Organized Labor

By Robert L. Balgenorth,
President - State Building & Construction
Trades Council of California, AFL-CIO

At its Pre-Primary Convention in Oakland, the California Labor Federation endorsed State Treasurer Phil Angelides for Governor, and member unions pledged to recruit 25,000 volunteers to take Angelides’ message to their 2 million members at home and at work. As part of the endorsement, Labor Fed unions, including Building Trades affiliates, also promised to send mail to their members to make sure they are familiar with Angelides’ pro-labor record.

The Executive Board of the State Building & Construction Trades Council (SBCTC) endorsed Angelides last November 30.

Angelides faces State Controller Steve Westley in the Democratic Primary, whose winner will challenge Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the November General Election.

Running as the “Anti-Arnold,” Angelides has waged a virtual non-stop attack against the Republican Governor since the “Terminator” ousted then-Governor Gray Davis in a special election in November of 2003.

“The whole nation is watching us, working families all over this great state are counting on us,” Angelides told convention delegates. He called Schwarzenegger “a photo-op politician who has left behind a string of broken promises.

“I am proud that I’m the ‘anti-Arnold.’ You’re all anti-Arnolds. We stand for a different vision of what makes a society strong. We believe in the California dream,” Angelides said. The endorsement of Labor will help Angelides with his number one challenge, which is to familiarize California voters with his name and his achievements and how he would deal with the issues he would face as Governor.

Angelides, who was elected State Treasurer in 1998, is the son and grandson of Greek immigrants. Like many immigrants, his father’s parents, who didn’t speak English, worked hard so that his father could go to the University of California and become an engineer. His mother is a first-generation Greek immigrant. Angelides repeats, in nearly every public appearance, that the notion of one generation working hard and sacrificing so their children could get a good education, is one of his family’s core beliefs.

Angelides has always been an activist. In the 1990s, when he was a private citizen, he chaired a Sacramento commission that helped the Sacramento City Unified School District turn around a faltering education program.

As State Treasurer, his Extra Credit Teacher Home Purchase Program has helped teachers who agree to work in poorly performing schools to receive down payment assistance in the purchase price of a home near their school.

And, one of the lesser known programs administered by the Treasurer’s Office is the ScholarShare College Savings Trust which provides a tax break for families who invest for their children’s college education.

By using his common sense, Angelides has done more than any previous State Treasurer to give moderate income families an opportunity for home loans, and struggling small businesses a chance for a business loan. As the state’s banker of taxpayers’ dollars until the state needs the funds, he has increased deposits in community banks and lending institutions by $4.8 billion since he took office in 1999. These deposits provide lenders in underserved communities with the funds they need to make home loans to people and small businesses who otherwise would have no access to financing.

What’s more, those investments of tax funds have made money for the state, one more proof that the wise placement of taxpayer dollars can boost the financial bottom line for the state, while also building up the seed capital in California’s poorer communities. He calls it a “double bottom line,” and that’s just one of several ways he is looking out for the folks who for many years have been on the short end of the stick in California.

On a loading dock at a condominium project in Oakland last month, Angelides spoke of his background and told union construction workers that each of their children should have the same opportunity for college or vocational training as he had. “In every decision that I make if I am elected Governor, I promise you that I will never forget you,” he said.

That’s the guy we have endorsed for Governor, and he deserves our support.