Hundreds turn out for Labor Council’s Labor Day picnic

By Lila Swanson

The Sacramento Central Labor Council held its yearly Labor Day picnic at Fairytale Town in September, bringing together hundreds of union members, families and friends for camaraderie and a chance to look ahead to the midterm elections.

Labor Council Executive Director Fabrizio Sasso told the gathered crowd about the hard realities facing working families right now.

“We’re under attack. Working people are under attack,” Sasso said. “You all feel it every single day when you can’t afford your groceries or your rent or your mortgage like you used to.”

“People over profits,” Sasso said, a union rallying cry that has become popular as Republican policies continue to squeeze average Americans. The crowd repeated it with him.

“That’s what the labor movement’s all about,” Sasso said. “We’re the only thing that stands between us and them.”

Sasso reminded the crowd that the midterm elections are quickly approaching and urged support for two statewide measures: Proposition 3, which he said would help fund public education, and Proposition 40, a one-time tax on billionaires he said would help pay for health care in California. “Yes on Prop Three. That’s going to help fund education, our schools,” Sasso said, before turning to Prop 40: “One-time tax on billionaires to ensure that we have adequate health care in this state.”

The picnic also gave the Labor Council’s new leadership a chance to speak. Annika Walls, recently installed as the Council’s president and also president of SEIU Local 1000, addressed the crowd. “It is events like this bringing working people together so that we could talk to one another about the fights that we have, about the fights we have coming, about the people we need to elect who will be the voices for us working people,” said Walls.

Much of Sasso’s speech centered on Rep. Kevin Kiley, a frequent target of the labor movement’s organizing efforts in the region. Sasso reminded the crowd that Kiley built his career as a reliable Trump-aligned Republican, first in the state Assembly and then in Congress. That changed, Sasso said, only after last year’s Proposition 50 redrew Kiley’s district and handed him a very different electorate—one with more union households and a more diverse mix of communities than his old seat.

“He didn’t think twice about it,” Sasso said of Kiley’s shift away from the GOP label. “Now suddenly he wants you to believe he’s independent.”

But Sasso urged the crowd not to be swayed by the new image. He pointed back to Kiley’s years in the state legislature, arguing that the record there tells a different story than the one Kiley is selling now. “As a member of the state legislature, he nearly always voted against working people, against immigrants and against policies that benefit union members,” Sasso said. “His record tells a different story. Don’t be fooled.”

Sasso then introduced Dr. Richard Pan, the labor-endorsed candidate running to unseat Kiley in California’s 6th Congressional District, calling him “a champion right here in this region who’s always stood with us.” Pan, a physician and union member, told the crowd that stronger union representation is central to his campaign. “When people join unions and they collectively bargain, we are more likely to get our fair share of the economy,” Pan said, adding that voters shouldn’t be fooled by Kiley’s new independent label. “We all know he’s a MAGA Republican.”

Sasso also pointed to a slate of labor-endorsed candidates in the crowd, including Senate candidate Sean Frame. He estimated that about half of Monday’s crowd were sitting elected officials, from Rep. Doris Matsui to Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty, and said their turnout said something about labor’s political weight in the region. “They show up for us, and they vote for us, and they look after us,” Sasso said. “We need them as much as they need us.”

Walls also asked members for support in the weeks ahead, telling the crowd that Local 1000 will soon vote on authorizing a possible unfair labor practice strike. “We are going to show the state that we are holding the line, and working people matter,” Walls said. “We keep this great state running.”

Sasso closed his remarks by thanking the Labor Council’s small staff and its volunteers, without whom, he said, the picnic and its Mother Goose, Robin Hood and Humpty Dumpty-tiered sponsor groups wouldn’t come together each year. He encouraged attendees to stay involved with the Labor Council year-round, not just on Labor Day, with the midterms approaching.