Feature Archives

On May 23rd, UC Santa Cruz's custodians, part of the union AFSCME, continued their hard-fought wage parity campaign by staging a respectful protest inside Chancellor Denice Denton's Brown Bag event. The workers are frustrated over the Chancellor's lack of support for custodians and their families. While the Chancellor consistently refers to 'market rates' to justify top admin salaries (she earns upwards of $400,000/yr.), she has yet to support custodians whose poverty wages are up to 30% less than neighboring colleges. At the event, AFSCME organizer Julian Posadas announced that some workers were considering a hunger strike and that the Chancellor has June 5th as a deadline to support the workers.

While over 1,700 student petitions were delivered to the Chancellor, showing student solidarity with workers, many students associated with the successful C.A.R.E. (Community and Resource Empowerment) measure from last spring attended to remind the Chancellor of her yet unfulfilled legal commitment to provide the funding she promised for Student Initiated Outreach (SIO) and retention programs. The SIO programs, housed in the student-run Engaging Education (e^2) center, are responsible for the recruitment and retention of thousands of students of color on campus. Yet, when the Chancellor announced that UCSC's class of 2006-2007 was, for the first time in history, majority people of color, she failed to mention the students who are largely responsible for this occurance. Read more and view photos

On May 17th, students, workers and unions were at the UC Regents meeting held at UC San Francisco, primarily in response to University of California's plan to cut workers' pensions. The unions were united and unapologetic, cheering loudly as three California State Senators, including Figeroa (D) and Maldonado (R), called for President Dynes' resignation. ( Audio | Photos)

For the second straight year, anti-nuke/demilitarization activists from around the state disrupted the second day of the UC Regents meeting at UCSF on May 18th. In addition to concerns of corruption on behalf of top UC officials, students continued the decades old tradition of opposition to UC's vital role in the production of weapons of mass destruction. Through it's management of both Los Alamos National Lab and Lawrence Livermore, UC employees have designed every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal. As such, the University of California would be complicit in the event of a nuclear strike on Iran. Read more and view photos.

past coverage: DeNuke UC! -- UCSC Students Rally Against Bechtel and Nuclear Proliferation || UC Regents Ignore Massive Resistance, Vote to Build Nukes

There will be a rally to send a message to owners of businesses like the Si Señor Taqueria that the community will not tolerate the use of immigration status to abuse workers. The rally will take place on Wednesday May 24th at 11:30am, at Si Senor Taqueria, 53 Stevenson St (one block down from Market and 2nd towards Mission, then left on Stevenson).

Sonia Cano and Carlos Barrancos are the couple whose story Indybay covered this winter: Carlos was taken into ICE custody and sent out of state when Sonia was 9 months pregnant with their first child.

Sonia first started working with Young Workers United in June 2004 after she filed a claim against Si Señor, the restaurant where she had worked, with the Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement, which is the agency that enforces the minimum wage of $8.82 for San Francisco. Right before Sonia filed her claim, she told her employer she was three months pregnant. Two days later she was suddenly fired for “indiscipline.” The employer often spoke against pregnant workers, and used racial slurs denigrating workers’ Mayan heritage.

In the following months, YWU, Sonia and Carlos worked to bring together other Si Señor workers to file minimum wage claims and demand respect from the owners. Workers stood up to the owner, demanding a stop to the racial harassment. Seeing the presence of workers organized with YWU, the racial harassment stopped and workers filed minimum wage claims. In direct retaliation for Sonia fighting for her rights and organizing her co-workers, the owners sent an anonymous letter making false and defamatory accusations against the family to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE acted immediately without any investigation, and on December 16th they raided Sonia and Carlos’ home and took Carlos into custody. He was held in Arizona for five weeks. Immediately Carlos began organizing his fellow detainees. He told them not to sign the voluntary deportation forms and to call YWU.

Sonia Cano won the minimum wage case, and this month she settled a claim with Si Señor for charges of discrimination, defamation, and retaliation with firing and sending ICE. Cano stated: "Don’t remain silent. Stand up for your rights and look for support from the community because we all deserve our rights at work."

Young Workers United | Photos and Report from YWU from 5/17 | Women's Employment Rights Clinic

On June 16th, workers at Landmark Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley voted 22 to 2 in favor of unionization with the IWW. Rising tensions at the Shattuck Cinemas over the years have pushed workers to demand an end to unfair working conditions and greater accountability from management.

In many states, moms can be denied a job or given less pay for the same work, just because they're mothers. In a country where the government talks about family values, families are not protected. MoveOn is part of a new campaign called Moms Rising, which aims to collect 50,000 signatures and comments supporting mothers and American families by Mother's Day. MomsRising plans to deliver these comments to people in Congress and begin to build an anchor of support for real family issues. They want to protect mothers from discrimination in hiring, promote the work flexibility that all parents need, demand universal health care, and get a living wage for all Americans so they can support their families.

Moms Rising | MoveOn.org | Read more on Indybay's Women's News Page

A march in solidarity with the workers who were fired from Chevy's was held on Saturday, May 20th. People gathered at 10:00am at Dr. Powers Park in Tracy, and marched several miles to the Tri Valley Shopping Mall, the site of the Chevys. Photos

The Chevys Fresh Mex in Tracy, CA terminated eight employees because of their absence from work on Monday, May 1, after the kitchen crew had handed a signed petition to their employer indicating their desire to support the May 1st march for immigrant rights. Four additional employees have walked out of their jobs in solidarity with their fired coworkers, after their protest of the termination measure was ignored.

Other workers at the restaurant were forced to comply in labor on May 1st, regardless of their desire to participate in the May 1st march. "They all wanted to get that day off. The answer they got was, ‘You guys don’t show up, you’re fired’,” kitchen supervisor Fernando Martinez told the Tracy Press.

Gary Rickles, operations director for Calmex, Inc., is reported to have issued the order that workers marching on May 1st be terminated. Calmex, a Modesto company, owns the Chevys in Tracy, Livermore, Fresno, Clovis, and Merced, and Fuzio pasta restaurants in Fresno and Modesto. More

On Wednesday, March 22nd there will be a rally for affordable health care for Oakland School Employees. Oakland Schools Administrator Randall Ward wants school classified employees, who are the lowest employees in the district, to pay for future increases in their health care. These workers have not been given any pay raises in the last few years. The rally will demand a fair contract and respect from the Oakland Unified School District. People will gather from 4:00 to 5:30pm on Wednesday, at 1025 2nd Avenue in Oakland. Flyer

SEIU Local 790