Unions spend big in almost every Oakland election and this one is no exception. But the stakes are higher in 2024 than in previous cycles.
Oakland’s budget is in bad shape, and the city’s elected leaders will be forced to make painful cuts in the coming months. That could include layoffs, furloughs, or pension tweaks that will affect some of the thousands of city employees who put out fires, clean the streets, pave the roads, and collect taxes, among other things. Some unions are also scheduled to renegotiate their collective bargaining agreements with the city next year, contracts that determine pay raises and benefits for their members.
In the runup to Nov. 5, independent expenditure committees set up by labor unions have spent about $830,000 supporting candidates running for City Council, city attorney, and on the mayoral recall campaign — mostly in opposition. Unions have also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the race for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
Unions have also raised tens of thousands of dollars to support two ballot measures that would raise tax revenue to pay for violence prevention programs and to combat wildfires. This effort is similar to the 2022 election, where labor unions spent over $600,000 just on Sheng Thao’s mayoral campaign.
Unions are also up against deep pockets this election cycle. Real estate, tech, and crypto executives and groups have poured money into local races. For example, a committee entirely funded by one Piedmont hedge fund manager has spent over $500,000 supporting the recall effort against Sheng Thao, according to recent campaign finance reports. That committee, Foundational Oakland Unites, recently disbursed another $135,000 to support and oppose candidates running in the D1 and D7 city council races.
Labor leaders who spoke with The Oaklandside said they’re investing in candidates who they believe will have the backs of Oakland workers as the city goes into a difficult period of budget cuts and contract negotiations.
But the coalition is not all-encompassing: Oakland’s police union and the Northern California Carpenters’ Union are on the opposite side of the city’s big unions in a few of the highest-stake local races, including the issue of whether to recall the mayor.
SEIU Local 1021 is supporting Rowena Brown in the City Council at-large race, other candidates
The Service Employees International Union Local 1021 represents about 1,500 people who work for the city of Oakland, and it’s part of one of the biggest unions in the U.S., with almost 2 million members. SEIU Local 1021 set up an independent expenditure committee four years ago to support candidates and ballot measures its members favored. . Unlike the committees set up and run by candidates, this PAC can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on mailers, TV and internet ads, and polling.
Called the California Workers’ Justice Coalition, the committee has spent about $250,000, supporting Oakland council candidates as of Oct. 26, according to campaign finance reports. Over half that sum – $123,000 – has gone to support Rowena Brown, a legislative staffer for Assemblymember Mia Bonta who is running for the at-large council seat.
The PAC has also spent $48,500 to help D3 Councilmember Carroll Fife in her reelection bid. SEIU’s committee is spending smaller amounts supporting other candidates: $36,413 for D5 candidate Erin Armstrong; $17,221 for D1 candidate Zac Unger; and $6,592 on D7 candidate Iris Merriouns.
The California Workers’ Justice Coalition PAC has also spent nearly $19,000 on ads to support Ryan Richardson, who is running for city attorney.
Separately, SEIU Local 1021 also made the maximum allowable contributions of $1,200 directly to several campaigns, including Iris Merriouns, Carroll Fife, Rowena Brown, Erin Armstrong, and Ryan Richardson.
Ramses Teon-Nichols, SEIU Local 1021’s vice president of politics, told The Oaklandside that his organization is trying to elect — and keep — councilmembers who have a demonstrated record of being pro-labor and on the same side as unions on issues like affordable housing.
The council is losing two of its staunchest labor allies this year: Rebecca Kaplan and Dan Kalb, who are both retiring. It may also lose Nikki Fortunato Bas if she is elected to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Teon-Nichols credited Fife, the D3 incumbent, with doing “really critical” work on the city’s budgets, which prevented layoffs and major service cuts earlier this year and last year.
“That’s something we look at all the time with candidates and office-holders—how ready are you to make a tough decision and support the good-paying jobs of people who work for the city?” Teon-Nichols said.
SEIU Local 1021 also gave $50,000 to the campaign opposing the recall against Thao. As mentioned above, Thao received significant support from unions during her mayoral campaign. In the last two budget cycles, Thao has proposed spending cuts that prevented layoffs or furloughs for city workers.
IFPTE Local 21 is backing Richardson and Fife
A separate labor-backed committee is exclusively focusing on the District 3 and city attorney races.
“Fix Our City Oakland, Supporting Fife for City Council and Richardson for City Attorney 2024” has raised $285,000, mostly from the Alameda Labor Council and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21, also called IFPTE Local 21. Fix Our City also recently received $10,000 from Quinn Delaney, a Piedmont philanthropist whose husband is a real estate developer and landlord with properties in Oakland and other cities.
Fix Our City has spent nearly $175,000 on ads and mailers promoting Carroll Fife for reelection. It has also paid $23,750 for TV and digital ads to support Richardson for city attorney and roughly the same amount for material that attacks his opponent, Brenda Harbin-Forte.
IFPTE Local 21 member Julian Ware told the Oaklandside that his organization supports Fife because she’s been a strong proponent of violence prevention programs, clean streets, traffic calming measures, and affordable housing.
“She’s one of the people who comes hard out the gate to make sure her residents have what they need,” he said.
Ware said IFPTE Local 21’s membership was impressed by Richardson’s “community-driven perspective” and cited his commitment to making sure wage theft victims get a good recovery on court judgments. IFPTE represents about 1,000 city workers, including administrative employees, engineers, IT professionals, and attorneys.
