{"id":235609,"date":"2012-06-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/analysis-the-labor-councils-working-families-report-card\/"},"modified":"2012-06-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T07:00:00","slug":"analysis-the-labor-councils-working-families-report-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/analysis-the-labor-councils-working-families-report-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: The Labor Council\u2019s \u201cWorking Families Report Card\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ian Anderson | Downtown News<\/strong><\/p>\n

With a singularly influential June primary approaching, the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council has issued a \u201cWorking Families Report Card,\u201d meting out classroom-style grades to the sitting members of the San Diego City Council.<\/p>\n

\"Analysis:<\/a>
District One Councilmember Sherri Lightner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Five of the eight city council members received failing grades of 59% or below in the report, which targeted their positions on 27 specific issues brought before the governing body in the past eighteen months.\u00a0 While the lowest grades were reserved for republicans, the bulk of the criticism seems to have been directed at council democrats, particularly Todd Gloria (60%), and Sherri Lightner (54%), each of whom is running for reelection.\u00a0 Although the Labor Council supported both candidates in 2008, this year it has declared \u201cno endorsement\u201d in both of their districts.<\/p>\n

As an affiliate of the national AFL-CIO, the Labor Council acts as advocate for more than one hundred local unions, representing workers in both the public and private sectors, including health care, education, hospitality and construction.\u00a0 It has never issued such a report card before, and the preponderance of low grades illustrates the current disparity between city politics and labor interests, while its timing suggests an attempt to impact the June 5th primary election.<\/p>\n

Secretary-Treasurer Lorena Gonzalez dispels any notion that it\u2019s intended to chastise democrats, though. \u201cStanding up for working families shouldn’t be a partisan issue,\u201d she said. Gonzales also says the council\u2019s report card is \u201ca wake-up call for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Analysis:<\/a>
Labor Council's Secretary-Treasurer Lorena Gonzalez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the political reality may actually be that pro-labor rhetoric is not a factor in this election. Things were quite different four years ago.\u00a0 A 2008 general election that featured a very popular Barack Obama prompted increased voter turnout among democrats.\u00a0 As a result, a vast majority of the labor-leaning candidates and positions endorsed by the Labor Council were victorious.\u00a0 It also left San Diego County with a greater number of registered democrats than republicans for the first time in more than two decades.<\/p>\n

While the latter still holds true, a couple of circumstances of the June 5th election conspire to swing the balance of power back to the right.\u00a0 Primary elections historically inspire lower voter turnout, meaning tight races and controversial ballot initiatives — such as Propositions A and B — may be decided by only a handful of ballots, either way.\u00a0 With the GOP presidential primary expected to increase conservative presence at the polls, pro-business voting blocks have had an opportunity to shape the issues going into this campaign season, and the Labor Council\u2019s critique of city council positions reflects that.<\/p>\n

For example, a closer look at the report card\u2019s grading criteria shows that pension reform factored heavily into the assessments, including each official\u2019s position on Proposition B, which would move new city hires to a 401(k) plan while reducing pensions of current employees by extending a five year salary freeze.\u00a0 Negative scores were given to those who support the ballot measure, and additionally, to those who failed to support an alternative plan, or voted against delaying the initiative until November\u2019s general election.\u00a0 Grading was similarly imposed against supporters of Proposition A, which would prevent collective bargaining agreements (CBA\u2019s) from being required for locally funded construction projects.<\/p>\n

The latter may contribute to the Labor Council\u2019s position on the largest single issue addressed in the Report Card; the planned Convention Center expansion.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez points out that the expansion could \u201cgenerate thousands of middle class construction and convention jobs that would anchor the economic recovery of communities throughout the city.\u201d\u00a0 However, local funding, combined with the passage of Prop A, would mean contractors would not be compelled to hire union members.\u00a0 Implementation and funding the estimated billion-dollar project contributed to no fewer than five of the 27 issues evaluated, comprising roughly 20% of the each council member\u2019s final score.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, six of the council members received negative marks for most or all of these criteria, in effect dropping each of them as many as two whole letter grades.\u00a0 On this key issue for labor, both parties seem to side under the banner of \u201copen competition,\u201d even though CBA\u2019s have reportedly never been used by the city anyway.\u00a0 Whereas the expansion itself won\u2019t show up on the ballot, Prop A may stand as a proxy vote on the principle of CBA.<\/p>\n

While the Labor Council has an obligation to promote the interests of its unions, the elected officials counter that they have an obligation to enact the interests of their constituents.\u00a0 Of the city council members dinged in the report, Lightner has the most to lose running to reclaim her seat.\u00a0 She faces three challengers, including fellow democrat Bryan Pease and the better-funded republican Ray Ellis.\u00a0 When asked about her failing grade and loss of labor endorsement, she said, \u201cI’m not \u2018on the side\u2019 of anyone, other than the constituents of my district.\u201d\u00a0 Ironically, she has attacked by her opponents for their positions on some of the same issues, as well as the idea she doesn\u2019t \u201cstand up to special interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Analysis:<\/a>
District Seven City Council candidate Mat Kostrinsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

City council candidate Mat Kostrinsky has faced similar rhetoric during his campaign from opponent Scott Sherman in District 7.\u00a0 Kostrinsky, running for the first time, has yet to be graded by the Labor Council, but has received their endorsement\u2013 though he acknowledges it\u2019s not always a boon.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a dual-edged sword,\u201d he said, describing interactions with both his opponent and members of his community.\u00a0 \u201cYou talk to some angry voters \u2026 what they\u2019re being told is that the unions control city council.\u201d\u00a0 However, it would seem voters are currently the only ones under this impression.\u00a0 As Kostrinsky points out, if the Labor Council is revoking endorsements following a successful 2008 campaign, \u201cClearly they didn\u2019t get what they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ian Anderson is an author and reporter, who has published books about e-commerce and the environment, and written articles on food, music, community events and politics. He can be reached at penforhire@gmail.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ian Anderson | Downtown News With a singularly influential June primary approaching, the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council has issued a \u201cWorking Families Report Card,\u201d meting out classroom-style grades to the sitting members of the San Diego City Council. Five of the eight city council members received failing grades of 59% or […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1189,"featured_media":235610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Analysis: The Labor Council\u2019s \u201cWorking Families Report Card\u201d","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}