Members of the San Francisco Labor Community took part in a precinct walk and rally on Oct. 10 at Crocker Park. From left: SFBCTC President and UA38 Business Manager Larry Mazzola, Jr., UA38 Organizer Tony Guzzetta, SFBCTC Secretary-Treasurer Tim Paulson, SFBCTC Vice President and IBEW 6 Business Manager John Doherty, Supervisor Ahsha Safai and SFLC Executive Director Rudy Gonzalez.

Viewed by many as the most important election in modern history, the stakes for the future of the Labor community are set high for November 3. For San Francisco’s Building Trades, the key to securing good union jobs comes in the form of backing elected officials at the local, state and national levels who support working people. Just as important is supporting ballot measures both locally and statewide that have the best interest in working people in mind and help secure construction jobs for years to come.

As it’s become increasingly clear over the past four years that the Trump Administration does not care about the priorities of working people in this country, the Building Trades Council has backed Joe Biden to become our next President and Kamala Harris to become our next Vice President as their track record’s promise the restoration of middle class economic values and worker protections to benefit American families.

“We need to elect candidates and vote for ballot measures that support working men and women,” said Tim Paulson SFBCTC Secretary-Treasurer. “We need to elect Supervisors who support the Building Trades. At the state level we have to defeat Prop 22 and push for local measure Prop F. Let’s defeat Trump and get our ballot measures passed.”

Election Endorsements Nov. 3, 2020

San Francisco Board of Supervisors
District 1 Marjan Philhour
District 3 Aaron Peskin
District 5 No Endorsements
District 7 Ben Matranga first choice
Myrna Melgar second choice
Vilaska Nguyen third choice
District 9 Hillary Ronen
District 11 Ahsha Safai

Board of Education
(Four Seats)
Matt Alexander
Jenny Lam
Michelle Parker
Mark Sanchez

City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees
(Four Seats)
Aliya Christi
Tom Temprano
Shanell Williams
Alan Wong

Local Ballot Measures
A – Housing and Homeless, Parks, and Streets Bond – YES
B – Department of Sanitation and Streets, Sanitation and Streets Commission, and Public Works Commission – Yes
C – Removing Citizenship Requirements for Members of City Bodies – No Position
D – Sheriff Oversight – NO
E – Police Staffing – NO
F – Business Tax Overhaul – Yes
G – Youth Voting in Local Elections – NO
H – Neighborhood Commercial Districts and City Permitting – No Position
I – Real Estate Transfer Tax – NO
J – Parcel Tax for San Francisco Unified School District – YES
K – Affordable Housing Authorization – NO POSITION
L – Business Tax Based on Comparison of Top Executive’s Pay to Employees’ Pay – YES
RR – Caltrain Sales Tax – YES

State Ballot Measures
No on 22
The SFBCTC is advocating for a ‘No’ vote on Prop 22. The measure was written by Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash in an attempt to exempt those companies from providing protections to their workers. Instead they want to continue misclassifying so–called “gig” workers, denying them paid sick leave, workers compensation and unemployment benefits.

Yes on 15
The Building Trades Council is promoting a ‘Yes’ vote on Prop 15, that if passed would raise business taxes by using market value instead of purchase price as a benchmark for setting property taxes paid by commercial property owners, not residents. The money would go toward local governments and schools.

National, State Races
President Joe Biden
Vice President Kamala Harris

House of Representatives
12th Congressional District Nancy Pelosi
14th Congressional District Jackie Speier

State Assembly
17th District David Chiu
19th District Phil Ting