Posted: September 28, 2012

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
energizes “No on 32” kickoff rally

Praises Local 1245’s “road warriors”

 

Photos by Landis Marttila

Willie Brown, the legendary speaker of the California Assembly and mayor of San Francisco, praised the efforts of IBEW Local 1245 “road warriors” at a Sept. 19 rally to kick off the union’s campaign to defeat Proposition 32 this fall.

The anti-union ballot measure, funded by out-of-state extremists including the oil billionaire Koch brothers, masquerades as campaign finance reform. But in fact it would strip away the ability of unions to participate in the political process while creating special exemptions so that giant corporations remain free to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence politicians and fund anti-worker ballot measures.

“Make no mistake about it, Proposition 32 is designed to destroy us, to destroy and take away every good thing we’ve done for 60 years,” said Business Manager Tom Dalzell, who has made defeating Prop 32 the union’s top priority this fall.

The rally drew together about 100 activists and union staff to provide boots on the ground in the door-to-door campaign to defeat Prop 32.

“We need 76% of union members to turn out to vote ‘No’ in November in order to defeat this thing,” said the union’s volunteer coordinator Jennifer Gray. “We’re continuing to recruit volunteers each and every day.”

The high point of the rally came when the newest crop of campaigners was called to the front of the room to a big round of applause. Brown praised them as “road warriors” and thanked them for “making sure that this democracy continues to be available to each and every one of us.”

You can join the effort to beat Prop 32 by contacting Gray at J2G8@ibew1245.com.

Watch the Local 1245 “No on 32” video.