Feature Archives

IWW Curbside Recyclers at the Berkeley Ecology Center won a small, but important victory Friday, January 5 by refusing to let management violate their IWW union contract.

Just 10 days before Christmas, the Woodfin Suites hotel in Emeryville fired 21 immigrant workers who have been involved in a campaign to enforce the city's living wage law. On Friday, December 15th, Woodfin management placed the workers on two weeks suspension with pay and terminated them effective December 29th due to Social Security "no-matches".

On December 18th, dozens of community organizations joined with the workers to announce a boycott of the Woodfin Suites. Photos The workers are seeking an injunction to stop the retaliatory firings. A hearing is scheduled on Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court.

Waterfront union workers marked Martin Luther King's birthday Sunday, January 14th, with a special demonstration starting at Harry Bridges Plaza - then moving on to Hornblower headquarters at Pier 3 and ending at the Alcatraz Ferry, Pier 33. The ten year "exclusive and lucrative Alcatraz ferry contract" was awarded Hornblower Cruises by the Bush Administration last fall and workers have been protesting ever since as Terry MacRae, Hornblower boss, "refuses to hire qualified, trained, professional Inland Boatmen's Union (IBU) and Masters, Mates, and Pilots association (MM&P) workers who have performed this work safely since 1973." Video & Photos

In Sacramento, the UNITE HERE Local 49 "Hotel Workers Rising" campaign, to gain better union contracts for hotel employees, has been escalating this fall. It has gained the support of a large coalition of local clergy, community leaders, elected officials and even some small businesspeople.

On Monday, November 13th hotel workers and their supporters gathered for an evening rally against threatened mass firings at the Woodfin Hotel in Emeryville. Audio Report Woodfin Hotel workers are still demanding what is owed to them under the new living wage law in Emeryville, Measure C, which took effect last December. After the passage of Measure C, the Woodfin Hotel bosses began to claim that many of the workers' social security numbers are "incorrect," and are threatening to fire the workers unless they fix their alleged, unproved worker authorization problems.

At noon on October 18th, 2006, members of AFSCME 3299 and their supporters marched from the Bay Tree Plaza to the base of campus, where a roving picket line was held, followed by a rally. The workers have been engaged in a year-long struggle to receive wages similiar to those of neighboring colleges and universities where people can make up to 30% more for the same (or less) work. Over the summer, the California State Assembly passed legislation funding these wage increases, yet UC President Dynes has been holding the money hostage as a way of forcing union concessions over pension issues. Photos: 1 | 2

Congress has repeatedly failed to bump up the minimum wage and, since 1997, it has remained at $5.15 an hour. Since then, 19 states and three cities have raised base pay rates higher than the federal minimum, while scores more of other cities have enacted living wage laws for government contractors. This November, voters in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio will decide whether or not to raise their own hourly base pay. In Santa Cruz, CA, the year's hottest election issue is Measure G, a city-wide proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.25 an hour.