working through that and through all that tunnel work, and i've become active in my local union hall, and then i grew and i was chosen as a field rep, i always had heche hechy here and what you bring to the counties and how you work in the city. so pretty quick, i started getting on work force development boards and then we started seeing the opportunities for trainings and collaboratives and valerie come up and brought her crew and we started working on collaboratives in regard to an all-woman cohort, which just went crazy. all of the 12 women, 10 went to work and probably 6 are still working. and then went into another cohort and there's success story after success story. oscar runs northern california. he brought how you work with the city, the community, and my job in my heart, i always like to see people go to work because i know how i felt when i got to go to work. so when i had the opportunity to put these people to work, i got paid to do that. it was like -- can you believe -- you have a job that you like and you get to put people to work. it was a beautiful way to end my care

unions. melissa k kpix 5. >>> we continue our team coverage from san francisco city hall with a closer look this is having on state and local politics. >> reporter: there is a reason that the governor signed those bills, trying to tighten up for those opting out. one of them is the unions are one of the biggest power sources in the state. a lot of that goes to democrat up in sacramento and here at city halls across the bay area. let's take a look. whether it is teachers for gavin newsom for governor or firefighters helping candidates for state treasurer, public employee unions are some of the biggest players in the state of california. look at the numbers. between 2012 and 2017 the california teachers association gave $90 million to various candidates and causes. the california nurses association gave $8 million. the service employees international union gave $7 million. critics say that with money comes power. >> they probably of the biggest source of donations to the democratic party. >> reporter: unions lay big and local politics is will. for example, the firefighter union's political action committee spent over $800,000