Politics

AFL-CIO President Addresses San Diego Labor Groups

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published January 6, 2010 at 12:53 PM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Labor union leaders and members gathered in downtown San Diego to fight the outsourcing of local jobs on January 6, 2010.

San Diego labor leaders rallied today to gear up for a fight over local jobs. The president of the largest labor federation in the nation was in town to address the demonstration.

There are big construction projects being considered in San Diego: a new library, a new city hall, and maybe a convention center expansion. San Diego’s Labor Council wants those construction jobs to go to local unionized workers, and not to workers from out of state.

Richard Trumka, the recently elected president of the AFL-CIO, addressed a sea of union members in red and yellow t-shirts.

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"This is a fight for the middle class of America," Trumka said. "Jobs, that’s what it’s all about, good jobs and they should be local jobs."

Lorena Gonzalez, Secretary Treasurer of the San Diego Labor Council, said workers are America's middle class taxpayers, and providing them with good jobs will increase revenues for the city and the state.

San Diego City Council President Ben Hueso also spoke. He cited the 10.3 percent unemployment rate in the region, and $400 million available for infrastructure in the city.

Hueso said he’ll propose a local jobs initiative to offer living wages and health care for San Diegans.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.