“Shame on you!” was the cry reverberating in Pacific Heights last night as the black Mercedes and BMWs pulled up to the valet parking at Wall Street financier Michael Moritz’s house. Their well-coiffed occupants scurried inside to write big checks for Prop B, Jeff Adachi’s Charter Amendment that will double the cost of health care for San Francisco workers and their families. Some 300 of those workers, with kids in tow, gathered outside the stately mansion, waving oversized $1,000,000 bills and chanting while the Brass Liberation Orchestra provided a spirited musical backdrop.
The crowd quieted as several of their co-workers grabbed a bullhorn and climbed atop the bed of a firefighter’s pickup truck to tell their personal stories of how Prop B will affect them.
Cathy Helton, a legal secretary at the Rent Board and a single mother, said that after the cuts City workers agreed to over the last few years, if Prop B passes she simply won’t be able to afford health insurance for her son.
Tedman Lee, an engineer with the City’s Public Utilities Commission, spoke with his two sons, ages 3 and 5, by his side. If Prop B passes, he said, the increased costs will force him to choose between preschool and health care for his boys.
Doretha Evans, a janitor at San Francisco City College, wore an enlarged copy of her paycheck stub around her neck to show she is not one of the $100,000 a year City workers the main stream media loves to deride. “What I want to know is, where’s my other $50,000,” she barked into the bullhorn to the crowd’s laughter and applause.
SEIU 1021’s Chief Elected Officer Sin Yee Poon wrapped up the event noting that San Francisco is a city that supports health care for all and that Prop B cannot be allowed to pass. “This is just the beginning of the fight,” she vowed.
