On July 2nd, under the close watch of hotel security, more than 300 demonstrators circled the entire front entry access of the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency where they passed out leaflets to hotel guests and visitors. Armed with handouts, banners and placards, protesters called on the hotel giant to treat workers with respect and reiterated that Hyatt employees deserve a fair process to choose a union.

Last month workers at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara publicly announced that they had formed a union committee, asking the Hyatt for a fair process to choose a union, or a card check agreement. A card check agreement is a fair, simple process to choose a union by signing a card; the cards are then counted by a neutral third party to determine if a majority of workers want to have a union. It allows workers to organize while management remains neutral regarding unionization. It is considered less litigious than NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) elections, which often wind up bogged down in years of back-and-forth appeals.

Workers report that Hyatt is retaliating with intimidation, interrogation, and surveillance of its workers. It has also allegedly circulated misinformation about unions to its employees. Many organizations hearing of the hotel's heavy handed tactics came out to support the workers in their plight with UNITE HERE Local 19 at the helm bolstered by SEIU, CWA and other unions. Community organizations from Hip Hop Congress to the Raging Grannies added their voices for justice in the workplace.

Photos: 1 | 2

8,500 University of California workers announced that they will hold a five-day strike at UC’s ten campuses and five medical centers. The strike could begin at anytime, but workers still hope an agreement can be reached. The service workers, who have been negotiating in good faith since August, 2007, voted by 97.5% to authorize the strike in late May. If service workers strike, thousands of medical workers could individually honor the picket lines and not cross it. Negotiations are currently deadlocked.

At issue are poverty wages as low as $10 per hour. Many employees work 2-3 jobs and qualify for public assistance to meet their families’ basic needs. UC wages have fallen dramatically behind other hospitals and California’s community colleges where workers are paid family-sustaining wages that are on average of 25% higher. In addition, when workers have stood up for better lives for their families and better working conditions, the University has retaliated by violating labor laws.

96% of service workers are eligible for at least one of the following forms of public assistance: food stamps, WIC, public housing subsidies and subsidized child care, creating a potential burden for CA taxpayers. Increasing wages would not only help lift workers out of poverty, but could positively impact CA and the low- and moderate-income areas where UC workers live as they contribute more to their local economy. Read More

Actions at Campuses and Medical Centers | Local 3299 website | AFSCME News | Previous Coverage

LaborFest will take place this year between July 15th and July 31st.

LaborFest was established in 1994 to institutionalize the history and culture of working people in an annual labor cultural, film and arts festival. It begins every July 5th, which is the anniversary of the 1934 “Bloody Thursday” event. On that day, two maritime workers Howard Sperry, member of the ILA and George Coundourakis of the Marine Cooks and Stewards were killed by the police attack on strikers and their supporters. This touched off a general strike and led to the complete shutdown of the city. This was one of the most important general strikes in the history of the United States and led to hundreds of thousands of workers joining the trade union movement.

LaborFest Website | Laborfest 2008 Calendar Of Events | All Events On Indybay

Past Indybay Labor Coverage:
2007 | 2006 ( 1 | 2 ) | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

On June 6th, George Blumenthal was inaugurated as the 10th Chancellor of UC Santa Cruz during a ceremony on the East Field overlooking the Monterey Bay. Students and workers, organized through the Student and Worker Coalition for Justice (SWCJ) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), rallied at UCSC, marched to the Chancellor's Inauguration and blocked California Highway One at Mission and Bay during a 10-hour day of action to deliver a loud and clear message -- end poverty wages at the University of California. Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | Video

"As the inauguration activities are occurring, we want our new Chancellor to see all the workers, all the students and our supporters and know we will not back down until we get equal pay for equal work, said Nicolas Gutierrez, Senior Custodian at UCSC, "So many of us are struggling to make ends meet—we can’t afford to wait any longer.”

see also: UC Graduation Speakers to Cancel Statewide Unless 20,000 UC Workers are Guaranteed a Fair Contract || UCSC Inauguration or fenced in Coronation? || Previous Coverage: AFSCME Strike Postponed -- What's Next?

AFSCME Local 3299's strike, planned for June 4 - 5, has been postponed indefinitely. UC hired the infamous anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson, a firm that boasts on their website about their expertise in avoiding unionization and busting unions. Suddenly, UC Executives claimed to have new proposals for AFSCME and asked for negotiations to resume -- even though they already gave AFSCME their "last, best, and final proposal." In the eyes of a Republican-dominated state labor board (Public Employee Relations Board or PERB), these alleged new proposals were enough to overturn AFSCME's right to strike.

Under threat of legal injunctions and unfavorable rulings from PERB, AFSCME was forced to rescind their notification of intent to strike on June 4 - 5. No strike can take place in the remainder of this academic year. This is excellent timing to attempt to demoralize the power of students immediately before the summer.

