Are you looking to put your writing skills to use to fundraise for social and economic justice? EBASE might have the perfect position for you.
We are looking for a Grants Coordinator to lead fundraising for our $1 million budget, working closely with the Executive Director. Some of the main responsibilities include:
Managing relationships with approximately 30 grant funders
Maintaining tracking systems
Preparing grant proposals, budgets and reports.
We offer an excellent compensation and benefits package. Position is full-time although highly experienced part-time candidates may be considered.
Qualifications: At least 3 years experience with grant fundraising and a track record of success. Demonstrated commitment to economic and social justice, and enthusiasm for mission of EBASE.
Interested in applying?Click here for the full job announcement and application instructions.
Great news for the fight for good jobs and clean air at the Port of Oakland!
What happened? Last Thursday, a district court judge in California ruled in favor of the Los Angeles
Clean Truck program. This removes the legal hurdles keeping the Port of
Los Angeles from enforcing all provisions of one of the most effective
diesel reduction programs in the country!
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the author of the Clean Ports Act of 2010,
called the ruling a "very welcome development" in the "longstanding
efforts to modernize the nation's truck fleets and reduce diesel
pollution. Now we must pass the Clean Ports Act in order to bring
federal law in line with the current realities of our ports and the
needs of U.S. truck drivers, and to ensure that future legal challenges
do not impede environmental progress."
You can help us bring Los Angeles' pioneering program home to Oakland and to other port communities across America by signing the petition in support of the Clean Ports Act of 2010. For more information, check out the coverage in the LA Times.
You might have read that EBASE and the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports took our fight to fix the broken port trucking system all the way to Washington, DC this past spring. Thanks to your support, members of Congress turned up the heat on the industry.
Clickhere to watch a new video with highlights from the historic hearing and to take action to end “sweatshops on wheels.” At minute 1:45, learn how LA truck driver Jose Covarrubias earned just $96 for 50 hours of work!
At the hearing, Congressmembers Oberstar (MN) and DeFazio (OR) not only dared to ask tough questions of the trucking industry, but also promised to further investigate the trucking industry scams that are threatening the livelihoods of port truck drivers.
As coalition members testified, the industry relies on outdated federal laws to justify passing the cost of cleaning up the air onto low-income truck drivers and taxpayers while continuing the vicious cycle of working poverty at our nation’s ports.
Low-income truck drivers and taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for the industry’s responsibility to clean the air we all breathe – don’t you agree?
Please take action and let Reps. Oberstar and DeFazio know that the fight has just begun!
Last Thursday was a big day, for both my family and our city. I’ll
start at home: on that day, my six year-old daughter finished
kindergarten at an Oakland public school. I’ve been thinking a lot
about the twelve years of school she has ahead of her. What kind of
Oakland will she and her classmates inherit when they graduate high
school in 2022? Will the Oakland of 2022 be a healthy and prosperous
city, with family-sustaining jobs for those who live here? Or will
devastating unemployment and dead-end jobs continue to cause economic
pain for our communities?
A big part of the answer to these questions about our city’s future
hinges on the fate of a gigantic piece of land, hidden in the Bay
Bridge’s shadow: the old Oakland Army Base. In the coming weeks, both
the City and Port will take major votes on a huge project to redevelop
the Base. The project could create up to 8,000 jobs and strengthen
Oakland’s economy – if the developers, City and Port make good jobs for Oaklanders a priority.
And that brings me to the other reason last Thursday was an
important day. Over 100 Oaklanders joined an energetic noontime rally
in front of city hall to launch the Revive Oakland! coalition and present a “contract with the community” to make sure the Army Base project creates quality jobs for Oaklanders.
The Good Jobs Contract includes a commitment to creating
quality jobs, funding for a community job training center, and hiring
local residents. Revive Oakland is asking the developers – Phil
Tagami’s CCG and international corporation AMB – to sign the contract.
At Thursday’s rally, community leaders, pastors, and elected officials
– including a representative of Assemblymember Swanson, County
Supervisor Carson, and City Councilmembers Kaplan and Quan - signed on
to a giant contract to symbolically endorse this vision.
The challenge: economic pain. EBASE’s research has shown that Oakland and East Bay residents had been trapped in a sort of “perpetual recession”
even before the current crisis hit, with structural barriers to
opportunity disproportionately impacting low-income communities of
color. Oakland’s unemployment rate now tops 17% – underemployment not
included. And as the LA Times recently reported, the small drop in unemployment this month is largely due to soon-to-vanish temp jobs.
Let’s revitalize our city! The redevelopment of the former
Oakland Army Base could put thousands of Oaklanders to work in both
construction jobs in demolition and cleanup, which could be available
as soon as next year, and permanent jobs like clerks, mechanics, and
forklift operators several years down the line. And the benefits of
these quality jobs would be felt throughout Oakland as more money is
spent at local businesses and opportunities expand for our youth. And
let’s not forget that access to quality jobs can break cycles of crime
and violence in our city.
