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All right, San Francisco, time to breathe.
The first educators strike in nearly 50 years is over. Parents can drop their kids at school once again. Teachers can trade their picket signs for chalk. District staffers can go back to figuring out how paychecks work. Everything can return to normal, right?
Don’t bet on it.
Power Play’s sources believe the strike, which the United Educators of San Francisco are touting as a major win, will embolden the city’s other public-sector unions, whose members will soon confront Mayor Daniel Lurie’s team at the bargaining table and in the political arena.
As we’ve reported, the CEO tax touted by unions will be a fight with the business community. Meanwhile, the mayor’s charter reform effort, which could weaken labor’s ability to propose ballot measures, will face staunch opposition from the San Francisco Labor Council.
There are even more labor flashpoints coming: Firefighters and police officers are deep in contract negotiations, and the city’s budget may bring waves of layoffs in June if Lurie’s promises of structural reforms come to pass.
Even more consequentially, in 2027, for the first time in nearly 50 years, city public employees will be allowed to strike during contract negotiations, thanks to a Public Employment Relations Board decision in 2023 (opens in new tab) that struck down a “no-strike” provision in the city charter, giving public-sector unions a sharper arrow in their quivers.
“I think there’s more of a hardened, militant mood now,” said John Logan, chair of labor studies at San Francisco State University. “No one wants to go out and strike, but they may feel if you don’t strike, they’re going to be taken advantage of.”
We’re smelling a sequel. And with 34,800 city employees, versus roughly 6,000 in UESF, the coming labor battles could make the teachers strike look positively quaint.
BLACKOUT EMAIL: The December blackout that caused mayhem across the city came roaring back into the news Thursday after The Standard was first to report that Pacific Gas & Electric’s CEO said Mayor Daniel Lurie directed the utility to provide power to the opera house — though the executive later retracted his statement. Lurie’s office has also denied that he directed any PG&E resources to the venue, which at the time was hosting his daughter’s performance of “The Nutcracker.”
But a new email obtained by Power Play shows that Lurie was involved in the conversation of getting power restored to the War Memorial Opera House.
An email dated Dec. 21 from Kate Sofis, the venue’s managing director, was sent roughly four hours after PG&E posted a photo on X (opens in new tab) showing its trucks outside the opera house.
“The good news for later tonight/early tomorrow — and I would like to personally recognize both the Department of Emergency Management and the Mayor himself — who has been very engaged with us directly — we have succeeded in getting PGE to relocate two massive generators from another site to the Opera House,” Sofis’ email said. The generators were used to enable two Dec. 22 performances.
The mayor’s office deferred to its previous comment that “of course city leaders were communicating directly with those institutions and PG&E to help scheduled performances for tens of thousands of attendees proceed.”
Sofis did not respond to a request for comment. The contents of the Dec. 21 email were first reported (opens in new tab) by the California Post.
— G. G.
SF GOES FOR MAHAN: He may not be the mayor of San Francisco, but he’s certainly taking a lot of cash from the city’s bigwigs. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is on the fundraising circuit for his gubernatorial bid, seeking support from well-heeled San Franciscans hoping to propel the moderate, pro-business candidate to Sacramento.
The latest campaign filings, submitted Thursday and Friday, show Mahan pulling in $5,000 from the former CEO of Weebly, David Rusenko; $78,400 split between the primary and general elections from former BART board member Nicholas Josefowitz; 156,8000 from real estate developer power couple Dan and Jaclyn Safier; and $78,400 from business executive Tali Rapaport.
Other donations include $78,400 from Y Combinator Managing Director Jared Friedman, $39,200 from Y Combinator general partner David Lieb, $78,400 from Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, $39,200 from DoorDash cofounder Stanley Tang, and $50,000 from Mercury CEO Immad Akhund. As of Wednesday, Mahan had brought in a total of $8.5 million, according to a source close to the campaign.
— G. G.
ICYMI:
SORDID TALE: Mickey Gerold led a seemingly charmed life of private clubs and powerful friends. But behind closed doors, his ex claims, he coerced her into sex work.
POWERLESS: If you’re curious as to why the December PG&E power outage was such a mess, here’s a start: poor communication, a poorly trained AI model, and issues putting out a fire at a substation.
OVERSIGHT, SHMOVERSIGHT: Critics say the “streamlining” of the SF Police Commission imperils police oversight, but a task force wants to axe its authority anyway.