Feature Archives

United Brotherhood of Carpenters UBC San Francisco Local 22 rank and file members are protesting discrimination and the lack of enforcement of residency hiring agreements. Rank and file carpenters are charging that Bobby Alvarado the head of the Northern California District Council of Carpenters is hiring business agents who have never worked as carpenters and also that these business agents are not enforcing existing contracts and allowing discrimination. Problems facing carpenters have increased as a result of the growing mass unemployment in the construction industry.

On December 4th, over a hundred San Francisco school bus drivers who are members of United Transportation Union (UTU) 1741 picketed and protested the illegal firings and union-busting tactics by Scottish-owned First Student. The company, which recently purchased Laidlaw, is in a war to bust the union by firing bus drivers in violation of their contract and for incidents that have nothing to do with their driving record.

Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) latest scheme to destroy SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West was denounced by Fresno elected officials on Thursday, December 11. Henry R. Perea, chairman of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, exposed the sham election that the International is using to break up SEIU-UHW.

From Chicago IMC: The worker occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Chicago's Goose Island by members of UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America) Local 1110 went into its third day on Sunday, and workers have vowed to continue the occupation until they are paid back pay and benefits, or until the plant is re-opened.

On October 30th, a Halloween-themed rally drew a large crowd of employees to the front doors of the Santa Clara Hyatt hotel where they demonstrated for a fair process to choose a union.  Despite intermittent rain, protestors and their supporters chanted and carried placards in Spanish, English and Tagalog. Some wore masks and doled out tiny Halloween candy treats, mocking management’s attitude toward employees. Hyatt management has continually rejected its workers’ request for the company to stay neutral while workers decide for themselves whether or not to have a union.

The California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA) held a conference in San Francisco on October 13th. CARA unites retired workers and community groups to win social and economic justice. Members of CARA took a bus from the conference on the afternoon of October 13th to demonstrate in solidarity with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union at a Rite Aid store at the corner of Van Ness and Market Streets.

On Saturday. September 27th at 11 am, nearly a hundred workers from local UC campuses, including members of UPTE, converged in the Oakland hills to make pancakes for newly appointed president Mark Yudof at his Oakland Hills mansion on Woodmont Way. They demanded Yudof come out and explain how he intends to end poverty wages at the University of California.