Woodfin Permit Revocation (video and photos)

A spirited and festive crowd descended upon Emeryville's posh Woodfin Hotel Saturday morning, September 15, 2007. The crowd gathered to announce and symbolically enforce the revocation of the hotel's permit, claiming that the hotel had failed to meet its conditional operating permit by refusing to pay $250,000 in back wages to workers, and a $50,000 fine to the City of Emeryville, the culmination of a lengthy and successful campaign waged by the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE).

The crowd, carrying many colorful signs with clear messages such as, "Pay Your Workers, Not Your Lawyers," marched to the hotel's main entrance chanting, "Boycott the Woodfin!"

Lead by a woman wearing a large paper lock and chains, the group symbolically locked the front doors of the Woodfin.

Hotel manager Hugh MacIntosh immediately came through the doors and began tearing down signs and paper chains which had been taped there. Some demonstrators held bicycle locks in the air to symbolize truly locking the doors. Berkeley City Councilperson Kriss Worthington was present and interceded between hotel representatives and demonstrators as the demonstrators left the entrance, still chanting.

Macintosh told reporters that the demonstrators were, "Insane."

Claiming Measure C was put to the voters as a wage ordinance when "in fact it's a union contract," MacIntosh went on to say, "The city should not be involved in controlling any private businesses in the City of Emeryville."

"There is nothing like this anywhere in the entire country, probably not in the entire world, and we are disputing the constitutionality of the whole of Measure C."

While many passing motorists honked and cheered support for the demonstrators' enforcement of the voter-passed initiative, one motorist in an expensive sports car chided, "Only hippies complain about their wages. Come on, get back to work!"

A Woodfin representative muscled into the demonstrators and wrestled to take signs away from two women. The signs were announcing the permit revocation and the closure of the hotel. After taking their "CLOSED" sign, he tore it up before police.

Demonstrators then picketed on the sidewalk, continuing to make noise with a diverse array of chants. The successful demonstration was organized by the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE).

The EBASE homepage for their Woodfin Suites Campaign is:

http://workingeastbay.org/article.php?list=type&type=44

The Woodfin website did not appear to address the controversy:

http://www.woodfinsuitehotels.com/emeryville/

Controversies and corruption have marked the Hotel's campaign to resist compliance with the popularly adopted law. Urban Habitat reported on the history of the EBASE campaign exposing corruption:

http://urbanhabitat.org/node/986