Western Service Workers Association

Since 2012, the San Diego Workers Benefit Council has led an historic campaign to ensure access to affordable water for low-income workers and to end the shutoffs affecting tens of thousands of San Diego residents. The demands put forward by the Workers Benefit Council are:

1. Maintain the moratorium on water shutoffs statewide

2. Charge no more than 3% of one’s income for water per United Nations recommendation

3. If funding is needed, demand federal funding, which has decreased nearly 75% since 1977, and end corporate welfare

How the campaign began

The magnitude of the problem first came to the attention of the WBC two days before Thanksgiving in 2012. A WSWA member’s water was shut off for non-payment and therefore they could not prepare a holiday meal, despite receiving a turkey and all the fixings as part of WSWA’s supplemental food distribution. A two-day battle ensued. Volunteer advocates worked with the member and successfully got the city to reverse the water shutoff. That advocacy case brought a flood of requests from other members facing similar water payment problems. That year nearly 24,000 households had their water shut off in San Diego alone.

Council takes action

The San Diego Workers Benefit Council decided to take action. At a public hearing on November 15, 2013 dozens of members testified for hours against the city’s proposed 15% rate increase, detailing the harm caused by the city’s policy of shutting off water for lack of affordability, including the written statement from Dr. Anne Kaufhold that detailed the public health danger created by lack of water for sanitation.

Then-Council member Kevin Faulconer justified the need for the rate increase by stating that the water department is millions of dollars in debt to billion-dollar Wall Street bond holders and that if the city did not raise rates, the department’s credit rating would be ruined and the water department financially insolvent.

The fight continued through 2014 and 2015. San Diego WSWA Advisory Committee member Steven Haskins, Esq. and president of the La Jolla Town Council invited WSWA to send delegates to the town’s meeting so the Water Department’s Consumer Advocate could hear about the scourge of water shutoffs. The City of San Diego then announced policy changes in 2016 that included payment extensions, payment plans and waiving of the $65 shutoff fee for low-income customers.

In 2015, as a result of organizing efforts in Northern California and the WBC’s organizing to oppose skyrocketing rate increases for water service, the California legislature passed AB 401, directing the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) to submit a plan for a Low Income Rate Assistance program (LIRA) back to the legislature by February 1, 2018. On August 14, 2017 the WBC organized a delegation of 33 members, volunteers and supporters to press the WBC’s demands for the LIRA to assure affordable, safe, and potable water for all. With no immediate result from the hearing, the WBC organized nearly 2,000 people to send postcards supporting the WBC’s demands.

City agrees to end water shutoffs

WSWA volunteers continued the resolution campaign and advocacy and by 2018, WSWA’s actions contributed to cutting the annual number of water shutoffs in San Diego from 24,000 to 8,564.

After seven years of constant, determined advocacy from the WBC and hundreds whom the WBC organized and inspired to support their demand to stop shutoffs, in 2019 the WBC announced a major victory when the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department (Water Department) ceased all water shutoffs. Numerous City Council members committed to maintaining this policy ongoing, and WSWA volunteers have not received any reports of water shutoffs from members or the public since.

The campaign continues

WBC delegates continue to advocate against the City’s constant proposals to increase water rates, and demand that the city charge no more than 3% of one’s income for water, per United Nations recommendation. Further, if funding is needed, the WBC advocates that the City demand federal funding to cover the needed costs, and end corporate welfare.