IFPTE Local 21 has also given $20,000 to the campaign opposing Thao’s recall. Ware called the efforts to oust Thao a “tremendous waste of money” because it will force the city to spend millions of dollars on a special election to replace the mayor. Ware said having a recall might be appropriate for cases involving criminal negligence, but it doesn’t feel appropriate here.
“We can’t constantly have these re-dos,” Ware said. “It’s a distraction to the work that needs to be done.”
Alameda Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Keith Brown said in an email that his organization helped Fife get elected four years ago and “her record confirms that we made the correct choice.” Brown added that Ryan Richardson is ready to lead the city attorney’s office and has an “incredible range” of support.
The ALC, which endorsed Thao in 2022, believes she shouldn’t be recalled.
“She inherited problems that prior mayors walked away from,” Brown said.
Firefighters union goes all in on Richardson and Unger
Oakland’s fire union has bet heavily this election cycle on the same candidates as SEIU Local 1021 and IFPTE Local 21.
Two weeks ago, the union’s PAC paid $43,000 for billboards to support Ryan Richardson for city attorney. According to financial disclosures, the billboards were provided as a nonmonetary contribution by lobbyist Isaac Kos-Read, whose firm has had business before the City Council in recent years.
IAFF Local 55 Vice President Seth Olyer told The Oaklandside “the few times we have dealt with Richardson, he’s been very fair to us and has been easy to work with and supportive of our issues.”
The union also set up an independent expenditure committee to back one of its own — IAFF Local 55 president Zac Unger — in his run for the District 1 City Council seat. “Oakland Citizens for Public Safety” has spent about $32,600 on mailers and ads. This committee has drawn funding from firefighter unions in San Francisco, Berkeley, Sacramento, and elsewhere in California.
Olyer explained that candidates are interviewed by an executive committee, which is elected by the membership of the fire union. He said the union-backed Unger because “he’s a nerd who is actually really interested in legislation and making things better.”
“In the past, he’s jokingly said he hopes to make Oakland politics boring again and just have a city that works,” Oyler said. He added that the union backed Unger and other candidates who understand the dire resource crunch facing OFD and the potentially catastrophic consequences that could face Oakland if funding isn’t found for firehouses.
“To have an elected official who not only understands us but has been one of us is incredibly important.”
IAFF Local 55 also gave $10,000 to a committee promoting Measure MM, a tax measure to raise funds to fight wildfires in Oakland. And the fire union gave $2,500 to oppose the recall of the mayor—the smallest amount of any local union.
Police officers and carpenters cut a different political path
Unions aren’t in complete alignment on who to support this election. That schism is most apparent in the campaigns for the District 3 council seat, the city attorney race, and the mayoral recall.
The Oakland Police Officers Association has given $100,000 to Families for a Vibrant Oakland, a PAC set up by a San Francisco-based political organization called the Abundance Network. That committee has paid for ads that promote Warren Logan in District 3 and criticize incumbent Carroll Fife as anti-police. The Abundance committee has also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Brenda Harbin-Forte for city attorney. Harbin-Forte has criticized Oakland’s current city attorney for failing to aggressively push for the end of federal oversight of OPD. OPD has been under federal court oversight since 2003 and has struggled to complete its reform programs due to corruption in the internal affairs unit and other problems.
OPOA hasn’t given money to the mayoral recall, but President Huy Nguyen announced in August that the union would support the recall if Thao did not immediately step down. OPOA blames Thao for the city’s budget deficit and inadequate staffing in the police department.
The Abundance committee also received $150,000 from the Northern California Carpenters Union. This is the most the union has ever spent on a single race in an Oakland election, according to campaign finance records. For context, the carpenters’ union spent $25,000 to support Libby Schaaf when she was running for mayor in 2016. The carpenters’ union recently expressed concerns about a project labor agreement being considered by the city council that they felt was discriminatory toward some construction workers.
The union did not respond to a previous interview request.
Harbin-Forte is the architect of the recall campaign against Mayor Sheng Thao. On Monday, the carpenters’ announced it had filed an ethics complaint against Thao for allegedly including the union’s logo on a list of local labor organizations that oppose the recall.
Unions also spending big on the Board of Supervisors District 5 race
Several unions are backing Oakland Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas in her campaign for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
Unions have spent over $400,000 to support Bas. This includes independent expenditures and direct contributions to her campaign, as well as money spent against her opponent, John Bauters.
Some of Bas’ biggest union backers include the SEIU 1021 sponsored California Workers’ Justice Coalition, which has spent nearly $180,000 on mailers. The Unity PAC, which is sponsored by the Alameda Labor Council, has spent $24,075 on mailers opposing Bauters, and the same amount to support Bas. The Oakland councilmember has also received direct support from the Alameda Labor Council ($40,000), Dignity California SEIU Local 2015 ($30,000), IFPTE Local 21 ($25,000), Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 104 ($22,000), IBEW Local 595 ($20,000), ATU Local 1555 ($10,000), and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County ($30,000).
Bauters biggest direct labor contribution is from Oakland’s fire union, which gave his campaign $32,500. He’s also received $15,000 from the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council. Bauters is also supported by an independent expenditure committee, which has received $45,000 from the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association and $5,000 from OPOA, the Oakland police officers union.
