With One Big Win Accomplished and One Huge Labor Ally Stepping Aside, Now’s the Time to Step Up the Fight
FIGHTING FOR FAMILIES: Rudy and his son, Isaac, both at bottom right, gathered with other Prop 50 supporters — including House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and a hopeful to fill her seat, SF District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan — for a pre-Election Day rally at the IBEW Local 6 union hall in San Francisco.
We should all take a moment to recognize what we just accomplished. Proposition 50 didn’t win because of luck, but because union workers and union families carried the message to the doorsteps and delivered the votes to the ballot box. Our members organized, mobilized, talked to their neighbors, and proved yet again that when working people move as one, we can change the political landscape.
This victory is more than a policy win. It’s a critical pushback against an organized effort to undermine democracy. These temporarily redrawn congressional maps represent the first line of defense against Trump’s attempts to rig the next election by reshaping political power for partisan gain. Working families didn’t let that happen. We stood up and drew our own line in the sand.
With Prop 50, we’ve taken the first step toward building a congressional majority that will actually fight for working people. But let’s be honest: This will require sustained effort. Winning back the House, defending our rights, and shaping a government that responds to working families will take real work — work to elect the right leaders and work to hold them accountable to our agenda.
We should also acknowledge the leadership that helped strengthen us for this fight. Lorena Gonzalez, who helms the California Federation of Labor Unions, continues to show what bold and principled labor leadership looks like. Her steady hand and articulate vision keep our statewide movement united and effective.
Here at home, our members have a lot to be proud of. Working Families for Fair Elections, led by this council and supported by our congressional representative, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, demonstrated what disciplined, worker-powered campaigning can achieve when we talk to swing voters in swing districts.
A Personal Note on Pelosi’s Retirement — and a Timeless Political Legacy
Many of us watched Pelosi’s retirement announcement video, released earlier this month, with a sense of both gratitude and resolve. It marked the close of a congressional career unlike any other — a nearly 40-year stretch defined by toughness, clarity, and an unwavering commitment to the working class.
In my own statement on behalf of this council, I said that Pelosi set the standard for how Democrats can deliver for the working class. She represented our district with distinction. She mentored generations of civic leaders. She defended our democratic institutions at times when others hesitated. And she did it all while treating everyone, including her fiercest critics, with dignity and respect.
Labor leaders across the country echoed the same truth. NABTU President Sean McGarvey reminded us that Pelosi has always been a working-class warrior — and not by fashion, but by upbringing and conviction. AFL–CIO President Liz Shuler called Pelosi a trailblazer who reshaped the nation and delivered structural wins for workers that will echo for generations.
For the building trades, her accomplishments speak for themselves, and you can read more about them in the full statement. But beyond the legislative highlights, perhaps what will stay with us most is her steadiness and her willingness to take on authoritarian leaders abroad, corporate power at home, and bad-faith politics wherever it surfaced. She never backed down from a fight when we needed her.
We all know Pelosi won’t be disappearing. In fact, she’ll remain a trusted ally of organized labor, and we will rely on her experience as we enter a new era of political struggle.
Be sure to read her guest op-ed.
With What’s Coming, There’s No Time to Rest
Even as we celebrate this win and honor Pelosi’s legacy, the fights ahead couldn’t be more urgent. Republicans are holding working families’ healthcare hostage with proposals that would push millions off affordable coverage and drive up premiums for those of us with union or employer-sponsored plans. We can’t afford to be passive — and we won’t be.
This is a moment to stay sharp and strong. Labor remains the last organized force in the United States capable of challenging authoritarian corporate control. If workers are to have a voice in our own future, we need to stay active in the political arena and define the fights on cost of living, housing, healthcare, food, gas, and every other kitchen-table issue that determines whether our families can thrive.
Prop 50 reminded everyone, including the Democratic Party, who really runs this state. It’s working people. It’s the trades. It’s our members doing the hard work that keeps this city and state standing.
Now we need to take that same discipline and send the right Democrats to Washington — the ones who will protect our democracy, defend our jobs, and finish the work we’ve started.
If we stay united, organized, and determined, there’s no question that we’ll win the fights ahead, too.
POLITICAL PARTY
Pelosi joins the SF Labor movement to celebrate Prop 50 victory. See the photo feature.