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Mayor, City of San Francisco

October/November 2001 IBEW Journal

Thank you. Thank you. Let me, Mr. International President and the other labor leaders, plus the members of IBEW internationally, welcome you to this extraordinary little city. We are delighted to have you come on this your annual meeting. And to do so, we love playing host. We understand and we applaud your extraordinary efforts for so many years continuing in every fashion to be a part of what the labor movement is all about. When you changed your headquarters location from the hated Marriott to some other union hotel, I am delighted to so extend the welcome to you for having done that.

San Francisco is an extraordinary city. Many of you already have the experience, I suspect, of coming to our city. I have the great pleasure of presiding over this city.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have been a part of this city for more than 100 years. Local 6, I understand, was first chartered in 1895. You now cover the width and breadth of our city. Everybody who works here in one fashion or another relates to IBEW, except possibly the cab drivers, and I understand you have those in New York. I don't know what kind of electrical work goes on in the cabs in New York, but apparently it works, because you are a part of that.

Your rich and distinguished history makes you special in the labor movement. And when I heard that you were coming to San Francisco, I wanted to come by and share with you just a little bit of the flavor of this city from my perspective.

I've been mayor now since 1995. I arrived about the same time as the Archbishop. I'm not certain that our careers are exactly parallel but I arrived at the same time. My tenure probably is not at secure but, nevertheless, this city affords me the opportunity to talk about it. And it is a very special city.

It is a city made up of some diverse persons. Every language on this globe is virtually spoken here in San Francisco. Every ethnic group of which you can think and envision on this globe has residents somewhere here in San Francisco. They bring with them their traditions, their history, their cultural attractions. They bring with them their rich commitment to food and all the other things that go on in this city. I say to you, you'd be doing yourself a gross disservice if you only stayed here in the Moscone facility. While it's a wonderful place, there are some magnificent things outside of this hall that you must partake. Whether you're from Des Moines or Dallas, whether you're from Miami or Minnesota, this place is a place for you to visit.

You can, as I said, eat anything you want here, drink anything you want here, do anything you want here and go home and ask forgiveness. This is the kind of place that we really have here in San Francisco.

It's also an extraordinary union town. Practically everything in this city is already union, and that which isn't about to be union.

We have project labor agreements that cover some aspects of what we're about. We have card check neutrality for people who want contracts and opportunities to develop in this city. We have a living wage ordinance passed and pushed by organized labor in this city. We have a mandated health care delivery system comparable to anything that Hillary Clinton could ever have dreamed of happening right here in San Francisco. And it's done and pushed by working men and women, let alone those of us who get elected to public office, not only in San Francisco but in the state of California. There is not a politician who would dare want to run for public office without coming to the House of Labor and saying, "I need your blessings, I need your guidance, I need your support, and I need your money."

IBEW has been at the forefront of each one of those decisions. IBEW has been at the forefront of each one of us who have been successful in pursuit of public office. So when you come to San Francisco, a union labor town, when you come to the state of California, hopefully soon to be a real union state similar to what it is in California and San Francisco, you are in fact doing what you do best, and that's making sure that organized workers as well as unorganized workers get equal justice and equal pay for equal work and proper treatment in the workplace, regardless of sex or sexual orientation or gender.

I welcome you to San Francisco, and I know you're going to have a rollicking good time.

Thank you.