kevin Dayton
05/07/2013
The explosion of Project Labor Agreements on government projects in California since the November 6 elections is not surprising to long-time observers of labor union initiatives at local governments. In the six months after the November 2008 Presidential Election, emboldened and confident construction trade unions won Project Labor Agreements at eleven local governments in California. It...

TAGS: California high speed rail, California High-Speed Rail Authority, City of San Diego, Coast Community College District, Ohlone Community College District, Rancho Santiago Community College District, San Diego Convention Center Expansion, San Diego Unified School District, Solano Community College District, Sonoma County

Persistent Pressure Compels San Diego to Spit Out Project Labor Agreement

By Kevin Dayton
04/23/2013
For five months, the City of San Diego refused to give the public a Project Labor Agreement negotiated for its planned $520 million convention center expansion. This union agreement was reportedly the result of a backroom deal involving top union leaders, but multiple requests for it under the authority of the California Public Records Act failed to dislodge it. But today (April 23,...

TAGS: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), City of San Diego, City of San Diego Proposition A (June 2012), Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, Greenmail, Lorena Gonzalez, Project Labor Agreements, San Diego Convention Center Expansion, San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council, San Diego County Central Labor Council, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, Senate Bill 829 (2012), Senate Bill 922 (2011)

“Unite Here” Union Becomes San Diego’s Leading Environmental Organization

By Kevin Dayton
12/18/2012
According to its national web site, UNITE HERE represents workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, and airport industries. But one might conclude, after looking at the public activities of UNITE-HERE Local Union No. 30 in San Diego, that UNITE HERE is actually an environmental organization, marketing itself as a much more aggressive alternative...

TAGS: Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), City of San Diego, San Diego Convention Center Expansion, UNITE HERE Local Union No. 30