LABOR: HERE on Strike

It should be obvious that after 20 years and no contract that the endorsement of the Democrats does not do you any good. In fact, Democrat Willie Brown is viciously anti-labor, as exemplified in his refusal to support a decent living wage ($20 per hour, not $9 per hour), his vicious attacks on tenants who are by definition the overwhelming majority of the workingclass of San Francisco as Willie Brown is a landlord/real estate attorney which is how he became a millionaire, and all his other anti-labor actions, including election fraud to return him to office, where he now sits with 40% of the vote plus election fraud. He committed exactly that same election fraud in the 49er Stadium Swindle election of June 3, 1997, wherein we voted 70% No on the swindle and the registrar changed it to 50.2% "yes." For more on that election fraud, see http://www.brasscheck.com/stadium

To win any union organizing battle, you must expand it. Shut down all the union hotels, and if necessary, all other union establishments, including government offices. The struggle is always an injury to one is an injury to all. When all the union hotels are shut down, you can then have mass picket lines outside that Marriott 24 hours a day. I can assure you, that union contract will be signed very fast, probably within 24 hours of such a citywide strike.

If you finally realize that the Democrats cannot deliver the union contract to labor because it is a capitalist party and therefore anti-labor by definition, join Peace & Freedom Party now. We support the above type of strategy and the union organizing of all workers, including the workers at Marriott. We are always for labor, peace, the environment, tenants, gay rights, women's rights, all other civil rights, and socialism. Just check "other" on your voter registration form and write in "Peace & Freedom Party." For more information, see http://www.peaceandfreedom.org

At the risk of making too narrow a commentary, this "living wage" issue is bullshit. If Brown, bastard that he is, refuses to jack up the socialist minimum wage laws, good!

I'm not disputing that it's impossible to live in SF on $9/hr.. nor am I agreeing with it, as I simply have no good information on that question. But the question doesn't matter! It's a diversion - an invitation to an irrelevant argument.

If you can't live on $9hr, then find a better-paying job or move somewhere else. That's the harsh reality. No one *owes* you a living. You freely trade an agreed-upon amonut of your time and skills with your employer, who freely trades his an agreed-upon sum of his money. If you don't like the amount, he ain't holding a gun to your head.

What's a job worth? That's hard to say.. what's it worth to you? If that's more than he's willing to pay you, you're free to quit.

"Living wage" laws are just another form of welfare for people who like to pretend self sufficiency. Everyone wants to live out here, that's why it's so crowded and competition is so fierce. Next you'll want "wage cap" laws, prohibiting employers from paying MORE than $X just because you want a house in Los Gatos and can't afford to pay what some engineer can.

Move back in with mommy and daddy, if you can't survive in the real world.

*Sj, insensitive bastard

While I agree with the idea of a general strike to win labor disputes such as HERE local 2's with Marriott, getting the other hotel unions or any of the other unions in the city for that matter to go out on a sympathy strike hasn't been legally possible for several years (Taft-Hartley). Sure, you could strike and say fuck the law, but that means you no longer have a contract as you would have breached it, thus allowing the employer to file charges against the union and individual workers and in the end, fire them and replace them. That's not even taking into account the plain fact that the powers that be, with the help of the police, would beat your ass silly and maybe even kill you and all your co-workers. So call me a pessimist, but I don't see Marriott signing shit 'cause they'll just call in the police and then what are you going to do? Convince them to be nice and let you shut the city down? There is nowhere near enough labor power, let alone solidarity, yet in this or any other city in the US to even initiate a general strike, let alone a successful one. I just think it's more than a bit naive to just say, "oh, we should just have a general strike to resolve this." The truth is that it would be crushed violently and viciously.

And to the individualist who thinks people should "just get better jobs" who has nothing constructive to add, I'll just say that you're right about not being forced to take that job, but you do have to take *some* job, somewhere. It's called wage slavery and the only difference between it and slavery of yesteryear is that you have the right to quit. We've sure come a long way haven't we?

General strikes do not just happen. The 1934 SF General Strike did not just happen. It took massive organization. However, the issue must be raised. Clearly, the strategy of chasing after Democrats does not work. A union town is not built by chasing after a capitalist thug party, commonly known as the Democrats. It is built by organizing the unorganized. There are a lot more hotels in San Francisco than are on the union hotel list. All of those hotels should be subject to union organizing drives. Most restaurants in San Francisco are now non-union, and that includes Chinatown, and most restaurants are not run by members of a family; they hire labor. Then there is the entire Financial District, filled with non-union offices and other types of businesses. Outside of the public sector, labor is very weak in San Francisco and the Marriott management knows it. Even within the public sector, labor is quite weak. If all labor could get was $9 per hour for the low-wage level workers in the public sector in the most expensive city in the US, that is not only pathetic, that is an insult. As to the anti-labor laws, they are only as strong as labor is weak. With a serious labor organizing drive, ignoring those laws would be quite easy, and the 1800 members of the San Francisco police department are no match for hundreds of thousands of organized workers. The employer only throws their armed goons at labor when they think they can defeat labor. Bullies are the biggest cowards, and do not try to take on a force that is bigger than they are. They know very well that labor creates all wealth.

We are in a labor era now, where the choice labor faces is fight or starve. The younger generation understands this because this society offers them absolutely nothing. The wages do not begin to pay the rent, the schools do not provide much education, there is less and less opportunity to advance economically, and the low-wage jobs provide no medical plan, no vacation, no sick leave and no pension.

The youth are the future, and it is for them I write and to them I speak. They must and are picking up the banner of struggle and carrying it forward. Front and center on that banner must be labor organizing.