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Labor's Edge Blog Articles
2/22/12
Stand With Golden Gate Bridge Workers
by Tim Paulson
The Golden Gate Bridge is one of America’s most famous icons. However, right now we have a disturbing and heartbreaking situation going on at the bridge.
Over 380 union members who are joined in a coalition of 19 unions have been bargaining for over 10 months without reaching an agreement, and now are down to a fight to keep healthcare affordable for their families. The Golden Gate Bridge General Manager and Board have insisted on concessions to help them out of a short-term budget challenge, while also giving the non-union employees at the District a raise in July of 2011.
2/22/12
LAUSD Budget Proposal Fails to Put Classrooms and Communities First
by David Lyell
With the recent Los Angeles Unified School District/United Teachers Los Angeles agreement to stabilize schools, LAUSD officials embraced a renewed commitment to fixing schools rather than continuing to abdicate that responsibility to outside interests.
Then, they took four steps back by creating a devastating “fiscal stabilization" budget that would decimate communities and educational opportunities. In a small spot of good news, School Board members voted unanimously to delay approving this budget, but they will take the issue back up on March 13.
2/21/12
Workers at SoCal Carwashes Win First Contracts
by Mike Hall
Workers at two more Southern California carwashes won their first contracts with carwash owners after they voted last year to join the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 675.
The workers at Vermont Carwash and Nava’s Carwash in South Los Angeles came together in the CLEAN Carwash Campaign to fight for their rights. The CLEAN Carwash Campaign is a coalition supported by the USW, the AFL-CIO and more than 100 community, faith and labor organizations in Los Angeles.
Today, the carwasheros celebrated their victory at a ceremony with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
2/21/12
Solidarity: The Next Generation
by Niesha Lofing
The goal was to draw attention to a decision in San Jose that could have stripped collective bargaining rights from workers.
So about 25 members of the Next Generation Bay Area group donned zombie gear, marched down to a music event at a city park and held a flash mob. Then they camped overnight in support of workers.
The group has about 50 active members, with 150 more involved via email. They hold at least three events a month not including activities like voter registration drives. They attend alliance events, hold happy hours and raise awareness around social justice issues.
2/16/12
Beverly Nurses Fight for Quality Patient Care, Fair Wages, & Union Protections
by Ken Deitz, RN and Barbara Blake, RN
Beverly Hospital is a community hospital that serves working families in Montebello, Pico Rivera, Monterey Park, El Monte, Whittier, and East Los Angeles. In recent years, the quality of care at Beverly has plummeted. The hospital’s roof is leaking, there isn’t enough medical equipment, and existing equipment is broken. Wages are so low that the hospital can’t keep enough experienced nurses to maintain safe staffing levels as required by state law.
While hospital administrators refuse to invest in Beverly’s staff and equipment, the hospital’s CEO, Gary Kiff, has been getting pay raises and bonuses, now making more than $400k a year. Over the years, Beverly’s Registered Nurses have made repeated individual attempts to speak to management about our concerns – but we have gotten nowhere. We chose to form a union so that we would have a real voice in patient care and working conditions.
2/15/12
Stop the Corporate Power Grab Act
by Brian Brokaw
Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association – who makes his healthy living (last reported to be $300,000 annually) fundraising, concealing, and dispensing special interest money through what the Sacramento Bee calls “a sophisticated series of nonprofit corporations and political action committees” – this week issued a righteous call to “STOP SPECIAL INTEREST MONEY.” How about that?
Of course, anyone who has followed California politics over the last few decades knows that the group founded by the late Jarvis, now led by Coupal, is one of the biggest, most powerful, most-entrenched special interests under the dome. As the Bee’s Dan Morain notes, “[Jarvis] is part of the Republican establishment, almost always aligned with Chamber of Commerce and real estate interests, and often with tobacco, oil, gambling and other big businesses.”
2/14/12
San Diego Activists Commemorate 100-Year Anniversary of the Fight for Free Speech
by Lorena Gonzalez
It started as an organizing drive for the International Workers of the World. But one hundred years ago in San Diego, when the Wobblies took to their soapboxes, it turned into a battle to defend free speech that mobilized thousands across the country.
A city ordinance banned public speaking in a downtown area, and protesters were jailed, beaten, tarred and feathered, tortured and even killed for demanding their right to stand on a soapbox and speak. The fight attracted the likes of Emma Goldman, who was nearly attacked by a mob when she arrived in San Diego, and stretched until legal picketing was finally established three years later.
