Time for Union Democracy, Education and Power-Vote To Defend Working People In San FranciscoMarch 2022

We will Fight for Union Democracy and Transparency at all levels

Vote for-

  • Cheryl Thornton- SEIU 1021 for President of San Francisco Labor Council

Vote for –

  • Brenda Barros- SEIU 1021 for Executive Committee

Vote for –

  • Elizabeth Milos- UPTE/CWA 9119 Local 7 for Executive Committee

Delegates can vote for individual candidates from different slates.

UFCLP SLATE AT THE SAN FRANCISCO LABOR COUNCIL

We will Fight for Union Democracy and Transparency at all levels
We will: 
Assert and defend the rights of our affiliate unions to be free from National AFL-CIO overreach that violate the rights of affiliate unions to express their points of view in a unified manner on matters that are important to them.

Reaffirm the SFLC Constitution which defines the Delegates Assembly as the highest governing body. No more running the San Francisco Labor Council from the Executive Committee with no discussions.  The EC serves the council, not the other way around.

Affirm the right of Delegates to decide what committees to belong to instead of being appointed by the Executive Committee.

Organize Labor Council committees of delegates and rank and file members mobilized to defend workers and the community.

Affirm the right of delegates to bring resolutions to the floor instead of being buried in committees. No more sending “sending proposals to committee to die”

Affirm the right of all members to introduce legislative and political issues to the COPE meetings to decide.Consensus on issues is not required for the issues to be heard, discussed, and voted on.
Push the SFLC EC to petition the National AFL-CIO for a change to our Constitution whereby every member of a California AFL-CIO Union will have a single and equal vote in electing the leadership to the National AFL-CIO.

All SFLC meetings and Executive Committee meetings should be recorded as well as allow members to listen and watch meetings in action except those sections that involve political and bargaining strategies.

Education is vital for a well-informed labor movement

Labor Education should include the rights of workers of color, low wage workers, women’s rights, LGBT rights, the right to live and work in a safe, clean environment and climate change/Just Transition issues as well as academic freedom and 1st amendment rights. Labor Education should seek to link the struggles of workers internationally and oppose militarism and war.

We need:
An active Labor Education Committee which will promote Labor education on worker’s rights, about the labor struggles happening locally, nationally, and internationally and help obtain funding to support labor programming which uplifts and disseminates the voices of rank-and-file workers

  • An education campaign against systemic racism and sexism in public and private employment.
  • An Anti-Privatization and Anti-outsourcing Committee.
  • To Defend City College of San Francisco, SF State University, and the University of California against privatization forces.
  • To Promote Labor Studies to help encourage children’s sense of pride in belonging to unions and adolescents with guidance as they enter the workforce.
  • Lessons learned about both the good and the bad: AFL-CIO must Clear the Air!
  • AFL-CIO must open the books about international operations. 
  • To organize Worker power- and unite for the same goal, support each other during labor actions and not endorse development projects that favor one union at the expense of another; create labor/community alliances; and stand together on the side of workers against privatization forces trying to divide us. An Injury to One is an Injury to All!
  • To support independent labor political action and independent labor and worker candidates. We cannot go along with the pro-privatization agenda the either of the major parties.
For more information: please email:   info@ufclp.org

