Larry Mazzola Jr.

PRESIDENT

United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA) Local 38.

Larry J. Mazzola, Jr. was born and raised in San Francisco. He went to St. Stephen’s grammar school and graduated from Sacred Heart High School and then attended San Mateo Junior College before he completed his UA Local 38 Plumbing Apprenticeship, in 1994.

In addition to being our Council president, Larry is also seasoned public servant who has served as a commissioner on the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission since 2017. He brings extensive executive and financial oversight experience to the Council, currently serving as the business manager and financial secretary treasurer of United Association (UA) Local 38 Plumbers and Pipefitters Union and president of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council.

His background features substantial experience managing large-scale assets, civic infrastructure, and labor forces, including his role as chairman of the UA Local 38 Board of Trustees, where he oversees a $500,000,000 pension fund. Mazzola served as director and vice president of the Treasure Island Development Authority from 2010 to 2017.

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Rudy Gonzalez

SECRETARY–TREASURER

International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local Union 665

Rudy Gonzalez serves as Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council. Born and raised in San Francisco, Gonzalez attended St. Cecilia’s and Archbishop Riordan High School before carrying his first union card at the age of 18 as a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

A lifelong labor organizer and Teamster, Gonzalez came up through the rank and file as a shop steward before volunteering as a member organizer. His early organizing work included campaigns in the South, where he saw firsthand the challenges workers face when they attempt to unionize under hostile conditions.

Rooted in Catholic social teaching and shaped by a deep sense of public service instilled by his father’s lifelong career as a firefighter, Gonzalez found his calling in building worker power, expanding access to family-sustaining careers, and defending the dignity of working people. He later attended the National Labor Leadership Initiative through Cornell University’s ILR School, further deepening his training in labor leadership, strategy, and organizational development.

In 2008, Gonzalez was hired as a full-time Business Representative and Organizer for Teamsters Local 856. In that role, he negotiated private-sector agreements under the NLRA and RLA and public-sector contracts under the MMBA, EERA, and HEERA. He later served as Representative and Organizing Coordinator and was twice elected Vice President. During his time at Local 856, Gonzalez helped lead organizing campaigns that nearly doubled the size and strength of the local union, which has since become the largest Teamster local in Northern California.

In May 2018, Gonzalez was selected by his peers on the San Francisco Labor Council Executive Committee to serve as Interim Executive Director. In August 2018, he was unanimously nominated and elected by Council delegates to a two-year term, becoming the first person of color and the youngest person elected to lead the San Francisco Labor Council in its 125-year history.

At the Labor Council, Gonzalez led the staff team in supporting affiliated unions through political mobilization, contract campaigns, and strategic organizing. Under his leadership, the Council strengthened its finances, hired its first Campaign Director, and rebuilt its political and affiliate support programs. He also oversaw the expansion of We Rise SF, the labor center for immigrant rights, which provides naturalization services and immigration casework for workers and families.

Gonzalez helped unify labor around major citywide wins, including a minimum compensation ordinance for home care workers, a citywide project labor agreement for construction workers, and Proposition F in 2020, a broadly supported business tax reform measure that eliminated San Francisco’s payroll expense tax, expanded relief for small businesses, and shifted the city further toward a gross receipts tax structure.

In 2021, Gonzalez was elected to lead the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council as Secretary-Treasurer. At the Trades, he has focused on protecting union standards, expanding access to apprenticeship, enforcing labor law, and ensuring that public and private investment creates real career pathways for local workers. Under his leadership, affiliated unions won a landmark Community Workforce Agreement with the University of California for the UCSF Parnassus Heights project, securing union work and local labor standards on one of the largest health care construction projects in San Francisco history.

The Council has also advanced new pathways into the trades, including Sistas with Tools, a first-of-its-kind pre-apprenticeship and mentorship program preparing Black and Latina women, women of color, and non-binary workers for union construction careers and leadership. Gonzalez and the Council also sponsored and helped win the Residential Construction Wage Theft Prevention Ordinance, strengthening protections against exploitation in the residential construction sector.

Gonzalez has played a central role in major San Francisco ballot and infrastructure campaigns. He served as a trades leader on the committee for Proposition L in 2022, which extended transportation infrastructure and paratransit funding. In 2024, he led labor support for Proposition A, the $790 million school facilities bond to modernize San Francisco public schools and advance the district’s future central kitchen and student nutrition infrastructure. That same year, he served as Treasurer of the Proposition N campaign, which established the First Responder Student Loan and Training Reimbursement Fund.

Beyond his work at the Council, Gonzalez serves on nonprofit, labor, civic, and public-sector boards focused on economic justice, workforce development, immigrant rights, labor relations, and public service. He lives in Oakland with his wife, Sarah, their three children, and Oliver the Bulldog.

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John Doherty

VICE PRESIDENT FOR SUBCRAFTS

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 6

John Doherty serves as Vice President of the Subcrafts and is the Business Manager-Financial Secretary of IBEW Local 6 in San Francisco. Born and raised in San Francisco, John is a proud first-generation Irish-American and holds a degree from UC Santa Barbara.

John began his career in the electrical industry in 1998 and has been an active member of his local ever since. Over the course of his career, he has served the membership in numerous leadership and educational roles, including as a teacher at the Apprenticeship School, Business Representative, and President. He has been elected to five terms as Business Manager-Financial Secretary of IBEW Local 6.

In addition to his work at Local 6, John serves as a Trustee for the Local 6 Apprenticeship Committee, Health and Welfare Plan, and Pension Plan. He has been active with the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council since 2007, first as a delegate to the Board of Business Representatives, and as Vice President of the Sub Crafts since 2015.

John has also been an active member of the California State Association of Electrical Workers since 2008. He joined the Association’s Executive Board in 2014 and was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the statewide body in 2024.

With deep roots in San Francisco, decades of experience in the electrical industry, and a longstanding commitment to organized labor, John continues to advocate for working people, strong apprenticeship programs, and the proud traditions of the Building Trades.

John now resides in Novato with his wife Shannon and their sons, Conor and Patrick.

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David De La Torre

VICE PRESIDENT FOR BASIC CRAFTS

Laborer’s International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 261

David De La Torre is a third generation Laborer who began his career by joining local 261 in February of 1991. He worked as a general laborer for several general contractors until working for Swinerton Builders, where he worked in several capacities as a general laborer, laborer foreman, assistant superintendent and then as a superintendent.

David’s responsibilities as an officer for Local 261 increased throughout the years. He began as an auditor, executive board member, recording secretary and now as business manager and secretary treasurer. David also sits on other industry related boards. He is the current president of the State of California APRI and Vice President of National APRI. Trustee to the San Mateo Building Trades Council, delegate to the Northern California District Council of Laborers, trustee of the San Mateo Labor Council, Vice President of the San Francisco Building Trades Council and was appointed by Speaker Toni G. Atkins as commissioner to the Contractors’ State Licensing Board (CSLB.)

David’s vision for the Laborers Local 261 in the future is for it to be the model that all local building trade unions emulate by being the most progressive, innovative local union priding itself on member engagement and mobilizing efforts creating greater job opportunities for its membership.

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