Free speech itself is on stronger footing today. We've seen across the country and right here in San Diego that the fight for real freedom continues every day. The freedom of earning a living wage and being able to afford a decent place to live as well as the freedom of building a secure retirement and having access to basic health care.
2/13/12
250,000 Sign Petition to Apple to End Slave Conditions at Its Suppliers
by Tula Connell
Outraged at the inhumane treatment of workers in China who make iPads, iPhones and other Apple products, protesters visited a half-dozen Apple stores around the world last week to deliver petitions calling for reforms in the working conditions at factories run by Apple’s suppliers.
According to Democracy Now!, "A demonstration at Apple’s Grand Central Terminal store in New York City drew a dozen people, who peacefully handed over a petition with 250,000 signatures to an Apple store manager. Shelby Knox, the director for Change.org, led the effort to collect the signatures."
2/10/12
Why Some Politicians Like Bad News
by Ben Field
A couple months ago, it came to light that the city of San Jose was overestimating pension costs for the coming fiscal year by more than $50 million. Last week, a report by City Manager Debra Figone revealed that the reserve set aside for next year’s budget shortfall had grown to $22 million, which reduces the deficit to just $3 million, but she and Mayor Chuck Reed continue to represent the shortfall as $25 million. Then on Wednesday, NBC Bay Area investigative reporters showed that the Mayor and others had overstated the city’s projected pension costs by $250 million.
2/10/12
Pacifica Bounces Paychecks and Breaks Promise to Obey Labor Law
by KPFA Worker
Last month, workers around the Pacifica network, including KPFA, deposited their paychecks — and were shocked to have them bounce. KPFA had sufficient funds to cover its payroll, but Pacifica pools the payroll money of its five stations, and did not warn KPFA that whoever deposited their checks last would end up with a bounced check fine.
Stewards from Communications Workers of America Local 9415, which represents KPFA’s union workers, wrote a letter to Pacifica’s Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt and Chief Financial Officer LaVarn Williams reminding them that bouncing paychecks is a crime. (Read entire letter here.)
2/9/12
2012 Building Workforce Partnerships Conference to Focus on Unemployment- Causes, Consequences & Solutions
by Peter Cooper
Every year, the California Labor Federation’s Workforce and Economic Development Program (WED) puts on a multi-day 'Building Workforce Partnerships' conference that highlights new strategies for using high-road partnerships to build the labor movement. This year the conference theme is: “Unemployment in America: Causes, Consequences, Solutions.” The event will be held March 13th-14th at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles.
Anyone with a pulse and half a heart knows that chronic unemployment is tearing our communities and society apart; and we are left wondering, “Has it bottomed out? Is double-digit unemployment the new, accepted norm? How can we come together to help those most hurt and how do we find a way forward?” This year’s conference will tackle these questions head-on.
2/9/12
New Mortgage Settlement Important Step in Holding Banks Accountable
by Art Pulaski
Not only are the big banks responsible for collapsing the housing market, their irresponsible actions led to millions of workers losing their jobs through no fault of their own. And just a few months ago, the banks thought they had a deal that would give them blanket immunity for all their wrongdoing in exchange for just pennies on the dollar for what they owe California families. That would have been a slap in the face to every California family who’s suffered because of the banks’ illegal actions.
Fortunately, our Attorney General, Kamala Harris, resisted that settlement and fought for a better deal for Californians. With the announcement today of the national Attorneys General mortgage settlement, we finally see a critical, real first step in holding the banks accountable for cratering our state’s economy.
2/9/12
Activists “OccuFLY” LAX
by Darren Shiroma
On Monday, February 6, nearly 400 flight attendants from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and local Los Angeles labor activists held a lively demonstration at Los Angeles International Airport. Flight attendants from across the world, aviation and airport employees and trade unionists from Southern California sent a powerful message to the public that workers’ rights are vital to the lifeblood of our great nation. The event, appropriately titled “OccuFLY,” featured inspirational remarks and was a reminder of the power of solidarity.
2/8/12
Unemployment on the Chopping Block
by Manny Herrmann
Unemployment as we know it is on the chopping block.
So-called tea party legislators are trying to punish and humiliate people who are out of work—they’re even threatening to take away unemployment insurance from some people completely.
If you believe Congress should be focusing on jobs instead of punishing and even humiliating people who are out of work through no fault of their own, take action now.