Vote Cheryl Thornton For President Of The San Francisco Labor Council

 
I have fought for justice, labor, and human rights for her entire life. I  am a healthcare worker for the community and has defended public control of San Francisco
healthcare centers and also the patients many of whom have been contaminated by Hunters Point shipyard.
I have worked for civil rights and against systemic racism and am the adult leader of the San Francisco Branch of NAACP.
I am familiar with how the City operates and will fight against attacks not only on public workers and education workers but against threats like Amazon and
the outsourcing of work not only by public agencies but private companies. I will support a San Francisco Charter amendment to ban outsourcing and privatization and
also an amendment to the California Constitution banning outsourcing and privatization of public services and public education which only benefits the billionaires.
I will work with the locals and unite with our communities for a united struggle for the rights of all.
The issue of education must be a central focus of the labor council. We need to revitalize the website and get workers’ stories on it. We need to focus on developing labor
media so all locals can get support to get their member’s stories out and win support.
I will make sure that the locals and delegates are respected by the leadership. We cannot allow the bullying of delegates and the efforts to prevent democratic discussion
and debate within our council. Without democracy, we cannot have real unity and solidarity.
Young people are working to get power and the job and I l will work to integrate young workers who are fighting for justice as she has done for many years in the NAACP.
It is time as well to fight systemic racism which must be an issue in the labor movement. We need to educate and fight against the rise of racism, antisemitism, xenophobia,
Homophobia and attacks on immigrants which are growing.
Let’s build a strong united labor movement that is open to all working people.
 
To contact Cheryl cherylthornton@sbcglobal.net
 

Vote Brenda Barros For Executive Board

I have spent my life in the labor movement fighting for justice. I have  been a healthcare worker for decades at SF General and has fought to protect her fellow worker

Rights. I have also has organized campaigns against workplace bullying and systemic racism which still continue in the City & County.
I have been elected to SEIU 1021 Bargaining Committee and worked to have a strong contract that also had language against privatization and outsourcing.
I have also fought for PPE and the protection of workers in this catastrophic pandemic. Workers have not been provided the protection they need for themselves and their families
and there are less than 200 Cal-OSHA inspectors for 18 million workers in California.
I believe in justice for all and having have an inclusive labor movement that brings in all working people and the community who face the attacks on public services and public education.
I will work for a united political education campaign to have a charter amendment in the City and County that bars privatization and outsourcing of public work. We cannot
create a two-tier system that will undermine all public jobs and public education and charters which are controlled by the billionaires.
I  will also fight for a democratic functioning of the Labor Council that included the participation and representation of all delegates.
I  will support a vibrant web page and labor media to get all our voices out and use social media to educate our members and all working people.
We need democracy, education & united power
You can reach me at brendabarros@rocketmail.com
 

Vote Lisa Milos For SFLC Executive Board

 
I’ve been a member of UPTE-CWA since 2009 when I helped organize my colleagues, UC Medical Interpreters statewide to join UPTE, the University Professional and Technical Employees union, a health and education sector union of our national Communications Workers of America. 
Since I joined UPTE, I joined my colleagues in organizing better working conditions, fighting for equity reviews, bargaining for changing our job description to include paid professional certification and paid CEU hours, and working with stewards to get our members back pay and differentials, and defend our right and ethical obligation as Medical Interpreters to advocate for our patients who have limited English speaking skills. 
I actively participated in the contract fights, and strikes, and when UC wanted to get rid of our pension by undermining it with an Opt Out proposal, in 2018 I formed a team of UPTE members to organize four educational presentations on why it was important to fight UC’s efforts to undermine it by inviting Matthew Cunningham Cooke, a leading labor researcher who helped write a report called, “Fidelity to Whom”. 
Ultimately, we got a new contract without that Opt Out version. 
I have helped bring in issues of workers facing similar or worse struggles/conditions internationally and believe that only by this international unity can the working class in this country begin to be truly independent of the major parties who are in the pockets of the same billionaires who want us to work as much as possible for as little as possible and who don’t care about the health and education of our communities where we live and work. 
I identify as a Chilean-New Yorker and was raised by a Chilean single mother, an immigrant to the US who was a political and community activist. She raised me as a community organizer, which sometimes doesn’t fall well within the bureaucratic and hierarchal union systems. That’s why I believe so deeply in union democracy and transparency so that communities & unions can come together and create the world we deserve.
I lived in Chile during the last three years of the military dictatorship and the first two years of the “transition”  doing both photojournalism and human rights work and teaching English to survive.  The neoliberal model that was imposed by blood in Chile didn’t permit a true transition to democracy and equality in Chile, that is why 40 years later, they are facing widespread poverty, privatization of the pension system, and even the WATER. the people of Chile had an uprising in 2019 which led the way in forcing the creation of a new constitution. Those are lessons that we must learn here in the US. 
I’m 60 years old and have a 31-year-old punk rock drummer son, Dariel, who has two jobs to be able to live in SF: bartender & delivery driver jobs. In my long life, I’ve been involved in Solidarity work for Chile, Central America, Cuba, and Palestine as well as for New Orleans during Katrina (one of the most flagrant and egregious examples of disaster capitalism and systemic racism) as well as Standing Rock (another example of the earth-destroying rapacious nature of settler-colonial capitalism and racism). 
I am a member of our Peace, Justice, Civil Rights & Equity Committee and have been a delegate to both our statewide UPTE and our national CWA conventions. 
You can reach me at elimilos@gmail.com

