A Journeyman Tilesetter since 1981, Tim Paulson previously served as Vice President of the SFBCTC starting in 1997. He was a principal officer and business agent for the Bricklayers, Tilelayers, and Allied Craftworkers Local 3, and an Apprenticeship Coordinator for the Northern California Tilelayers and Tile Finishers Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee. As the Executive Director of the San Francisco Labor Council from 2004 to 2018, Paulson coordinated political activities, organized events and rallies, and supported affiliated unions in bargaining and contract negotiations. Prior to working for the SF Labor Council, Paulson worked as the Political Director and Assistant Executive Officer of the San Mateo County Central Labor Council. He previously held the position of Organizing and Political Director for SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaigns in Northern California, and led successful campaigns organizing security officers at Bay Area office buildings. A San Francisco resident, Paulson holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science.
One of the tenets of a working, functional Democracy is a robust legislative process.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and our wonderful San Francisco Congressional representative has stated that when the President of the United States submits a budget to Congress, it is a direct reflection of the “values of our country.”
After many years, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors finally voted for a Citywide Project Labor Agreement. These discussions began over twenty years ago when we asked Mayor Willie Brown to sign every building trades union’s collective bargaining agreement of behalf of the City. The genesis for this push came from the business agents and organizers from the affiliates of the Building and Construction Trades Council feeling that they had no support or recourse for mitigation when they found prevailing wage violations and the wage cheating by some of the contractors who were building our fire stations, libraries and other City facilities.
Many San Francisco building and construction trade affiliates have public sector members who work in the various departments of San Francisco. There are over 30,000 employees in the City that make San Francisco work.
The victories in November’s election are still reverberating. We flipped every anti-union legislator in Congress in California. And, as you read this column, our very own Nancy Pelosi is trouncing President Trump with her wisdom and grace as we await her election as Speaker of the House.
On Labor Day, more than 50 rank and file workers and union representatives (including me) got arrested in front of Marriott’s Westin St. Francis hotel. We sat down on the cable car tracks on Powell Street to support Unite Here Local 2 workers. These hotel workers have been on strike and walking pickets lines outside seven hotels ever since. Their unity and diligent solidarity to stay out this long is amazing.
he November election is only days away, and working men and woman have a lot at stake. Many Congressional leaders and our so-called President are trying valiantly to destroy unions and opportunities for good jobs and benefits. The perfect example of these attacks is why we have to vote No on Proposition 6. Proposition 6 mandates that we abandon efforts to fix highways and bridges. Prop 6 (vote NO) is an attack on public safety by eliminating efforts to fix crumbling highways and bridges.
The Building Trades and Labor Council offices on the second floor of the ILWU international headquarters at 1188 Franklin St. are in transition. The San Francisco Labor Council’s new executive director Rudy Gonzalez has moved into my old office. I am working out of an empty office down the hall as I clean out the Building and Construction Trades office down another hallway. The Labor Council’s new campaign director, Kim Tavaglione, is huddled over two laptops in another conference room getting ready for the November election.
Washington, D.C. is muggy and hot in August. Getting off the plane at Reagan International Airport is like stepping into a gas furnace. And I am not making a metaphor about the anti-worker, anti-union politics of Ronald Reagan or our current President.
