Morning Report: SDG&E’s Relationship with Its Union Is Getting Rocky
EM - News Moderator 
For years, SDG&E could usually count on its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 465, to have its back, especially when people pushed for a public takeover of the grid.
But that partnership is showing some cracks.
Here’s why: Tension has been building as the company and the union head toward a big contract negotiation in 2026. Local 465 is upset over recent layoffs, shifting more work to outside contractors, and, most recently, SDG&E’s attempt to stop a small group of workers from unionizing.
That last fight got heated. The union says SDG&E hired a well-known anti-union law firm to challenge a vote by seven employees who wanted to join the union. The two sides later resolved the dispute. But the relationship is now “extremely fractured,” union leaders told our MacKenzie Elmer.
SDG&E says it still values its workers and points out it has helped add about 200 union jobs in the last year and a half. But that may not carry much weight heading into next year’s negotiations.
Environment Report: No One Can Agree on How Much Toxic Gas Is Too Much
Hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas, keeps showing up in the Tijuana River Valley. But what counts as a dangerous amount? Turns out, no one agrees.
For her Environment Report, our MacKenzie Elmer dug through state, federal and scientific guidance and found very different thresholds for dangerous exposure. First of all, hydrogen sulfide isn’t officially regulated. The oil and gas industries pushed Congress to remove it from the EPA’s list of hazardous air pollutants back in the 90s.
County air officials say it’s not their job to interpret the numbers, so they’re leaving it up to the feds. Meanwhile, the EPA’s long-term exposure limit for hydrogen sulfide is pretty low, while the CDC’s is almost 30 times higher. But the CDC plans to use the EPA’s standard while also applying a higher “human equivalent” threshold, which one researcher argues is actually flat-out wrong.
The bottom line: The people in charge of deciding what’s safe still don’t agree.
Read the Environment Report here.
In Other News
- Speaking of air pollutants, the county’s Air Pollution Control District delivered almost 8,000 air purifiers to South Bay residents affected by Tijuana River pollution, but many residents are calling the initiative a “band-aid” and want more permanent solutions. (Union-Tribune) Also: California state agencies and officials, including the Coastal Commission and the California Senate Environmental Quality Committee, will hold a series of meetings in the coming weeks to talk mitigation and funding efforts for the Tijuana sewage crisis.
- The San Diego City Council on Monday unanimously re-elected Councilmember Joe LaCava as Council president for the next year. (KPBS)
- County Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer and Paloma Aguirre will introduce a resolution at Tuesday’s meeting opposing the Trump Administration’s plans to reopen offshore drilling leases along Southern California’s coastline. (CBS 8)
The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.
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