Vote Union Democracy, Education and Power Slate

 

1.     We will Fight for Union Democracy and Transparency at all levels. 

What does this mean?

a.     This means asserting and defending the rights of our affiliate unions to be free from National AFL-CIO overreach. The September letter from the AFL-CIO to the SF Labor Council which stated that the SFLC was not to entertain “resolutions of an international nature on issues that which the National AFL-CIO has already taken a position on” goes contrary to the history of the SF Labor Council and it violates the rights of its affiliate unions to be able to express their points of view in a unified manner on matters that are important to them. 

b.     This means that we will push for decisions to be ultimately made at the SFLC meetings by its highest governing body, the delegate assembly, as stated in our constitution and that space and time will be allowed for discussion of the issues and educational forums with the different points of views will be organized in order to provide our members with the most complete information. No more running the SFLC from the EC.  The EC serves the council, not the other way around.

c.     This means that we will fight to have members themselves decide what committees, if any, they want to belong to instead of depending upon the EC’s or Chair’s decision to assign members to committees.

d.     This means that we will fight so that when proposals or resolutions are sent to a committee, that the committees be given reasonable deadlines to complete its purpose in relation to the resolution or proposal in question and to provide regular reports to the delegate body of its progress and if such deadlines expire, without the matter being resolved in a satisfactory manner, that the delegate body be the one in charge of taking up the issue, discussing it and taking a vote.  No more sending “sending proposals to committee to die”. 

e.     This means that all members have the right to introduce legislative and political issues to the COPE meetings and to have these issues heard, discussed and voted on by the delegate body. Consensus on issues is not required in order for the issues to be heard, discussed and voted on.

f.      This means that we will push the SFLC EC to petition the National AFL-CIO for a change to our Constitution whereby every member of a California AFL-CIO Union will have a single and equal vote concerning the election of officers. Elections would continue to be held every two years at our State Convention. A concerted effort should be made to reach out to our rank & file members in order to invite their participation and in order for them to become educated on the issues, the candidates, and ultimately place a vote in favor of those candidates they feel best represent the interests of the Labor Movement. By conducting elections in this way, we will also be able to build a stronger and more representative presence of our members at our ConventionsThe leadership of the AFL-CIO is elected by a limited number of delegates. The rank & file of our Unions have little to no direct say in who will be in these leadership positions. In many past elections, the rank & file are not even knowledgeable about who is running, what the issues are, and what is at stake concerning the direction of the Labor Movement. This is not acceptable.

 

2.     Education is vital for a well-informed labor movement.

This education is achieved thru active participation in the struggles and in the dissemination of these struggles as well as thru seminars, webinars, panel discussions, social media, murals and street theater etc. Labor Education should include the rights of workers of color, low wage workers, women’s rights, LGBT rights, the right to live and work in a safe, clean environment and climate change/Just Transition issues as well as academic freedom and 1st amendment rights and the right to be free of government or corporate surveillance. Labor Education should seek to link the struggles of workers internationally and oppose militarism and war.

a.     We will fight to have an active Labor Education Committee which will promote Labor education on worker’s rights, about the labor struggles happening locally, nationally and internationally and help obtain funding to support labor programming which uplifts and disseminates the voices of rank and file workers. The activities of the Labor Education committee should be regularly posted on the SFLC website, announced with enough time in advance and the SFLC will lend its zoom and other resources such as space and the dissemination via SFLC email to all its contacts in order to guarantee broad participation and success. We need to have an education campaign against systemic racism in public and private employment and have regular panels with workers who are fighting racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia on the job. It will also educate about the dangers of fascism and why this must be fought by our unions ad working people.

