Feature Archives

Every Saturday in Oakland is "supermarket Saturday," where Oakland Education Association union members and allies go out to major supermarkets in Oakland and spend the day handing out information about their contract. Oakland's teachers have been working for more than a year and a half without a contract. 30% of Oakland's teachers leave the school system every year. This is seen as one of the most significant factors that lead to a destabilized learning environment that drives 73 of 100 African American students out of the Oakland schools before graduation.

The OEA and the district left the negotiating table on January 31st. The OEA could hold a strike vote at its February 21st members meeting if the school district has not offered what the union considers a fair contract with salary increases (in addition to restoration of the 4% of their pay that was cut in 2004) for the teachers. No new talks are currently scheduled, but the teachers have indicated that they do not want to strike. The school district is advertising on Craig's List to try to find replacement teachers (scabs) in the event that the teachers do strike. An OEA official reportedly said, "It would be an unsafe position for parents to send their kids to school in the event of strike." The district replied that it would be safer for kids to be in school where they would be "supervised," although it is unclear how many strikebreakers the district can find to work. 2/1 Report from OUSD's Scab Hiring Hall

Indybay's 1/27 Story About the OEA | OEA website | Oakland Unified School District

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the 1946 Oakland General strike. To commemorate, a presentation of the '46 Oakland strike will be presented by Gifford Hartman--along with Chris Carlsson's description and analysis of the 1934 San Francisco General Strike. These descriptions and analyses will be followed by a discussion. Details

The December 1946 Oakland General Strike was sparked into action when streetcar drivers refused to cross a police cordon herding scab trucks to unload goods at a two department stores. Spontaneously, the strike spread and eventually involved nearly 130,000 workers, from 142 AFL unions, and it shut down all public transit and nearly all commerce in the East Bay. Block committees were organized, bars were allowed to stay open on the condition that they only sold beer and turned their jukeboxes out onto the street, and the streets were packed with strikers dancing and singing. Some called it a “work holiday.”
Read More | People's History | LaborNet | Oakland Museum

On July 5, 1934 police attacked striking longshore workers on the San Francisco waterfront. Nick Bordoise and Howard Sperry were killed and 109 people were wounded, in what came to be known as the Battle of Rincon Hill. San Francisco labor countered with a general strike lasting four days.
Read More | ILWU History | Wikipedia | San Francisco and the General Strike | SF Museum: 1 | 2 | Bay Guardian: Striking Back

The Twentieth Annual Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival, honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s contribution to the civil rights and labor movements, will be held January 13th through 15th, 2006 at the Union Halls of the Machinists Local 1781, Plumbers Local 467, and Transport Workers Local 505, at 1511 Rollins Road in Burlingame. The Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival has become a Northern California tradition. Union artists, activists and supporters come together to celebrate the diverse culture of the labor movement.

The weekend of solidarity will include music, drama, visual arts, spoken word, poetry, photography and more. The event kicks off with a Friday evening Song, Story, and Poetry Circle and features Workshops and Presentations, a Sunday Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a Benefit Concert Sunday evening at 7 pm. The topics of the workshops will range from graphic arts, creating bumperstickers, anti-war activism, and using humor in songs and organizing. There will also be a discussion called "New Directions for Labor." The Sunday benefit concert will raise funds for needy workers. Flyer and registration form

December 22nd Update: New York City's three-day mass transit strike ended today when union leaders, facing mounting fines and threatened jail terms, voted to return their 33,000 members to work without a new contract. Read more No agreement has yet been made about the MTA's proposal to raise contributions to the pension plan for new workers from 2 percent to 6 percent.

New York City’s 34,000 bus and subway workers defied threats of fines and imprisonment and walked off the job at 3:00 a.m. Tuesday morning December 20th. Their union, the Transport Workers Union Local 100, rejected the demands of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for sweeping concessions on pensions, health care and working conditions. This strike is the first to shut down the city’s mass transit system in 25 years.

This struggle has pitted transit workers in a direct confrontation not only with the MTA, but with the state and city governments, the Democratic and Republican parties, and New York’s ruling establishment of Wall Street financiers and corporate CEOs. It also pits them against the trade union bureaucracy. The president of Local 100’s parent union intervened after the breakdown of negations to urge that the MTA’s offer be accepted and warn that the strike would receive no support from the international union. Under New York State’s anti-labor Taylor Law, workers face the prospect of being fined two days’ pay for every day on the picket line, while threats have been made to arrest union leaders and possibly striking workers themselves for defying a court injunction.

