At long last, there is some good news to write about: as I’m sure everyone is aware, Proposition B, the so-called “pension reform” measure, was handily defeated at the ballot box on November 2nd. What’s more, labor’s victory was overwhelming: San Franciscans rejected Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s “takeaway” legislation by a whopping 57.5%. As the New York Times reported, this victory amounted to an absolute “trouncing” by public employee labor of the Prop B forces. Such an unmitigated defeat for Adachi and his backers should send a message to all those who shamefully attempt to drive a wedge between public employees and their private-sector counterparts by seeking to stir resentment against public servants, in undeniably bad economic times, on account of the wages and benefits that public employee unions have worked so hard over the past several decades to achieve. You don’t move forward economically as a community by pulling other workers down.
Labor’s victory in San Francisco also stands in sharp contrast to what is happening in the rest of the country. The news is not good, and while a review of the damage done to other public-sector workers across the state and country will serve to highlight just how great a victory was achieved in San Francisco with the defeat of Prop B, solidarity demands that we make a sober assessment of the plight of fellow public employees. Here’s a quick survey of what has happened:
In California, voters in seven cities – Bakersfield, Carlsbad, Menlo Park, Redding, Riverside, Pacific Grove, and San Jose – approved measures to reduce pension costs. In San Diego, voters rejected a half-cent sales tax increase that would have prevented public safety cuts. California for Pension Reform President Marcia Fritz claimed to have achieved with such votes “almost a complete annihilation of the opposition.” In attempting to explain away labor’s sole victory in San Francisco, Fritz said “We were outspent 10-1 there.”
In more than 40 Chicago suburbs, voters approved a measure designed to pressure state legislators to decrease pension benefits for new public employee hires.
Voters in six states – Alabama, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wisconsin – elected governors who during their candidacies had expressed support for 401(k) style plans to replace defined benefit plans, the traditional form of public employee pensions.
Across the country initiatives heavily supported by public employee labor failed, such as an initiative to raise teacher pay in Oklahoma, a tax on high-income earners in Washington, and here in California, proposed rescission of certain tax-breaks for big business.
In other words, our victory over Proposition B was in many ways an anomaly compared to what is happening in the rest of the state and country. Now is no time to rest on our laurels, although savoring for the moment the victory in a hard-fought battle is certainly a welcome respite from what has seemed over the last couple of years to be an unending stream of bad economic news.
And here I must emphasize the debt of gratitude owed SFPOA President Gary Delagnes for the Herculean effort he put into waging the fight against Adachi and Prop B. When we and the other unions met last summer to discuss strategy against Prop B, the polls were horrific: they showed us losing hands down. We knew that we were in for a long, tough, and expensive fight – and that the battle would be fought on several fronts. (Part of the effort took the form of an initial legal challenge to certain features of Prop B, and we were prepared to move forward in court with further legal actions if Prop B had passed.) Gary and the other union leaders had the vision and tenacity to wage a political battle against Prop B like nothing I’ve ever seen. In many ways, they are directly responsible for snatching victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat. Unlike so many other of their union leader counterparts around the country, they found themselves victorious on election day, and many were simply slack-jawed in amazement at what they had accomplished.
On a more personal note, I saw Gary come close to sacrificing his own health in the amount of effort he put into a relentless campaign, debating Adachi at every turn -- at one venue after another across the city and on the radio, working tirelessly in organizing the precinct walks by police officers and distributing campaign materials to the voters, publicly confronting Willie Brown on his betrayal of the very labor unions who had supported him even though many thought it was unwise for labor to take on the former mayor . . . the list goes on. In short, every cop in this City should thank Gary Delagnes for what he accomplished for them and their families. In writing this, I am well aware that election time is approaching, and that many will dismiss all this as Tennant simply backing the guy who hired him. All I can say is that I would make these comments irrespective of whatever election or event was on the verge of happening. Why? Because it’s the truth.
“Roll the Union On . . .”