 

b.     This means that the SFLC will help defend City College of San Francisco, SF State University, and the University of California against privatization forces by mobilizing its affiliate members and providing more advance notice to its affiliate members of labor actions or events and creating strong links with the Labor Studies Departments and the unions representing the workers at each public education institution. 

 

c.     The SFLC should play a more prominent role in promoting Labor Studies by engaging its affiliate members with informative videos, webinars, and panel discussions on labor issues to be aired or disseminated at regular union meetings, conventions, etc and by engaging educators and media specialists to help produce age-appropriate videos and/or street theater on labor history, to help encourage children’s sense of pride in belonging to unions and adolescents’ with guidance as they enter the workforce.  

 

d.     SFLC should seek to work with and support existing entities of artists, producers, and educators that are already doing the work of Labor education via Labor Radio programs, Labor Festivals, and Theater presentations that highlight the lives and struggles of the past and present workers and unions. 

 

e.     SFLC should defend the murals and buildings that are important in telling the story of the labor movement and/or were created during a historical period of labor unrest where workers played a central role in achieving victories that have improved the quality of life of communities, families, and children. 

F. The SFLC must revitalize its website to provide information first about all the labor and working-class struggles in San Francisco, the State, Country & World. This website should be multi-media with the voices of our members and their issues in every union. We will support and develop a San Francisco labor channel which will include live programming of press conferences, rallies, and picket lines that get our voices out and break the media blockade.

              H. The SFLC must call for opening the books of the AFL-CIO about their international operations and the role of the CIA and National Endowment For Democracy NED. We also oppose the $75 million that the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center receives for our international work. We cannot allow our international solidarity to be run and decided by the US government through the direct funding of our international work.
 

 

 

3.     Without worker power, we will achieve nothing. Power comes only from organizing workers and uniting for the same goal. The SFLC should play a more prominent role in organizing its affiliate members to provide more support to each other during labor actions; in creating labor/community alliances, and in standing together and on the side of workers when faced with privatization forces trying to divide us. 

a.     SFLC should provide its delegate members a contact list including emails of its delegate members (allowing for members to opt-out if they want) to facilitate direct communication in providing support for actions.

b.     SFLC should use its power to call the media and frame the narrative in order to garner public support for the workers at the picket lines, etc.

c.     The SFLC should create an Anti-Privatization and Anti-outsourcing Committee that includes unions from both the public and private sectors to unite and fight the privatization forces that are defunding, disenfranchising and deregulating the public commons, infrastructure, human resources, and ecosystem.

     The SFLC should stand by the saying, An Injury to One is an Injury to All and should not endorse development projects that would favor one union at the expense of another union and to be willing to hold town hall meetings with communities to express our position clearly.

E. We support independent labor political action and independent labor and worker candidates. We cannot be beholden to the pro-privatization agenda of the Democratic Party. The privatization of public services and two-tier contracts in public services and education undermine our unions and are an example of union-busting. We support an SF charter amendment and change in the California State constitution to outlaw the privatization of public work by government agencies that can be done by public workers. There are thousands of outsourced workers in San Francisco doing public work at slave labor wages. Our education plan combined with united action and solidarity can put working people in the driver’s seat.

e. The SFLC should wholeheartedly embrace the science behind climate change as well as the struggle for a Just Transition, because the challenge facing humanity today means that we must mobilize and support the unions to fight for retraining into union jobs that will support a sustainable future for the planet and working families.