(a) San Francisco is a world-class tourist destination, welcoming more than 24 million visitors annually. The City and County of San Francisco (“City”), acting through the Port Commission (“Port”), owns and operates property along the City’s waterfront, a major tourist hub and destination. The City, acting through the Port, leases its real property along the waterfront and harbor facilities to companies engaged in tourism, and in so doing faces the same risks and liabilities as private businesses participating in management of similar facilities. As a result, the City has an ongoing Proprietary Interest in the management and use of that Port real property and harbor facilities and must make prudent business decisions, as would any private business, to ensure efficient and cost-effective management of its business concerns, and to maximize benefit and minimize risk.
(b) This Article VIII is intended to maximize the returns and minimize the risk to the City’s Proprietary Interest resulting from possible conflict between Employers leasing, and operating Excursion Vessels on, Port property, and Labor Organizations, arising out of union organizing campaigns, labor negotiations, and disruption that may be caused by such conflict. Experience of
public entities and private employers demonstrates that union organizing drives and union efforts to secure representation rights and an initial collective bargaining agreement can deteriorate into protracted and acrimonious conflict. Such conflict threatens the City’s Proprietary Interest when private employers enter into leases to use Port property, and labor conflict could jeopardize base rent payments or rent payments calculated on a percentage of sales. That threat is most acute during the period when a Labor Organization (1) seeks to gain recognition as the collective bargaining representative for Employees and (2) if recognized, seeks a First Contract with the Employer.
(c) The sole purpose of this Article VIII is to protect the City’s Proprietary Interest in the Excursion Vessel Leases. This Article is not enacted to: favor any particular procedure for determining employee preference, or lack of preference, regarding Labor Organization representation, or the outcome of any such procedure; skew such procedures to favor or hinder any party; interfere with the negotiation, terms, or scope of a First Contract, if applicable; or express or implement any generally applicable policy regarding private sector labor/management relations, or regulate those relations in any way.