UCSC is inaugurating its 10th Chancellor on Friday, June 6th at 10am with all eyes aimed on the illustrious world class institution. The UC does not want the stain of students standing up for workers who remain in poverty to precede the image of the regala events with an effective strike—the likes that UC has never seen before, UC-wide. By forcing AFSCME back to the table with these legal technicalities UC is depending upon confusion and frustration to deflate organizing and let the inauguration pomp take place, unheeded. Read More

UC's Coordinated "Return to the Bargaining Table" | WEEK OF ACTION: Fair Contract Now!!! | 96% of UC Service Workers are income eligible for Public Assistance | Know your enemy: About the UC executives | Previous Coverage: 20,000 University of California Workers Vote to STRIKE June 4th and 5th

In a May Day letter, Iraqi oil workers unions called on the executives and shareholders of Chevron, ExxonMobil and other multinational oil companies to end the occupation and stop pushing for the "Iraq Oil Theft Law." This message will be delivered by an alliance of environmental justice, human rights and international solidarity groups converging on Chevron's annual shareholder meeting, Wednesday, May 28th at 7:00AM at Chevron corporate headquarters in San Ramon. Photos

"We call upon the governments, corporations and other institutions behind the ongoing occupation of Iraq to respond to our demands for real democracy, true sovereignty and self-determination, free of all foreign interference," wrote Hassan Juma’a Awad, president of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU).

"Five years of invasion, war and occupation have brought nothing but death, destruction, misery and suffering to our people. In the name of our 'liberation,' more than a million of our citizens have been killed or wounded, our nation’s schools, hospitals and other infrastructure have been destroyed, our neighborhoods have been bombed, our homes have been broken into, our children have been traumatized, many of our family members and neighbors have been assaulted and arrested, our national treasures have been looted, and nearly twenty percent of our people have been turned into refugees." Read more

more information: ActAgainstWar.net || ChevronToxico.com || Protest at Chevron refinery, March 15, 2008

Utah Phillips, a seminal figure in American folk music who performed extensively and tirelessly for audiences on two continents for 38 years, died Friday, May 23rd, 2008, of congestive heart failure in Nevada City, California a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains where he lived for the last 21 years with his wife, Joanna Robinson, a freelance editor.

Born Bruce Duncan Phillips on May 15, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio, he was the son of labor organizers. Whether through this early influence or an early life that was not always tranquil or easy, by his twenties Phillips demonstrated a lifelong concern with the living conditions of working people. He was a proud member of the Industrial Workers of the World, popularly known as "the Wobblies," an organizational artifact of early twentieth-century labor struggles that has seen renewed interest and growth in membership in the last decade, not in small part due to his efforts to popularize it.

Phillips died at home, in bed, in his sleep, next to his wife. Read More | Memorial on 6/01/08

see also: U. Utah Phillips Has Passed Away | A Note From Utah | A short jog through a long memory (UtahPhillips.org) | Utah Phillips Blog || Utah Phillips Live 2004 Performance FRSC Raid Benifit || Amy Goodman interviews Utah Phillips || Utah Phillips Interview with John Malkin || Utah Phillips at the Fiddle Down the FBI Rally, May 2002 || Utah testifies at Judi Bari's trial || Family requests memorial donations to Hospitality House

University of California patient care and service staff announced the results of a statewide strike vote that took place between May 17th and May 22nd. Results were tabulated at midnight on May 22nd, and an overwhelming majority of voters (96.9% of Patient Care staff and 97.5% of Service staff) voted to authorize the strike. The workers gave UC Executives notice that a strike could begin as soon as June 4th for the 20,000 workers at the University's five hospital/ten campus system. However, the workers, who have been negotiating in good faith since August, still hold hope that a strike can be averted.

"I'm striking for my family. It's a shame that I work at a world-renowned University but they aren't paying me enough to support my family, said Rosario Cortes, Senior Custodian at UCSC, "UC has a responsibility to our communities to provide good jobs, starting by agreeing to a minimum wage that would lift many of us out of poverty."

Audio and Photos from UCSC | How UC’s Low Wages Affect Surrounding Communities | AFSCME on Strike: Support Service and Patient Care Workers! | Know your enemy: About the UC executives | A Message for TAs, RAs, and Other Grads: Support UC Service Workers! | Estamos Aquí: Workers Strike Back at UCSC (April 14, 2005)

On May 15th, after months of negotiations, contract talks for more than 6,000 janitors collapsed, as the Bay Area’s largest cleaning companies have been refusing modest pay and benefit improvements to janitors who currently earn $347 a week ($23,000 a year). Silicon Valley now leads the nation in average median income, but the janitors’ wages fall far below their counterparts in other U.S. cities (New York janitors earn $20.25; San Francisco janitors earn $17.05; Chicago janitors earn $14.20; Silicon Valley janitors earn $11.04).

