UESF News The San Francisco Labor Council voted Monday night, May 14 to
support municipal power for San Francisco, via the initiative
process or Charter Amendment.
A lengthy debate followed the introduction of
the motion with several delegates asking for more time to study the question.
A motion to refer it to the Executive Committee was defeated and the
resolution passed with a better than two-thirds majority.
"This action places labor at the front of this issue.
Public power and public utilities have become a necessary benefit for
working people," states Dennis Kelly, UESF Secretary who chairs the Law and Legislative Committee
of the Labor Council.
A resolution calling for support of the proposed initiative to create a
Municipal Utility District was introduced by the Web Pressmen a month ago and
was referred to the Law and Legislative Committee of the Labor Council.
Several other unions have also passed motions calling for public power. Both
UESF and the California Federation of Teachers have passed similar
resolutions.
The Law and Legislative Committee held two hearings. The first was focused on
the involvement of labor activists in the fight for public power. The second
invited city supervisors Matt Gonzalez and Tom Ammiano as well as Ross
Mikarimi, campaign manager for the MUD initiative to meet with labor
officials. Community proponents are seeking labor support and the active
involvement of the machinery of Labor/Neighbor in an election combining a
complementary array of initiative measures, Charter Amendments, and the
actual election of individuals to a governing board of a municipal utilities
district.
The Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the Labor Council endorse
the Web Pressmen's call for support of the initiative and recommended adding
language to support a Charter Amendment aimed at the same purpose.
At its April Assembly meeting, UESF passed the resolution below, which Kelly introduced:
WHEREAS the legislature of the state of
California, under the leadership of former governor Pete Wilson, deregulated
the state’s power systems and placed them in the hands of corporations,
and
WHEREAS those corporations now in charge
of providing owner and energy to California have cannily transferred
billions of dollars to separate parent companies and are now seeking
taxpayer support and government bailouts, and
WHEREAS there are at least two proposals
heading for the November ballot in San Francisco which would enable
municipalization of the power system, and
WHEREAS there is a growing call within labor
and among the citizenry for the creation of a public power authority
at the state and/for municipal level, if not amicably, then through
exercise of the power of eminent domain, and
WHEREAS the money saved by public control
of the power system could be used for education and other human and
social services,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the United Educators
of San Francisco publicly favors the transfer of the power system
into public ownership, and
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the
United Educators of San Francisco opposes the use of public money
to bail out the corporations which currently control the state’s
power supply.
S.F Labor Council votes for municipal power
UESF says give the public back its power
See
Labor endorses public power
in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 16, 2001.
UESF's Mission
and Affiliates | Calendar | Committees
| Constitution and Bylaws | Contract
for Paraprofessionals | Contract for Teachers
| Directory | Governance | Know Your Rights
| Member Benefits
| Labor Resources | Political
Action | Reform and Education Issues | S.F.
Teachers in the News | Teaching Resources
| Treasurer's Accounts |
