It will be a little emptier in San Diego’s Golden Hall on Election Night.
Half of San Diego’s political spectrum is boycotting the downtown locale because of a labor dispute, breaking up the traditional area-wide election party.
Local Democrats will be three blocks west of Golden Hall at the W Hotel, 421 B St., instead. Party Chairman Jess Durfee said Democrats are honoring a labor union boycott of the facility.
Evan McLaughlin, political director of the umbrella group San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, said the local theater and stage union will have a picket line outside Golden Hall to protest a loss of worker benefits and health care after a private contractor began managing the city-owned facility.
The Golden Hall boycott has been ongoing since November 2008, after the last Election Day, McLaughlin said. He added the labor council had notified all candidates who’d sought its endorsement of the boycott, not just Democrats.
“We expect people that support working people will honor that boycott,” McLaughlin said.
— LIAM DILLON