An "Educated" Labor Thursday
Fictional but read it. There is some real meaning here.
The summer was approaching. It was getting hot in Sacramento. The Primary election is 10 days away. It is almost there. The Consultant sat in his sumptuous office. He was pondering a few things. Becerra is looking good now. They weathered Mahan, though he was never taken seriously. Steyer…not sure what to think of that guy. Back to Mahan, Lorena poked and they never responded. “Wimps,” he thought. “All bark and no bite.” Dave might have been right, his reservations notwithstanding to go after the billionaires. Run for the door or to the Governor and get him to do their bidding like they always do. They do not know how to fight. Dave can win the fight and lose the war, but nevertheless, he proved a point, and in politics, proving points is important.
He was pondering the rise of Labor from its origins. It was a step by step process. The “newbies” did not do it, but fortunately “we were still around,” he thought, with the conceit of the older generation who still think they know how things work..
He was lost in thought when his e-mail pinged. Someone had shown him a new email program called AskMarvinAI. He thought it was pretty cool. AI summarizing the Substack from Altadena so he did not have to read the whole thing unless he wanted to. That guy likes to write long missives.
It pinged.
He read the email summary.
“What the…” He read it more. “The CTA?” Okay, this guy has some guts- even publishing something against the CTA. They control California even more than SEIU. Their bankroll of $200+ million is a lot of dues to fund efforts.
He pulled up the Substack to read it all.
Prop 98 reform. Tying it to Dave’s Billionaire Tax Act? Clever. The CTA protects their Prop 98 turf really adamantly, but 40% to education on autopilot is also a dream for the rest of us looking at the budget. It is sitting there, waiting for someone to come after it. They have tried before, but failed. Still…he read more. Capping the funds per student to reflect the decrease in students and tie it to inflation, he had heard that one before. But, this is new. Pushing the savings into the healthcare shortfall? Fascinating. Could he pull it off? Don’t know. This guy has some crazy ideas, but those ideas do get people to pay attention he heard.
As he was pondering those thoughts, his colleague from LA came in. “Did you see our friend’s afternoon post?”
He had. “Crazy. Talk about third rail.”
“True,” said LA. “But, do you remember back when Dave Regan did his piece in Politico? Our friend wrote that piece about the rebuild. It was the end of March because it was right before my birthday. Pride Cometh Before the Fall I think it was called. In there, he said something different. He mentioned Silicon Valley use the rebuild in Altadena as a leverage point.”
The Consultant remembered.
“Interesting.”
He thought of the piece from Politico, “many have tried, few have succeeded.” Nobody saw over the siloes like he did in Sacramento. It is why he still was kept around.
“If Silicon Valley did what Trump wanted,” he said, “taking the first level for the rebuild capital stack, then they would remove the Government out of the project. No Project Labor Agreements. The Trades would lose their minds.”
LA saw where the older man was going.
“Imagine the biggest rebuild in California’s history without Labor Agreements,” he said. “Silicon Valley outflanking us. They have MAGA contacts. The Housing Bill is to the Senate CDBG-DR and a Permanent Authorization. They still need a supplemental appropriation as it exists now. Even if they got the approval like Bass said yesterday in LA in the next couple months, and she did not say whether it was FEMA or CDBG-DR money she was talking about, it could be months or years before deployed, if ever. Imagine if they took the money which could be government and do it themselves. The County is down to $8 billion according to Kathryn Barger, and there is fat in that I am sure. Silicon Valley has more money than God. Elon Musk could do it himself just to prove the point, like he did with Twitter. Zuckerberg? Brin? Page? Tan? I could go on and on. Once they raise the money, which can be investment grade, they then raise the money from the banks to do it through Community Reinvestment Act or CRA. Invest. Cut out the nonprofits. For the grants side, they have their own Foundations. Cut out the Government. Cut us out. Newsom has already exempted CEQA, so one of our key leverage points is gone.”
The Consultant marveled at the construct. It would be game changing. Nobody in Sacramento could fathom the scope of this concept.
“So, you go to the Trades and say, you are out of the rebuild unless.”
Unless what?
Unless you leverage Dave, but they do not have enough to keep Dave happy. He wants his money. The light then went on.
“So, you call Dave and say, ‘listen, we need to show we can lead this State. You work with us to get the CTA to give in on their 40%. They can cap it per student, indexed to inflation. The savings goes to you. The BTA goes away.’ He gets $60 billion over 10 years, and an off ramp. The Governor looks good. And, for that, the Trades get PLA’s on the rebuild, financed by Silicon Valley.”
LA smiled. “Never going to happen. There is not the sophistication to pull this off on our side or the SV folks. They need to use pressure points they have never done.”
