Organized Labor

The November election ballot in San Francisco will be overcrowded with local propositions. Many San Franciscans may be tempted to mark their choice for President and then turn in their ballots so that they can hurry off to work or their families. We in the Building Trades must urge them to mark at least one more choice, a "Yes" on Proposition A, to rebuild San Francisco General Hospital (SF General).

Under California legislation passed in 1973, 1996, and 2000, any hospital in an earthquake zone must meet certain seismic safety standards by the end of this year. Alternatively, it can show that it is on a solid track to completion of retrofit or replacement by 2013. If it fulfills neither condition, it can no longer offer acute care. A study in 2000 judged SF General to be in Structural Performance Category One, which says that an earthquake could cause its partial or total collapse. As it does not comply with seismic safety standards now, it must be underway toward retrofit or replacement by year's end or one of the country's premier trauma centers – and the only one serving all San Franciscans – will soon be closed.

Proposition A lays down the necessary track toward the hospital's replacement. It authorizes issuance of a general obligation bond for $887.4 million that will build an oval-shaped building with seven stories above ground and two wider "super floors" below ground. The bond will be issued as others are retired, and so will not place new demands on the budget or require new taxes. The replacement building will handle acute care for the hospital. It will sit between two wings of the existing hospital, which will then serve non-acute functions. The replacement will have 284 beds, 32 more than now. The construction may last until after 2013, but City authorities are confident that very substantial progress toward its completion will win them a brief waiver of the deadline.

The most obvious reason for the Building Trades to support Proposition A is that hospital construction provides good work for almost all the trades, a source not just of income but of pride, as it requires some of our highest skills.

Other reasons abound. According to the Los Angeles Times (February 9, 2008), in Los Angeles six emergency rooms have closed since 2003. Ambulances are sometimes obliged to change course on the way to one of the remaining emergency rooms when it fills up before their arrival. Nationally the closure of emergency rooms has meant that heart attack patients, who in 1997 waited an average of eight minutes for care, now wait an average of 20 minutes. We can ill afford to risk losing one of the best trauma systems in the country, and its own survival in many ways defies the odds.

Building Trades workers know that there is danger in all of our jobs, even if some are more dangerous than others. Business representatives for our locals are very familiar with the emergency room at SF General and are grateful for how many of our members it has helped after jobsite accidents and for how well it has helped them. Whether we live in San Francisco or just work here, SF General is critically important to us.
SF General is central also to Healthy San Francisco, the City program that provides a near approach to universal health care for its residents. We are certain to see various schemes of a national health care system debated in Washington in the next few years. The decisions that result from this debate will directly affect our negotiations and our pay and benefit packages. They may affect also the ability of our signatory contractors to compete with their non-union counterparts. Local plans such as those of San Francisco and Massachusetts are laboratories to which Washington can and should look in its debates.

Although SF General is widely respected by City voters, passage of the Proposition A bond measure will nonetheless present real challenges. It requires a two-thirds vote, always difficult to achieve. The crowding of the ballot may lead many voters, especially occasional voters, to overlook the measure. The ranks of regular voters include proportionally more conservatives than do the ranks of occasional voters. Even though the bond measure does not mean a tax increase, conservatives are likelier to oppose government spending on principal, especially when it is for "social" purposes such as a public hospital. Some are certain to vote "No" on Proposition A.

In addition, the ballot includes tax and spending measures unrelated to the SF General bond measure. Polling suggests that these will have little effect on it. There remains the real possibility, however, that at least some voters in this down economy will feel enough irritation at these other measures that they will mark "No" on anything having to do with City spending, including Proposition A.
Not many "No" votes are needed to drive support for a measure below two-thirds.

We have the opportunity to help ourselves directly in this election by working on behalf of Proposition A. Your local may have plans already in place for this; call them. If not, the San Francisco Labor Council (415-440-4809, Amber Parrish) has identified it as one of the top priorities in its precinct walks and phone banks. Phone banks have started already. They are being held Monday through Wednesday 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the offices of the Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West, 1338 Mission Street, near 9th. In October they will move to Monday through Thursday. Precinct walks will be held on Saturdays. They start with a campaign kickoff at the offices of the Labor Council, 1188 Franklin Street (at Geary), September 6 at 10:00 am.

I hope to see you there.