On September 24th, 1700 hotel workers in Unite Here! Local 2 and their supporters marched around union square to demand a fair contract with a number of San Francisco hotels. Ninety-two union members and others were arrested for blocking the entrances at the St. Francis Westin and the Grand Hyatt.

Unite Here! Local 2 has been trying to get the hotels to engage in serious negotiations since their contract expired on August 14. Despite the downturn in the economy the hotel industry continues to reap huge profits while proposing the next contract cuts funding for the worker's medical benefits.

Photos | Beyond Chron Report: 1 | 2

Previous Related Indybay Feature: Unite Here! Local 2 and Supporters Rally and March for Fair Contracts on Labor Day

On Thursday, September 24th, actions against the budget cuts, fee hikes, layoffs and furloughs at University of California campuses took place throughout the UC system. Workers, graduate student employees, staff and faculty held a strike, walked out, and demonstrated in defense of public education and fair labor practices.

Under the cover of the summer months, the UC administration pushed through a program of fee increases, enrollment cuts, layoffs, furloughs, and increased class sizes that harms students and jeopardizes the livelihoods of the most vulnerable university employees. According to one analysis, with the next round of proposed fee increases (32% over the next year) UC would be funded more by student tuition than by the state, effectively making it a private university. Even with furloughs going ahead for many UC employees, management is laying off workers, cutting services, and planning to reduce in-state student enrollment to make room for nonresidents.

On September 23rd, students, faculty and staff joined together at the SFCC Mission Campus to speak-out against the massive attacks on education and to encourage organizing in solidarity with the UC statewide strike and a Northern California Educational Workers and Students conference at SFSU on September 26th at the SFSU Student Union. Video

On September 24th on the UC Berkeley campus, the day started with picket lines and teach-outs happening around campus, with a mass rally and march at noon and a general assembly in the evening to plan the next steps forward.

Thousands at labor/student picketlines at California universities | Audio from UC Berkeley Walkout | Reports from around California (and the world) - The UC Walkout | "Solidarity, What Is A Public University" A Poem For The UCB Strike/Walkout | California students and faculty denounce education cuts | UC "Student Leaders" Sabotage Occupation of Wheeler Hall | Blanca Misse UCB UAW-AGSE2865 & SWAT Member Speaks At UCB Strike/Walk-Out | UC Berkeley One Day Mass Walkout & Mass Rally-Workers and Students Speak Out | UC Berkeley Teach-Out Schedule | Poster for UC Berkeley Walkout

On September 24th at the UC Santa Cruz campus, picket lines began at 6am followed by a noon rally and afternoon general assembly at the base of campus. Also, students at UCSC began an occupation of the Graduate Student Commons as part of the day of action at all UCs across the state. The occupation lasted until October 1st.

Walkout and Rallies at UC Santa Cruz | UCSC Students Occupy Graduate Student Commons

Over 1,000 UC San Diego students and supporters walked out, marched and rallied on September 24th, the first day of the fall quarter, to protest tuition increases, pay cuts and furloughs, administration pay raises and privatization of the UC.

UCSD Students Walk Out September 24 | Reports from UC Riverside and UCLA

The Associated Students of the University of California (UC Berkeley Student Government) endorsed the walkout unanimously saying that "Never before has there been such a large-scale single action across all of the UCs. For the first time, we have seen an alliance being built among students, faculty and staff all taking a strong stand against the erosion of the quality, accessibility and affordability of our UC education. United, we are confident that we can fight these budget cuts, oppose the enormous fee increases being proposed, and preserve the excellence of the UC public education system at this very pivotal moment in time."

The September 24 Walkout is supported by the American Association of University Professors, the UC Student Association, the University Professional and Technical Employees and all of the student governing bodies of UC Berkeley. UPTE Strike Announcement

Related: INVITATION - October 24 Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education | UC Walkout: Trapped in a Partisan Cul-de-Sac? | UC Berkeley Is Rising | An Open Letter to UC Graduate Students | UC Faculty Walkout - September 24

Related Indybay Feature: Service Workers Ratify Historic Contract With UC

More than a thousand hotel workers and their supporters marched through downtown San Francisco on Monday, September 7th, to demand a fair contract in their ongoing negotiations with the city's hotels, among them the Hyatt Regency and Le Meridien.