After the walkout,the MTA Chairman said that he and the state’s attorney general would go to court immediately seeking contempt rulings. The city administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg said before the strike that it would be in court seeking additional astronomical fines of $25,000 the first day of the strike for each individual worker, to be doubled each day thereafter. The city was granted a $1 million fine against the union per day. More militant parts of the labor movement say that AFSCME union leadership, if not the AFL-CIO, should call an immediate general strike in New York City in support of the transit workers, and at the very least demand the fines be revoked. Updates on New York Indymedia

TWU Local 100 Blog | New York City transit workers defy threats and strike | New York City Transit Workers on Brink | The political issues confronting New York City transit workers | Transit dispute exposes NYC's Class Divide | NEFAC Article About the Strike | Another Opportunity To Halt The Employers’ Offensive Arises | A new stage in the class struggle | “Today’s strike is for all working people” | New York transit strikers confront escalating attacks | “Bloomberg and his friends are the thugs, not us” | Behind the media onslaught on the transit workers | Mayor denounces “selfish” transit workers | The sudden end of the New York transit strike
Democracy Now Reports: 1 | 2 | 3

A labor event took place at the First Unitarian Church in Oakland on December 6th, as a way of observing International Human Rights Day. Beginning at 5:30pm, workers from East Bay organizing drives spoke about how their rights have been violated. At 6:45, there was a march to the Oakland City Council in support of Comcast workers. The council is considering an ordinance to protect workers' rights. Despite protections in U.S. labor law and the International Declaration of Human Rights, workers organizing on the job are routinely intimidated, harassed, and fired. More Bay Area events during the week of International Human Rights Day

Alameda Labor Council website | More info about International Human Rights Day and violations of workers' rights | IHRD Flyer | More events on December 10th

William Mendoza, who is a Coca-Cola worker and Vice President of SINALTRAINAL (Food and Beverage Workers' Union) in Colombia and Amit Srivastava, Coordinator of India Resource Center, will be speaking on Monday, November 14th from 12pm to 2pm at San Francisco State University, and from 7pm to 9pm at UC Berkeley. They will speak about the growing campaign against the Coca-Cola company for its violations of human rights, workers’ rights, and the environment in Colombia, India and globally. Details

On Friday, November 18th, a protest will be held at the entrance of the "World of Coca-Cola" in Atlanta, Georgia. An international movement for justice and human rights will come together to expose the Coca-Cola Company for murder, torture, pollution, and union-busting throughout the world. At 12pm there will be a rally and press conference with William Mendoza. Mendoza has been on a national speaking tour with United Students Against Sweatshops. This protest comes at the beginning of a weekend of actions in Fort Benning, Georgia to demand the closure of the School of the Americas.

Organizers say that they believe that they are at a turning point in the campaign to hold Coke accountable for violence in Colombia, India, Turkey, Indonesia and Guatemala. Activists say that Coke has been trying to discredit the union SINALTRAINAL in Colombia and grassroots movements in India and elswhere, and also to deflate the global student movement. Since 1986, roughly 4,000 Colombian trade unionists have been murdered. Most of these murders have been committed by right-wing paramilitary groups, known as death squads, on an ideological mission to destroy the labor movement. These groups often work in collaboration with the U.S.- supported Colombian military, and in some instances with managers at plants producing for multinational corporations. In the case of Coca-Cola, the company and its business partners have turned a blind eye to, financially supported, and actively colluded with paramilitary groups in efforts to destroy workers' attempts to organize unions and bargain collectively.

Read more about Coke and its abuses in Colombia and other countries | Past Indybay Coverage of Struggles Against Coke

USAS's Coca-Cola Page and Organizing Resources | India Resource Center

11/9 Update: This initiative was soundly rejected by California voters, as were the governor's other propositions.
On November 8, California voters will go to the polls to vote on the “Union Paycheck Initiative” (Proposition 75). If passed, Proposition 75 will require public employee unions to secure the annual written consent of each member prior to using any portion of that member’s dues money or fees to support political campaigns.
It will also mandate that the unions keep a record of every member’s decision as to which political campaigns he or she is willing to support. If asked, the unions will be obligated to turn over those records to the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state government body that oversees campaign financing.
Proposition 75 is one of eight initiatives being voted on as part of the Special Election called by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this year.
The Union Paycheck Initiative is backed by the California Republican Party, far-right anti-tax groups, large sections of big business in California, the US Chamber of Commerce, and most recently, Governor Schwarzenegger. Through an umbrella organization known as the Alliance for a Better California (ABC), the Democrats and the public employee unions are waging a $40 million media campaign against Proposition 75.
The most recent polls, which were released in mid-October, reported that an even percentage of voters, 46 percent, supported and opposed the measure.
Read More | Buy Blue: California Special Election Prop 75 Analysis | Photos: Protesting Arnold in Fresno