It’s time to make sure there’s a bright future for the class of 2022
– for the next generation. And it starts with the developers’
signatures on the good jobs contract.
Revive Oakland! includes: Alliance of Californians for Community
Empowerment, Alameda Labor Council, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable
Economy, the Workforce Collaborative and Center for Third World
Organizing and is endorsed by All of us or None, Asian Pacific
Environmental Network, Causa Justa Just Cause, Ella Baker Center for
Human Rights, Oakland Rising, PolicyLink, UNITE HERE 2850, Urban
Habitat, Urban Peace Movement, Youth Uprising, Assemblymember Sandre
Swanson, Supervisor Keith Carson, Dr. Steven Pitts.
Last Thursday, over 100 Oaklanders gathered for a spirited rally at city hall to launch the Revive Oakland! Campaign for Real Jobs and Healthy Neighborhoods.
Thousands of jobs and millions of public dollars are at stake in the enormous Oakland Army Base redevelopment project. To make sure the project creates good jobs for Oaklanders, we're calling on the city, port, and developers to sign a contract with the community.
Huge site, huge potential: The Base spans more than 200 football fields. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to put up to 8,000 Oaklanders to work over the next decade and reinvigorate Oakland's economy.
To bring real recovery, we’re asking for a commitment to real investment, real job training, and real, quality jobs. Quality jobs are the foundation for healthy communities: with good jobs, we can take better care of our families, we can spend more money in our local businesses, and we can break cycles of crime and violence.
How can we make sure the project creates good jobs? At the rally, clergy, labor, community, and elected leaders stood together to call on the developers, international corporation AMB and local partner California Capital Group, to sign a good jobs contract with the community that includes:
a neighborhood-based training center
local hire requirements
commitment to job quality with full time permanent jobs.
To show support, residents, workers, and community leaders signed their names on an oversized "contract with the community," leaving blank lines where the developers will one day sign. Speakers and signers included Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, staff for Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, Oakland Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Jean Quan, Rev. Clarence Johnson, Joe Brooks of PolicyLink, Shirley Burnell of ACCE, Josie Camacho of the Alameda Labor Council and Nikki Bas of EBASE.
Next month, the City and the Port will make key decisions on the project, putting a 20-year plan into place to reconstruct the site. Revive Oakland! will keep working to make sure we reinvigorate our city for the next generation. Our children deserve a bright future!
Revive Oakland! includes Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Alameda Labor Council, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, the Workforce Collaborative and Center for Third World Organizing and is and is endorsed by All of us or None, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Causa Justa Just Cause, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Oakland Rising, PolicyLink, UNITE HERE 2850, Urban Habitat, Urban Peace Movement, Youth Uprising, Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, Supervisor Keith Carson, Dr. Steven Pitts.
While all eyes are still fixed on Arizona's cruel new anti-immigrant law, SB1070, a police-immigration collaboration program with disturbing similarities is being secretively forced on counties across the country.
In fact, just yesterday, ICE thrust the so-called “Secure” Communities or S-Comm program on San Francisco, despite vocal objections from the Sheriff, Board of Supervisors, and community groups that program will actually hurt public safety. In a press statement, SF rights groups condemned the "dangerous entanglement between local law enforcement and ICE."
And on our side of the bay, the public didn’t even find out the program was operational in Alameda County until two weeks after the fact. But community groups are vowing to fight back.
IN-Secure Communities: breaking up families, sabotaging safety
This program gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) access to the fingerprint database to which everyone booked at a jail is added. That means immigrants can be torn from their families and turned over to ICE for deportation without having their day in court, even for minor offenses like not paying a traffic fine.
EBASE’s outgoing immigrant rights organizer, Diana Rashid – who will be starting law school at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall this fall – offers these observations:
“It’s hard not to draw comparisons between the use of the so-called "Secure" Communities program and the new law in Arizona. Like the Arizona law, S-Comm is a complete violation of the constitutional right to due process. Like Arizona, it opens the door to racial profiling. Police officers have wide discretion about who they let off with a warning versus who they take in to jail to be charged, thereby allowing bad apple cops to take advantage of their power to arrest immigrants they suspect of being undocumented because the immigrants will end up being deported.
Furthermore, like SB1070, this program is a threat to public safety. It creates mistrust between the immigrant communities and the police, making it less likely for immigrants to report crimes. Finally, it does not make the community any safer, as ICE’s own numbers show that of all immigrants deported as a result of S-Comm, only 12 percent had been charged with serious crimes and would have been deported anyway as federal law already requires, instead the other 90 percent will now also be deported for being charged with (not convicted of) minor crimes.”
From Oakland to San Francisco to Washington, DC, communities are standing up to say no to this dangerous initiative.
Instead of these harsh and unreasonable enforcement policies, we need real solutions that will make us all safer, uphold our values of fairness, and let immigrants contribute fully to our society.
