Labor Day breakfast serves up praise for North Bay union members’ efforts in wake of fires

About 11 months after the deadly October fires struck the North Bay, local elected officials and union leaders gathered Monday at a Labor Day pancake breakfast to praise the area’s workforce for its effort to rebuild after the disaster.

“Sonoma County was built on the backs of working families,” state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, told the crowd of about 200 people. “We’re going to rebuild stronger than ever because of organized labor. We cannot say thank you enough for your sacrifice over these past several months.”

The breakfast, put on by the North Bay Labor Council and now in its 21st year, was held at the Carpenters’ Labor Center on Corby Avenue in Santa Rosa.

Other speakers included Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael; and Assembly members Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, and Jim Wood, D-Santa Rosa.

Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane, Cotati Mayor Mark Landman, Sebastopol Councilwoman Sarah Glade Gurney and Sonoma Councilwoman Rachel Hundley were among other local politicians in attendance.

The North Bay Labor Council, the region’s largest organized labor coalition, takes in 70 unions and groups, representing about 70,000 people, including employees across the local public and private sectors. Chapters of the Service Employees International Union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the hotel and food service union Unite Here are among the largest in the council.

Dozens of union members and their families feasted on pancakes, eggs and bacon Monday morning as speakers took the stage.

Union leaders said they were most concerned about ensuring affordable housing and living wages for their members in the aftermath of the October fires. The disaster claimed 6,200 homes in the North Bay, including more than 5,300 homes in Sonoma County.

“We want to see a middle class that rises instead of shrinks, and we want wages that go up instead of stagnate,” said Jack Buckhorn, executive director of the North Bay Labor Council. “We expect our local leaders to support workers every day, not just Labor Day.”

Martin Bennett, co-chairman of North Bay Jobs With Justice, a separate coalition of labor, community and faith-based groups, discussed the push to increase the minimum wage in five Sonoma and Marin county cities to $15 by 2020. That would be three years earlier than called for under the 2016 law approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Other counties and cities, such as San Jose and San Francisco, have passed ordinances to accelerate the minimum wage hikes, and Bennett’s group hopes to do the same in Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Petaluma, Sebastopol and Novato.

“Eventually, we want to get to all of the jurisdictions in both Marin and in Sonoma County,” Bennett said. “We can’t build our way out of the housing crisis.”

Journeyman electrician John McEntagart said he saw the effects of the October fires in his own ranks when 21 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union lost their homes. Fellow union members raised money to support those workers and their families.

McEntagart started his career as an electrician 22 years ago to provide for his family. He made the move from bartending because he wanted a stable career with benefits and a pension.

“I want to be the CEO of my family so they don’t have to worry,” said McEntagart, a Rohnert Park resident. “We want a fair share of the pie.”

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@nashellytweets.