Savannah Luraya Soto
Candidate for Secretary-Treasurer
Email: savannah@go481.com
Savannah is a workplace advocate and the product of a multi-generation union family.
She built a record of concrete wins largely alone because the Local lacked the infrastructure to step in.
As Secretary-Treasurer, she will turn that ethic into systems: clean books, verified data, a bilingual member portal, and a steward network covering every craft, shift, and site.
Every member will know their rights, know their representative, and receive the same level of service everywhere.
Bio
Savannah most recently served as a Senior Line Cook at the San Diego Zoo. She came to the Zoo as a clerk and worked where she was needed: banquet server, relief lead, and then the line. In under two years she advanced to Senior Line Cook.
She lives in Tijuana and chose the cross-border commute out of financial necessity. She started at $14 an hour with fewer than twenty hours a week and stayed because strong union representation can empower workers. A strong contract can lift wages, stabilize schedules, and move families forward. Savannah brought energy to the kitchen and respect to every station, and she worked to close the distance between classifications. Where people work, there should be community and solidarity.
A record of results
When nobody was listening, Savannah did what workers do: she documented violations, organized quietly, and escalated until the law was followed. Within weeks she ended illegal meal-break practices. She helped win retroactive COVID pay when state rules were misapplied; enforced rest-break scheduling and ended off-the-clock work; and secured proper classification, step progression, and secondary-hours pay.
She supported sexual-harassment investigations that made the workplace safer, helped coworkers obtain ADA and FMLA accommodations, and pressed the employer to retain an outside legal investigator to probe abuse, discrimination, and retaliation.
Why Secretary-Treasurer
Savannah did this work on her own because the Local lacked the infrastructure and know-how to step in. Self-taught and disciplined, she stood with coworkers in solidarity: listening, showing up, and following through. She sees the Secretary-Treasurer’s office as the engine of consistent, accountable representation: disciplined finances, accurate data, open books, and a steward network that covers every craft, shift, and site.
The goal is a Local where members know their rights and their representatives, and receive the same level of service wherever they work, regardless of unit size.
What happened and what comes next
In August, after escalating unresolved safety and rights violations and seeking remedies through the NLRB, Savannah was terminated. She believes the decision was retaliatory. She is grieving the firing, has amended her unfair labor practice charges, and has placed her employer on notice to preserve records while she pursues legal remedy.
As the primary wage earner in her household, she understands economic fear and precarity as lived reality. That is why she is dedicating her time to building a Local that is in touch with San Diego’s working class and delivers for every classification, represented or not.
North Star
Collective power. Collective action. Clean books. Enforceable gains.