Category: Labor

Hello again! Thanks for following me last week with a departure guest entry, I hope it was as well-received as it was deserving. This week I’m going back to my own idea bin, and I’ve got a video that, even though you might not dig the music, provides an awesome slide show to check out.

Yesterday, a bright, sunny Sunday, I hopped on the trolley to 25th and Commercial and made my way to Chicano Park to join the festivities celebrating International Workers Day in San Diego. I was greeted by the sound of music from the awesome mariachi band who were entertaining the crowd from the stage. I’m sorry to say that my spanish is lousy, but as a middle-aged gringa who has lived her whole life in San Diego, mariachi has long been a favorite music style for me.

There were several hundred people in Chicano Park (I later heard an estimate of about 400, and I agree on that count), where people gathered for games, face painting, music and the playground equipment was packed with kids.

A couple of weeks ago local Republicans held their unity night at the Kona Kai Resort where notables such as Jerry Sanders and Kevin Faulconer cheered as Carl DeMaio asked if they were ready to make San Diego “the Wisconsin of the West.” They, along with the Chamber of Commerce, the Taxpayers Association, the Lincoln Club and other luminaries of the local right were getting fired up and ready to go for a ballot initiative that would undermine collective bargaining rights for unionized public sector workers in San Diego.

Stand in solidarity with the workers of the world and demand respect for the rights of all workers on May 1, International Workers’ Day!

With unemployment still at record highs, and with union membership at record lows, it’s time for working people to take a moment, and contemplate what this day really means. We have published articles on May Day in the past and they are more relevant today than ever. With the anti-labor sentiment that is rocking our country it is important to stand together and be heard.

There are a few May Day events taking place in San Diego on Sunday, May 1. The participants at each event will march together to meet at Civic Center Plaza at 3 p.m. to hold a May Day Rally. Please feel free to attend an earlier event (see the full post for info) or join us at Civic Center Plaza for the closing rally and action.

Jim Miller is a professor who practices what he teaches.

Each semester, Miller guides dozens of students through his English and Labor Studies classes at San Diego City College. He has played key roles in literary projects such as the school’s International Book Fair as well as the San Diego Writers Collective. He serves as a political action vice president and does community outreach for the American Federation of Teachers Local #1931.

And as if he wasn’t busy enough already, Miller also finds the time to crank out the occasional book.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the end of the March for California’s Future, a 48 day, 352-mile march through the Central Valley to the State Capitol. There, on a rainy day in Sacramento, I was one of many union folks, students, and religious and community leaders who spoke to a crowd of thousands gathered to protest the ever-more draconian cuts to education and social services.

All the way from Los Angeles to Sacramento we carried the message that California needs a government and economy that works for everyone, not just the rich.

The Friends of the OB Library met on Tuesday, April 19th. The current chair – George Murphy – has reported to us that the meeting had the largest attendance that he’d ever experienced. The group was riled up because of the draconic library closures and staff cuts proposed – once again – by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders in his latest budget presented to the City Council.

Apparently, the Friends are mobilizing to prevent these proposals and have put together the following plan of action

A recent statewide poll, commissioned by the California Federation of Teachers, finds a solid majority of likely voters in California have a favorable opinion of public employees and support their right to engage in collective bargaining.

From the CFT’s press release:

In the aftermath of major demonstrations by labor unions on Monday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death and to bring attention to working families, the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) today released new polling results showing that 56% of California voters have a favorable view of public employees and 61% support their right to bargain together.

by Jim Miller

These are grim times. The worst are full of passionate intensity and the best lack all conviction. The Democrats at the state and national levels seem ready to embrace economic scarcity and budget cutting as the “new normal” while the right smells blood in the water and is going in for the kill on collective bargaining rights, women’s rights, environmental regulations, funding for education, and long untouchable social programs. While the Democrats play prevent defense, the corporate-funded right is going for it all, working to change the rules of the game permanently, short-term costs be damned.

I ain’t gonna piss in no jar
You know Foghorn Leghorn wouldn’t pee in no jar. You
know Patrick Henry didn’t “Give
me liberty or give me a urine sample.”
~Mojo Nixon, I Ain’t Gonna Piss in No Jar

Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott has decreed through executive order that drug tests will be mandatory for all state workers.

Potential effects of shutdown

National Parks —- Likely to be closed.
Social Security —- Checks will be mailed out, although new claims may not be processed.
Border Patrol —- Deemed an essential service and will continue.
Air travel —- Air traffic control is essential; flights should not be affected.
IRS —- This agency will shut down in the middle of tax season. Tax refund checks won’t be issued.
Military —- Thousands of military members based in San Diego could go without pay temporarily federal officials said Wednesday.

Paul LePage, the recently elected Tea Party governor of Maine, decided a few weeks ago that a mural in the…