The Unite Here! Local 2 march started at the Embarcadero Hyatt to draw attention to the refusal by Hyatt to allow a fair process that would allow the workers at the Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf to have union representation. The march proceeded to HEI Le Meridien that is also a non-union hotel in the heart of downtown. A major concern of the Local 2 workers is the history of Hyatt in aggressively demanding health care cuts. This is from a company whose president and CEO made $6.7 million last year.

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3

Previous Related Indybay Feature: Local 2 Takes to the Streets for Affordable Health Care and Job Security

Flyers were posted in the windows of San Francisco's 24th Street Real Food grocery store as a reminder that this Labor Day was the 6th anniversary of the store closure that shut down their efforts to join a union and cost all 31 employees their jobs. The "Real Food Company" was a popular community natural food store in the heart of San Francisco's Noe Valley on the main commercial street there, 24th Street.

The store was sold by it's local owners in 2002 to an out of state corporation which, just prior to Labor Day 2003, closed it without warning, which cost all of the store's employees their jobs. The closure shocked Noe Valley residents who had supported The Real Food store for over three decades. According to the corporate owners, a full-scale store remodel was in the works. Terminated employees, however, said that the closure was undertaken to prevent them from joining a union.

After a hearing to determine the facts, the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) in San Francisco found that the workers were fired for attempting to join a union, and that decision was upheld by a second NLRB panel in Washington, D.C. A court appeal was filed by the store's owners. The workers have gone on with their lives, as they await a final court decision.

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On Friday, August 14th, hotel workers from Unite Here Local 2 rallied and marched for a new contract that preserves affordable health care and job security. Contracts covering 9,000 Local 2 members are expiring, and hotel workers are gearing up to fight employer attempts to undermine work and living standards in the San Francisco hotel industry. After years of record profitability, employers in the hotel industry are using the 6-month economic downturn to cut jobs and increase the workload for those who remain.

Local 2 suspects that employers will attempt to undercut the citywide standard for health care coverage. "The most important thing to me in this contract and always is health care," says Aurolyn Rush, a 13-year employee of the Grand Hyatt. "I was diagnosed with cancer twice and if it wasn't for the affordable health care coverage that I receive in our union contracts, I wouldn't have made it this far. Times are tough, but this is a life or death issue for us."

In their 2004-2006 contract negotiations, more than 4,000 Local 2 members endured a 53-day strike and lockout and worked for two years without a contract before reaching the agreement that is now expiring. The hotel workers' 2004-2006 contract campaign included high-profile actions, civil disobedience, and extensive community support.

Read More | Video | Photos | Local 2 Takes to the Streets

On Monday, July 6th, labor activists gathered at Harry Bridges Plaza in the Embarcadero to remember the day, July 5, 1934, when two strikers were gunned down and killed by police. Several hundred union members and their supporters, many from around the world, marched in a reenacted funeral procession of the fallen men, Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise. As the procession passed the memorial at Mission and Steuart Streets, across the street from the site of the deaths, they took off their hats.

On July 9, 1934 a funeral was held for the two slain workers, Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise, their coffins borne on flat bed trucks, led a solemn procession of over forty thousand people up Market Street. This violence against striking workers was the breaking point in a long series waterfront clashes. The subsequent general strike, shut down San Francisco, and crippled the west coast for days.

The result was the creation of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, ILWU, covering the entire west coast. The workers got their union run hiring hall, no more corrupt “shape up,” and workers in general benefited by the example set by the striking dock workers. Workers now had the confidence to join and form unions, and engage in collective bargaining. Catherine Powell, director of the Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University, called this; “A pivotal event in San Francisco and American Labor history, important in part because it came before the Wagner Act, granting the right to collective bargaining.” Read More with Photos

Video: 75th Commemoration of the 1934 San Francisco General Strike-Part 1 | Longshoremen remember 1934 and the death of two that helped make the UNIONS strong in SF | Three Commemoration Events Around 75th Anniversary Of the SF General Strike | Anniversary of a dark day "Bloody Thursday" a turning point in labor history | Wikipedia: 1934 West Coast waterfront strike

Unite Here Local 2 Rally at Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf

Fresno County homecare providers reported scores of incidents of voter intimidation, illegal threats, and ballot manipulation by SEIU staff in an election for workers to quit the scandal-plagued union and join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

SEIU spent an estimated $10 million on attack mailings, robo-calls, TV and radio ads, and 1,000 paid staff flown in from across the country, but failed to win enough support from workers to win the election without breaking the law. Despite SEIU's illegal tactics, just 117 votes could swing the outcome of the election. Based on SEIU’s illegal conduct and flawed decisions by the County election officer, healthcare workers in NUHW will file a legal challenge to the election and not be party to certification of the results.

