The membership of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO, last night unanimously voted to oppose a ballot initiative that would destroy maritime industry at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal.
The campaign to defeat the measure will be one of the Labor Council’s top priorities in this fall’s elections, according to Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Lorena Gonzalez.
“These are some of the last good, blue-collar, middle-class jobs left in our region,” said Gonzalez. “The 120,000 working families of the Labor Council are outraged that a private developer is pushing a misleading plan that is destructive to the region’s working waterfront.”
San Diego Bay’s working waterfront provides the region with 42,000 jobs and adds an economic impact of $7.6 billion annually to the region.
The initiative, which will be placed on the Nov. 4 ballots of residents in San Diego, Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach and Coronado, would change the Port’s master plan to allow for the redevelopment of the 10th Avenue Terminal for private use.
The plan would allow for private building on a deck constructed on top of the terminal, and would reduce the region’s ability ensure both business growth and port security.
“This isn’t under-utilized land in desperate need of redevelopment,” said Gonzalez. “It is a valuable part of our economy. From the banana you eat for breakfast to the cement used to make the sidewalk below you, there is a good chance that every day you use a product that came through the 10th Avenue Terminal.”
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