For the first time, women run two of San Diego’s most powerful trade union organizations simultaneously, bringing new perspectives and priorities to the local labor movement at a crucial time.
Former San Diego City Council candidate Carol Kim took over the 22-union San Diego Construction and Trade Council in November from longtime leader Tom Lemmon. The council represents 30,000 construction workers.
And local labor vet Brigette Browning took over the 136-union San Diego-Imperial County Labor Council in May from Keith Maddox. The council represents 200,000 nurses, teachers, firefighters and other workers.
Both organizations were led by a woman once, but not at the same time. Of the Congregation, Lorena Gonzalez chaired the works council from 2008 to 2013, and Xema Jacobsen led the construction industry from 2000 to 2003.
Browning and Kim said in a joint interview this week that women who come to such positions are usually more practical leaders who deal better with adversity because of the challenges they have faced.
“I feel like we don’t have the same problems as men – I feel their egos get in a lot of trouble,” said Browning. “Women leaders are not allowed to behave like this. I just think we’re more practical. “
Both said women often struggle to be promoted to the top of trade union organizations, even if trade union membership is mostly female.
“The amount of sexism I had to overcome really prepared me for this job,” said Kim. “We really need to be twice as good as the next guy to be treated equally.”
Both women rose to new roles as the Democratic Party took over San Diego City Hall and the County Board of Governors.
“The blue wave has been very helpful to us,” said Kim. “These elected officials have values built around their support for employees. We’d like the Republican Party to be more pro-activist, but that’s not the case.
Browning agreed, adding that the change in political power gives unions a much greater influence.
“We had to keep making concessions because we had no political power,” she said. “We got the crumbs because the business and the developers were really good at sharing us. It won’t work anymore – everyone has to be looked after and all workers need to be lifted out of poverty. ‘
While the local workforce is arguably more powerful than ever, it can also face the toughest challenge as the housing crisis makes the middle-class dream of owning a home increasingly difficult for working people to fulfill.
Browning said she wanted to focus on middle-income people who earn too much on government aid, but not enough to afford what has traditionally been middle-class life.
Kim said the housing crisis, which turned into a cost of living crisis, is especially bad in San Diego as the region has relatively low wages compared to other metropolitan areas with relatively high housing prices.
Both women said they plan to focus on ensuring that local projects funded by President Biden’s Build Back Better infrastructure deal use unionized workers.
“We want to make sure that when these dollars go to San Diego, public investment is made through the prism of supporting workers,” Kim said.
Another priority, Browning said, is the shift, especially in California, from fossil fuels to solar and wind power – new industries that typically do not have union jobs.
“If we don’t defend these workers, they’ll turn into bad jobs,” Browning said.
While environmental groups are typically tied to work on a number of issues, Browning said, the desire to tackle climate change quickly has sometimes prompted environmental groups to enter into contracts that are not worker-friendly.
She said that many community-elected energy contracts across the state lack quality-of-work provisions which are efforts to get local governments to provide energy instead of companies like San Diego Gas & amp; Electric.
Kim emphasized that most of the workers installing rooftop solar systems earn close to the minimum wage because they are not unionized.
Browning, who led unions representing local hotel workers, said another priority was to prevent hotel companies from permanently deviating from daily guest room cleaning, an experiment many have carried out during the pandemic.
“The biggest risk for hotel employees is that companies are trying not to clean the rooms every day, but only at the checkout,” she said. “That could cut our workforce by 30 percent.”
Browning said she also wanted to focus more than Maddox, her predecessor, on organizing non-union workers. About 10 percent of San Diego workers are unionized, compared with about 40 percent in the middle of the last century.
Maddox has focused much more on politics than organizing, she said.
Kim said the transition to her from Lemmon, her predecessor, would be for the most part smooth, as she had served as one of his best lieutenants for several years. However, she said there would be distinct differences in style.
“I think it will be a little less spectacular – not in terms of achievements, but in terms of the way it develops,” she said.
“Tom liked to be presentable – that was how funny and interesting he was,” she said. “It’s a different approach with similar goals. As women, we are expected to do the job and not argue about it. “
Kim, 45, grew up in Los Angeles and Orange County before moving to San Diego in 2006.
After losing to San Diego Councilor Chris Cate in a second round in 2014 for a seat in District 6, she worked for United Way before being hired by Lemmon as political director for the construction industry.
Browning, a graduate of UC San Diego and the University of San Diego High School, lives in Chula Vista with her husband Dan Rottenstreich, one of the region’s top political consultants.
At 48, she joined the labor movement shortly after college, when her mother, a cocktail waitress, encouraged her to take part in a “summer trade union internship” focused on organizing hotel workers.