On May 17th, Bay Area janitors voted to strike against the cleaning contractors that work with companies such as HewlettPackard, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Yahoo, Applied Materials, and Intel. On May 21st, over four hundred janitors walked out of a dozen locations in the South Bay. On the second day of the strike, many more janitors walked off their jobs including workers at Standford University . Teamsters have indicated that will not cross picket lines established by striking SEIU janitors. The action could mean that UPS drivers will not be able to deliver packages, city garbage could go uncollected, and construction could be interrupted.

On May 21st, striking janitors staged a morning protest at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting for Intel corporation in Mountain View. SEIU members gave out leaflets to those who invest in Intel. Several janitors and their supporters went into the meetings, where they demanded better pay and benefits from one of the Bay Area's high tech giants. Photos

Janitors in Alameda County Are Granted Sanction to Strike | Day 2: Strike Spreads in Silicon Valley, Bay Area | Day 1: Silicon Valley Janitors Walking Off the Job Today | More Than 300 Labor Unions Across Bay Area Announce Strike Support, Vow to Honor Janitor Picket Lines | Bay Area Janitors Vote Overwhelmingly to Authorize Strike | SEIU United Service Workers West

On the heels of University of California's ongoing executive pay scandals, UC's Administration is once again being denounced for misplaced priorities. For ten months, 20,000 UC medical and service workers have been trying to protect quality patient care and CA communities, reporting that lack of competitive wages is impacting the University's ability to retain its best staff. After ten months of negotiating for equal pay for equal work, they have reached impasse, and the workers announced they will take a strike vote, running from May 17th-May 22nd. A press conference will be held on May 23rd to announce the results.

According to CA State-appointed neutral Factfinder Carol Vendrillo, who independently evaluated the viability of a service workers' labor agreement, "U.C. has demonstrated the ability to increase compensation when it fits with certain priorities without any demonstrable link to a state funding source... It is time for UC to take a broader view of its priorities by honoring the important contribution that service workers make to the U.C. community and compensating them with wages that are in line with the competitive market rate." Read More

What started on May 1, 2006 as some of the largest political demonstrations in U.S. history for immigrants' rights have in 2008 brought together three fronts -- labor, immigrant, and antiwar -- in one struggle for peace and social justice.

The work stoppage at all 29 West Coast ports on May 1, 2008 by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) was an historic turning point for the U.S. labor movement. For the first time in more than seventy years, a major U.S. trade union led marches and a system-wide strike on May Day. And for the first time ever, it was not for economic reasons, but for the political demand to end the disastrous and debilitating U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The work stoppage by 25,000 dockworkers idled towering cranes and closed ports from Seattle to San Diego. Truckers refused to cross picket lines. The backlogged ports handle the steady stream of manufactured goods from off-shored factories in Asia in the new globalized economy. Read More

see also: 40-page Report from Around the World | May Day becomes an annual tradition for immigrant and workers' rights | US-IMC | Indymedia.org

Indybay 2008 May Day Coverage: San Jose: May Day Becomes an Annual Tradition for Immigrant and Workers' Rights || San Francisco State Students Walk Out, Join Workers on May Day || DASW Calls for End to the Targeting of Immigrants and Latinos to Enlist || ILWU Shuts Down All West Coast Ports To Protest War || May Day 2008 Actions in Santa Cruz and Watsonville || May Day Protests in Arcata || Reclaim the Streets In San Francisco || "Reel Work" and Solidarity at 2008 May Day Labor Film Festival || May 1st 2008 Immigrant Rights Marches and Rallies

The All-Alumni Reunion Luncheon held in the College 9/10 multipurpose room at UC Santa Cruz on April 26th was interrupted when students marched in demanding fair contracts for UCSC's underpaid service workers. The luncheon was part of the annual UCSC Reunion Weekend where alumni were invited back to campus to "learn how innovation is going global, sip wine, tour new facilities on campus, explore the "unnatural" history of UCSC, and more..." The brief interruption was widely supported by alumni who clapped, smiled, listened, and took souvenir photos as students passed out flyers, chanted and spoke on stage to inform alumni about the contract campaign for UC service workers.

