Labor Council to Sever Ties With United Way

The San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, unhappy with where some of its union members’ donations to the United Way could be going, Thursday announced it will sever a decades-old cooperative agreement with the umbrella charity.

The United Way of San Diego, which collected $24 million last year in its annual drive, recently decided to enforce a rule against accepting earmarked donations when it feels the designation of specific charities was brought on by some form of promotional campaign.

United Way President James Greene called the move a response to unspecificied earmarking in the last campaign. But Joseph S. Francis, executive secretary-treasurer of the labor council, said the new policy was prompted by his group’s stated reluctance to encourage contributions that would benefit the Assn. for Retarded Citizens-San Diego.

The Assn. of Retarded Citizens has 600 employees in five locations around the county and is one of the 91 planned beneficiaries of this year’s United Way-Combined Health Agencies Drive, slated to begin next month. ARC attorney Michael Johnson confirmed that the nonprofit training, housing and job-placement group has distributed a memo to its workers discouraging them from joining Service Employees International Union, Local 535.

Francis said the council, which represents more than 100 area locals affiliated with the AFL-CIO, has generally supported United Way efforts. But, since the ARC action, the council has been asking United Way beneficiaries to sign a “memorandum of understanding”-- agreeing to remain neutral in organizing efforts and to purchase and contract for union goods and services, among other things. So far, seven agencies have signed, he said.

Despite the United Way’s stance against campaigning for “positive” or “negative” designations of charity recipients, the labor council wants its members to indicate that their money should not go to ARC. Francis and Tom Vandeveld, president of the 12,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 135, said they will keep laborers informed of which agencies have signed the strong union-rights memo.

Francis said union members have been responsible for about half of United Way donations here, although Greene dismissed that estimate as guesswork.

If the United Way carries through on not accepting earmarked donations, Francis said, the unions would seek to give the money directly to groups signing the union-rights memo. He said the council’s board has been authorized by the membership to seek legal advice about suing to force a change in the United Way’s designation-campaign policy.