A who’s who of elected officials, past and present, crowded into a hotel ballroom last spring for the San Francisco Labor Council’s Pre-Labor Day Breakfast. Per tradition, Mayor London Breed was the event’s keynote speaker and delivered an address designed to rouse the crowd of union stalwarts.

Previous mayors were treated to standing ovations; Breed received polite applause, an ominous sign for her re-election hopes. Kim Tavaglione, the council’s executive director, admitted that some union leaders had “soured” on Breed, who catered to the city’s uber-wealthy neglecting working San Franciscans and the organizations that represent them. 

Tech billionaire Michael Moritz’s media outlet, The San Francisco Standard, has frequently called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the Astroturf Network’s leading spender, the city’s “most powerful” political group. After the November 2024 election, that title rightly belongs to organized labor, particularly the Labor Council’s broad coalition.

San Francisco has a long and storied history as a union stronghold. The city’s first recorded strike occurred during the Gold Rush era when carpenters walked off their jobs for a week after demands for higher wages went unheeded. The following year, San Francisco newspaper printers formed the first labor union on the west coast. In 1934 San Francisco earned a permanent place in labor history when longshoremen shut down the city’s bustling port for 4 days, ending what had been a crippling 83-day strike on west coast waterfronts.

Even in a rapidly gentrifying city, labor unions wield clout. The Labor Council, a coalition of more than 100 unions, has hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on the political campaigns of candidates friendly to the interests of working San Franciscans. Although it’s magnitudes less than the billions at the disposal of the Astroturf Network, it has something money can’t buy: Some 100,000 members and their families.

Astroturf Network represents the 1% regardless of its attempts to use slick messaging and sophisticated social media to portray its efforts as grassroots. GrowSF, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, TogetherSF and, newcomer, the Abundance Network, carefully disguise the origins of their money, the deep pockets of billionaires like Michael Moritz and William Oberndorf, who seek to elect public officials who will exempt them from paying their fair share to support a city that has made them exceedingly rich.

To that end, the Network bankrolled a slate of candidates for the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, known familiarly as the DCCC, spending tens of thousands to transform the once-independent DCCC into little more than an Astroturf Network subsidiary. The effort was successful in the sense that the Network-backed candidates won 18 of 24 open seats. By its blatant actions, it rendered the DCCC’s endorsement — once among the most valuable in San Francisco politics — essentially worthless.

As could be expected, the DCCC endorsed Network candidates — and newly elected members — for seats on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Marjan Philhour challenged Supervisor Connie Chan in District 1 and Bilal Mahmood took on Supervisor Dean Preston in District 5. Chan and Preston, progressive leaders, were Network targets. GrowSF created “Clear Out Connie” and “Dump Dean” political actions committees to further the candidacies of Philhour and Mahmood. Network favorites Trevor Chandler and Michael Lai ran against labor candidates Jackie Fielder and Cheyenne Chen in Districts 9 and 11. All Network-backed candidates were carefully selected for their fealty to its conservative agenda.

Only Mahmood was elected, beating Preston who had been subjected to a two-year Network-funded disinformation campaign. A former tenants’ rights attorney and champion for vulnerable San Franciscans, the District 5 supervisor was considered a stubborn obstacle to the Network’s success.

As for the mayor’s race, organized labor split its support. The carpenters’ union stayed with Breed while the firefighters abandoned her in favor of former District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell. The plumbers’ union and a handful of building trade unions supported District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai. SEIU 1021, which represents city employees, non-profit staff, health care workers and school employees, endorsed Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin. However, neither the city’s unions nor the Astroturf Network could overcome the staggering amount spent by Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie to secure the city’s highest office.

When united and willing to flex its considerable muscles, labor remains a powerful force. It came together to back District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, a passionate union supporter, and District 11 challenger Chyanne Chen, a labor organizer. Chan won in a district gerrymandered to elect her opponent. Chen edged out a crowded field to secure her seat on the board.

In an ungracious concession statement, Philhour, a former Breed aide, blamed “an unprecedented amount of outside special interest money” for her loss, a strange complaint given the tens of thousands of dollars she received from the Astroturf Network. The “special interests” Philhour refers to are none other than working San Franciscans who struggle to live in a city increasingly hostile to their needs. Like her former boss, Philhour catered to the wealthy, paying little heed to the residents responsible for making  San Francisco a liveable city.