"SEIU has resorted to behavior worse than we’ve seen from the worst anti-union bosses," said Sal Rosselli, Interim President of NUHW. "They will say or do anything to deny workers a free choice. But healthcare workers have proven today that their movement to take back their union is thriving and has the strength to win."

Read More, Photos, Interview with Homecare Worker | Is Fresno SEIU’s Vietnam? | Fresno County homecare providers expose SEIU’s illegal tactics in illegitimate election | SEIU ran a campaign of threats and intimidation | Top Scab Hang-outs in Fresno | SEIU’s “Shock and Awe” Campaign

June 1st is the first day of a highly contested union election for 10,000 homecare workers in Fresno County who are trying to leave the Washington, D.C.-based SEIU, a union that has been condemned by the AFL-CIO for using violence in inter-union conflicts. The stakes have never been higher for SEIU officials, who are desperately trying to stop a movement of nearly 100,000 healthcare workers in California who are organizing to quit SEIU and join the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

Current and former SEIU organizers have reported SEIU's use of so-called "shock and awe" teams to incite violence, including stalking, threatening and intimidating supporters of opposing unions. With 900 paid SEIU staff from across the country in Fresno County today, workers are worried about a repeat of recent violent attacks.

At an SEIU meeting held on Sunday May 31, SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan encouraged hundreds of SEIU staff to "administer an old-school ass-whipping" to NUHW supporters. "In other words, what we gotta do here, my old-school friends, is we have to administer an old-school ass-whipping over the next two weeks," he said. "I know everybody knows what means. We gotta give a butt-whipping they will never forget," he added. "We gotta put them in the ground and bury them."

Video of the Regan Speech

On May 26th, a delegation of several janitors who were laid off from their jobs at Cisco Systems' corporate headquarters met with San Jose City Council members to share their stories and appeal for the elected officials to reach out to Cisco decision makers on their behalf. The janitors met with staff of City Council members including Madison Nguyen, Ash Kalra, Kansen Chu, and Rose Herrera; and left information for members Nora Campos and Sam Liccardo.

More than 75 vulnerable, low-wage janitors - more than 40% of the total workforce - were laid off by Cisco's contractor ABM in February, despite the tech company's enormous profitability and more than $34 billion in cash assets. Since then, the janitors and hundreds of Silicon Valley community supporters have launched a series of escalating mobilizations to urge the corporation to be a responsible corporate citizen and put the janitors back to work.

The janitors and their community supporters have vowed to continue to their actions to appeal to Cisco to put the wellbeing of hardworking service workers ahead of corporate profits.

Read More With Photos | Massive Protest Decrying Cisco Systems’ Mistreatment of Workers | Justice At Cisco

Previous Indybay Coverage

Local healthcare union activists charge that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is run by unelected, out-of-town bureaucrats who negotiate sweetheart deals behind closed doors with corporate CEOs. Organizers and members of the National Union for Healthcare Workers (NUHW) believe labor unions should be militant, member-driven organizations that fight for better pay and benefits for their members. They are in a David-and-Goliath-like struggle with SEIU (aka Goliath), which has everything money can buy, but NUHW (aka David) has a secret weapon - the support of the workers.

Fresno is ground zero in this struggle over the future of the union movement because more than 10,000 home care workers will vote in June to decide which union will represent them. This is the first major election in the country where workers will get to chose between NUHW and SEIU. The outcome of this election will determine whether home care workers will have a grassroots democratically elected union or one that imposes leadership from the top down.

SEIU, which is based in Washington D.C., took over the local home care workers union in a trusteeship that took place on Jan. 27, 2009. As a result of the trusteeship, the elected leadership of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers-West (SEIU-UHW) was removed, members and their supporters were forced out of their own union hall and SEIU appointed new "leaders" for SEIU-UHW. When the takeover happened, most of the staff of SEIU-UHW left and, along with thousands of healthcare workers, formed NUHW.

Read more and view photos