Ben Field resigns from South Bay Labor Council’s top job

Ben Field is leaving Santa Clara County's most influential labor organization after several successes, but his departure comes at a time when the labor movement is divided over a "strong mayor" ballot measure in San Jose.

In a surprise move, Ben Field has announced his resignation as executive director of the South Bay Labor Council after eight years in the job. The departure leaves Santa Clara County’s most influential labor organization with a void at the top less than four months before the general election in November, but Field doesn’t see the timing as a problem.

“I feel the organization is in excellent shape,” said Field, 55, who informed the Labor Council’s Executive Board of his decision at a meeting Monday. “The timing is good for the organization for me to leave, and the timing is good for me and my family, too.”

During Field’s tenure, the Labor Council successfully fought for a minimum wage increase in San Jose; the Opportunity to Work Initiative that provided more hours for workers in San Jose; the $950 million Measure A bond for affordable and homeless housing passed by voters in 2016; and just-cause eviction protection for renters.

“Thousands and thousands of working families are better off today because of Ben’s vision, leadership and hard work,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who was Field’s predecessor as the Labor Council’s executive director.

Field said many of those campaigns focused on systemic changes that the labor movement should be making everywhere, but isn’t. “One of the reasons the labor movement in the South Bay stands out is because we have a long-standing practice of looking to make systemic change that benefits working families and not just helping progressive leaders get elected to office,” he said.

The Fair Elections Initiative, however, was one systemic change that was derailed despite a year of effort by Field and the Labor Council. The proposed ballot measure would have aligned San Jose’s mayoral elections with the Presidential election cycle starting in 2024 and capped campaign contributions from individuals or groups with city contracts of $250,000 or more. After a faulty initial count of a sample of signatures, a court ordered a full count that determined the initiative fell 2,248 signatures short of the 69,024 needed to qualify for the November 2020 ballot.

In a reversal, the San Jose City Council voted 6-5 on July 1 to move forward with a “strong mayor” ballot measure that would also change the date of the next mayoral election while giving Mayor Sam Liccardo an extra two years in office. The measure has divided labor leaders, with some wanting the key elements of Fair Elections Initiative to move forward and others resisting the “strong mayor” proposal.

“There are strong opinions on both sides. However, the division in labor over that measure is not the reason I’m leaving,” Field said. “There have been divisions in the house of labor before and we have always gotten through and maintained the solidarity of the labor movement.”

Field, a former Santa Clara County prosecutor, joined the Labor Council in 2009 as its chief of staff. He took the top job when Chavez stepped down from the executive director’s role in December 2012 — a planned move she had told the Labor Council’s executive board about months earlier. The announcement was delayed, however, because Chavez said at the time that she didn’t want to create a distraction during campaign season. Clearly, that wasn’t a consideration this time around.

Unlike 2016, when the Labor Council was involved in several races and ballot measures, Field said there are only three major campaigns — the San Jose City Council races for districts 4 and 6 and the District 15 state senate race — on the council’s plate in November.

Field has no immediate plans for his next move and told the Labor Council’s executive board he’s willing to stay on through at least the end of the summer to ensure a smooth transition. He does, however, already have thoughts on who should replace him.

“It’s important that people in positions like mine look for opportunities — particularly in this moment when we are experiencing unrest — to promote the leadership of women and people of color,” he said, noting that the organization’s previous three leaders before him — Chavez, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and Amy Dean — were women, including two of color. “I urge the Labor Council to continue that history.”