Since August the UC and the service workers' union, AFSCME Local 3299, have been negotiating a new three-year contract. These negotiations present an important opportunity for workers to receive more recognition for their hard work. While George Blumenthal and other UC executives have declared their support for labor, little has been done to meet the demands of the workers. Read More and View Photos | More Photos

David Sackman comments, "I opened the door. I was the alumnus who opened the door, letting in the protestors supporting the University workers. To answer a previous post: No, it was not planned that way. I have no idea how the organizers of the protest planned it. I just know that I found myself on the wrong side of a picket line. To someone who has been involved in the labor movement since I attended UCSC myself, this was intolerable. So I opened the door, and invited my guests in." Read More

previous actions: Student and Worker Solidarity Kicks Off School Year at UCSC (September 27th, 2007) || UC Workers and Students Picket in Support of AFSCME's Contract Fight (December 6th, 2007) || UCSC Workers Offer New Year Resolutions To Shape Up UC (January 31st, 2008) || Students and Workers Block Road at UCSC to Protest Poverty Wages (February 28th, 2008) || Prospective Students of Color Visit UCSC and Demand a Fair Contract for Workers (April 11th, 2008)

Workers at Lakeside Organics in Watsonville have filed numerous complaints against their employer, including compensation disputes for denied breaks and unpaid overtime totaling more than $10,000, sexual and discriminatory harassment, unsafe working conditions such as employees developing rashes from fertilizers being applied to produce, making employees drink non-potable water "from the hose," overflowing porta-potties that were not cleaned at regular intervals, supervisors drinking on the job and verbally abusing and de-humanizing workers, lack of medical compensation for job related injuries, and "dumping" injured workers.

These complaints were issued in the fall of 2007. Long drawn-out legal efforts to hold Lakeside Organics accountable for their labor abuses have simply highlighted the discrepancy in legal resources between the laborers and the corporation. Traditional legal support systems for migrant laborers such as California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) have been systematically targeted by corporate interests that the government has come to represent. Originally funded via the federal Community Service Agency, CRLA was substantially de-funded during the Reagan administration. During the Clinton administration it was heavily restricted when "Republican [lawmakers] inserted provisions preventing representation of undocumented immigrants and preventing legal aid from collecting attorneys fees". Over the past few years, CRLA has been investigated numerous times for alleged noncompliance with federal funding restrictions, making it difficult for the agency to offer meaningful help in cases where some of the persons making claims may be out of status. Read More

English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers at the San Francisco Institute of English (3301 Balboa St. at 34th Ave.) will go on strike starting Monday, March 17 at 8:30 am to demand livable wages and the return of health care benefits. The teachers have not had a cost-of-living increase to their wages in over 12 years. And in 2004, following changes in Homeland Security procedures that negatively impacted student enrollment, the teachers' health care benefits were taken away with the promise that they would be restored once enrollment returns to pre-September 11, 2001 levels. Enrollment is back up, but the teachers have yet to see their health care returned.

Conditions in the private/non-profit ESL industry have been declining for years, made worse because this sector has traditionally been non-union. Management at the San Francisco Institute of English have refused to negotiate, and the teachers feel like they have no choice but to strike. They are asking the community to support the strike by joining the picket line and by donating to their strike fund.

Read More

On February 28th, UC Santa Cruz workers represented by the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299, and backed by students, demonstrated for justice, dignity and a fair working contract. Over 350 people took part in the largest demonstration of the school year in support of UCSC's most underpaid workers. Instead of making demands outside the Chancellor's office, workers and students got UCSC's attention by lining McLaughlin Drive and twice shutting down Hagar Drive. Students and workers felt empowered by seeing how easily they can bring UCSC to a halt.

Workers are concerned that UC is replacing certain full-time career jobs with un-benefited per diem positions or hiring temporary workers, like registry or travelers, who have little experience working at UC. AFSCME Local 3299 members believe that contracted jobs create a second class of workers at UC, usually with lower wages and benefits. AFSCME Local 3299 members also believe that UC's use of sub-contracted, student, temp, registry workers hurts the ability of all UC workers to provide the best students services. In addition, AFSCME Local 3299 members feel that UC has been taking advantage of working students by hiring them to do the same work as AFSCME Local 3299 members but for less pay and benefits. Read More and View Photos

previous coverage: Student and Worker Solidarity Kicks Off School Year at UCSC (September 28th, 2007) || UC Workers and Students Picket in Support of AFSCME's Contract Fight (December 6th, 2007) || UCSC Workers Offer New Year Resolutions To Shape Up UC (January 31st, 2008)

On February 7th, more than 100 UNITE HERE Local 19 service sector employees and community activists protested across the street from Google Inc. headquarters in Mountain View to support workers' rights. The rally was held adjacent to the site of Google's future four-star hotel and conference center. Despite repeated requests, Google has refused to address concerns about whether future hotel workers will be able to freely choose to join a union.

Speakers at the rally included hotel workers concerned about the impact of a non-union hotel on service workers in the area. Community members voiced concerns that public land receiving public resources should reflect community values, such as the right to a living wage, as Google enters the final stage of negotiations with the City of Mountain View. Read More and Watch a Video | Photos: 1 | 2