Feature Archives

About two years ago, the City and County of San Francisco, and specifically Mayor Newsom, instructed the Department of Public Works (DPW) to establish a new category of laborers to clean city streets. DPW then fired dozens of San Francisco workers, and hired new workers at half the wage. Many of the workers were reinstated, but 11 of them still don't have their jobs back. The laid-off workers and their allies held a week-long hunger strike in front of SF City Hall. It began Monday and ended on Friday, August 25, at 5:00pm. Video & Photos

Landmark Cinema attorney Tom Pavone recently sent a letter to the Industrial Workers of the World, announcing pay raises for Landmark employees nationwide. At Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley, the starting wage will go from $7.25 to $8 per hour, if the workers choose to accept the offer. The IWW-Shattuck union considers this to be "a clear demonstration of union power," and says that it "will continue to press the company for gains in benefits and improvments in working conditions." A rally will be held in front of the Shattuck Cinema on September 1st at 6:30pm.

Members of The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 2 staged a siege, a temporary picket line, on Friday, July 21st, in front of the Hilton Hotel on O'Farrell Street to highlight the fact that the Union's contract with the hotel expired on August 14, 2004. Photos The hotel workers held a march on Thursday, July 27th, at 4:15pm, starting at Union Square. Photos Negotiations with the Multi-Employer Group have started up again. Each UniteHERE local is bargaining for its own contract -- but they strategize together and in that way are trying to offset some of the oligopolistic power of the hotels' Multi-Employer Group.

As part of a "National Week of Action to Stop threats from Bush's National Labor Board on Our Right to Organize," the California Nurses Association marched outside of the Federal Building in downtown Oakland on July 11th. The National Labor Relations Board will rule this summer on cases that could strip hundreds of thousands of workers of their rights under federal labor law. At issue is a revised definition of 'supervisor' which could potentially affect workers in a wide range of industries, including health care, building and construction, energy, broadcast and port shipping, and make them ineligible for union representation.
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For over fifteen years, David Bacon has been a documentary photographer, covering labor movements, immigration, and international politics. His background as a labor organizer with UFW, UEW, ILGW, and other unions, gives Bacon a unique perspective on migration, and the struggle for worker's rights. David Bacon spoke on June 23rd in Watsonville, about his recent book, The Children of NAFTA. Read more, photos and audio

audio (mp3): David Bacon in Watsonville (30 minutes / 28 MB)

see also: Interview with Dr. Ann Lopez NAFTA and Immigration

On Friday June 16th, a teachers’ march in Oaxaca brought out all sectors of civil society in a vast repudiation of the repressive policies of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortíz. The march of as many as 400,000 protesters was a direct response to the brutal police attack on the encampment of striking teachers in the center of the city at dawn on June 14th. In San Francisco, thirty teachers from United Educators of San Francisco and the American Federation of Teachers at City College demonstrated in front of the Mexican Consulate. Photos & Video

On June 6th, communities of color at UC Santa Cruz held multiple rallies and confronted Chancellor Denice Denton to demand concrete infrastructural support for diversity at UCSC. While the University has made a rhetorical commitment to diversity, custodians (who are predominately workers of color) continue to receive up to 30% less in wages than their counterparts at Cabrillo and CSUMB; the University has actively denied institutional support and failed to recognize the centrality of student initiated outreach and retention programs to making diversity viable at UCSC; large numbers of valuable senior faculty of color have been (or may be) forced to resign due to hostile working environments. Administrators and university policies have actively upheld all these problems. Read more

photos: UCSC Charged With Disadvantaging Students, Faculty and Workers of Color || Students & Workers charge institutional racism & sexism; Demand affirmative diversity
video clips: Surprising Denton || Denton giving in to watching the students' skit

see also: Affirmative Diversity Talking Points