Jacobins armed with baguettes, pots and pans and cymbals formed a gauntlet outside San Francisco's Palace Hotel to greet socialite guests in formal attire making a beeline for the caviar bar through Local-2 picket lines. The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra honored the picket lines, but the benefit/auction event went forward. Locked out Local 2 banquet waiters who have worked this event in past years and community supporters gave the scab guests the welcome they deserved. Video

Upcoming picket actions supporting hotel worker's fight for healthcare and bargaining power include a rally on Nov. 20, 11 a.m., at Union Square and the weekly flying pickets held every Sunday evening at 7 p.m.

The Sheraton Palace Hotel, originally a haven of black employment, kicked out its black workers en masse in the late 1880s after pressure from white unions. In the early 1960s, a years-long civil rights campaign involving sit-ins, court injunctions and hundreds of arrests eventually forced the Palace Hotel to de-segregate.