The Consultant was a little less sanguine.
Politics changes quick.
Power is the ultimate reason this thing does not happen.
In all honesty, it makes a lot of sense. The CTA protects and locks in its gains. They should be happy with that instead of relying on a volatile budget. Dave gets a win. Silicon Valley showed their chops so we stop treating them like a junior partner. Labor gets their deal and moving faster than if we wait for DC, who is fickle at best. Jobs, the mother’s milk of politics. Jobs equal votes. Why not? It is nuts but it would show we are a solution, not part of the problem, especially as our Candidate is rising in the polls.
“Swalwell was a mistake and we needed more vision to the future,” he thought.
He responded. “Silicon Valley is not going to remain stagnant forever. They will get smart. We poked them. The legal basis for Dave’s gambit is weak. Take the win on this one. CTA might be a little hurt, but they can work at the local level and get property tax increases. They own the School Boards anyhow.”
LA thought. “And if we do not do it?”
The Consultant furrowed his brow. “Then we look entitled. CTA is not good enough with a huge increase. Dave is putting the economic engine of the State at risk. Trades look like they care more about their PLAs than getting cities rebuilt. Silicon Valley ties it all back to Eric Swalwell and our cynicism, which is evident by the rise of Becerra. We need a clean slate. This is a clean slate to the knot Dave started, that Gavin pushed when fighting Trump, and that is obvious when you look at the decline in population that the CTA gets to ignore. The Education budget has the money to take care of a majority of SEIU-HCW’s ask and Silicon Valley can leverage the whole thing. Nobody has ever had us like this.”
LA was brasher than the Old Salty Dog.
“Silicon Valley does not have the policy chops or political foresight to pull this off as it stands today. Business in general is too siloed. They make us look like a united front when we are not. The triangulation we just war-gamed is something way beyond what they have done before.”
The Consultant knew it was time to explain how the world works to LA.
“True, but times change. We are facing a budget environment which is going to require different thinking. I have lived through the leaner times. We had a huge increase in funds with COVID and the stimulus dollars which were going to come to an end eventually. We have no plan to keep them going, though our friend in Altadena has mentioned a few ideas. We currently have a strong economy to a certain extent, masking the limitations, but it is still propped up by these forces. Eventually they are going to come for you. I will be retired by then. The money will run out. It always does. Hollywood is a warning. They were at the top of their game and then it all fell apart. You cannot ever expect what is going to come. Dave’s gambit was stirred the waters. Now we might be able to do something nobody expected- get the rebuild going without waiting for Trump, because Dave. Sure, it will piss off the people in LA waiting on the funds like the CDBG-DR Mafia you know. They have lobbied on the Hill, but they are not getting anywhere. In fact, one wonders if our friend is, at least in a small way, contributory to that resistance from DC. He has a good handle on the climate there- better than those from here. Labor could be bypassed and a new reality could be created by the people we are poking. They have resources the likes of we have never gone up against in reality. We could lose the BTA, lose the rebuild, and then what? CTA sits there as a key to the whole thing and losing nothing in the process other than perception of Power. Power is the curse. It is why people hold on longer than they should. Power should not dictate this episode.”
LA thought about it. He knew he was getting sage advice from one of the most attuned people in Sacramento to the Power Game.
“So, this is not crazy, what we are talking about?”
“No. It is more dangerous than you could ever imagine,” the Consultant said. “Even if it goes nowhere, the fact it is out there, the fact Silicon Valley can begin to see how it can undermine our strength, the fact they can work around us to accomplish something we cannot, even though we hold the reins of Power in Sacramento, and beyond is very scary. It is the consciousness which begets the next stage. It is the realization of ‘you can.’ We have been resting on our laurels for too long. We need to lead, but we do not have the vision. We protest, we don’t build. Silicon Valley builds. They could inherit the mantle here in Sacramento, or at least be a Power in their own right very quickly, if they do it right. They missed with Mahan, but do not mistake that mistake for weakness. Pay attention. See if there is movement in this direction. It could happen fast and help bolster the Governor in his negotiations around the BTA.”
LA was more concerned now than when he walked in. He realized there was more here than he appreciated.
“If they divide us, then does that division create a crack in the Power we wield here in Sacramento?”
“Of course,” said the Consultant. “It was bound to happen. Sometimes you push and you do not know how you will break. Dave threw the rock in the pond. Look what it brought about. Will it be positive, negative, or status quo. Any one of them will tell us what to expect in the future- either we figure something out, nothing changes, or we get exposed. It is the Game.”
LA knew the Consultant was more worried than he. “Well, let’s see if they can even begin to coalesce around such a concept. It is going to be quite a ride.”