A delegation of Bay Area African-American clergy and community leaders - many from Oakland - is on the ground in Phoenix right now! They're marching with thousands from across the country against Arizona's harsh new anti-immigrant law, SB1070. The law will damage public safety and unleash a wave of racial profiling and harassment.
What inspired these clergy leaders to raise their voices?
Pastor Brian Woodson of Oakland's Bay Area Christian Connection and the Interfaith Committe for Worker Justice told KGO Channel 7: "We don't need laws that separate us. We don't need laws that federalize out police forces, making all of our communities less safe. What we need to do is to come together and find reasonable solutions to very real problems." The pastors held a blessing ceremony and send
off for the delegation at Woodson's chuch on Thursday.
Rev. Phil Lawson of Oakland's East Bay Housing Organizations - and co-founder of the Black Alliance for a Just Immigration - said: "SB1070 harkens back to the worst times in our nation's history. This law targets Latinos, but who will be next? The same legislature that passed SB1070 also passed a law requiring President Obama to show his birth certificate to be on the ballot in 2012; and we cannot forget that Arizona long refused to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I firmly believe the Black and Latino quest for liberty and justice is one, and that's why, just as we rode to the south so many decades ago, I'm proud to go to Arizona."
In a text message update this morning, Pastor Woodson reported that the California contingent has been joined by three former freedom summer organizers, and that veterans of the Mississippi freedom summer are hosting a reception for Arizona organizers tonight.
Participants include: Rev. Lawson, Pastor Woodson, Rev. Gregory Brown of Miracles of Faith Community Church in Oakland, Rev. Jethroe Moore, President of NAACP's San Jose/Silicon Valley Chapter; Gerald Lenoir, Executive Director, BAJI; Linda Burnham, activist and writer.
Two major fights for justice have sparked hunger strikes this week at opposite corners of Alameda County.
Today, workers at Pleasanton's elite Castlewood Country Club launched a 3-day hunger strike. Meanwhile, a group of UC Berkeley students - joined by campus workers - have now gone over 100 hours (and counting) without food.
Pleasanton: workers locked out for 72 days
What's happening: Several workers, members of Unite-Here Local 2850, began a hunger strike this morning that will extend through mother's day, when the club plans to host an elegant brunch and dinner. At the heart of the dispute: the club wants working-class cooks and maintenance workers to pay an astronomical and unaffordable $739/month for family health care. That would leave husbands, wives, and kids out in the cold.
UC Berkeley: Demands for justice, from Arizona to campus
What's happening: Outraged by the passage of Arizona's extremist, anti-immigrant SB1070, a law that opens the floodgates to police harassment and racial profiling, UC Berkeley students - joined by campus workers - have been hunger striking since Monday, May 3. The hunger strikers' demands encompass several social justice points, including worker, immigrant and student rights.
Today marks one week since Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the extremist and hateful Arizona SB 1070 into law. When I heard the news, just like many of you, I felt saddened and disgusted. As a former undocumented immigrant, I could all too well imagine the fear gripping entire families. As a person of color, I shuddered to think of the onslaught of police harassment and racial profiling the law will bring about.
What happened to our values of human rights, fairness, and equality?
The tremendous outpouring of action over the last week against this unjust law shows that those values are alive and well. But we have to fight for them. If we stand together, we can beat back the nightmare in Arizona and advance our dreams of living in a country where freedom and equality are a reality for all who are here. Will you join us?
March for immigrant rights in Oakland! 1:00 pm - 2:00pm Rally at Fruitvale BART Plaza 2:00 pm - March to Frank Ogawa Plaza, 14th and Broadway (note change)
Join us Saturday to send a powerful message to Congress:
Yes! to reform that moves our communities forward together!
No! to discriminatory laws like SB1070 that divide our communities!
Compassionate immigration reform - including a fair pathway to citizenship - is essential to economic recovery and building shared prosperity to all. Legalizing undocumented immigrants would strengthen the bargaining power of all workers and could pump $1.5 trillion to our economy over the next decade.
EBASE endorses boycott of Arizona!
This is not a decision we make lightly. SB 1070 is unparalleled in recent US history: to avoid arrest, even citizens will have to carry their papers on them at all times. The law creates a perverse mandate for police to racially profile. Not to mention that it absolutely shatters any trust between immigrant communities and local authorities. And to make matters worse, "copy cat" proposals are being talked about from Texas to Costa Mesa. We have got to put our collective foot down.
As a final reflection: let's remember the moving words of Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith Jr, of Oakland's Allen Temple Baptist Church at last month's press conference co-organized by EBASE's Interfaith Committee, BAJI, and ICU of EBHO:
"I can't help but being drawn to our founding document, where those who were assembled and put their names on the document, declared that we have been endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are inalienable. They can't be taken away from us. They cannot be made alien from us, and we cannot be made aliens from these rights. ....
Liberty – meaning that no one should have to flee with government chasing after them for cards of authorization to be here.”
On May 5, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy – in
partnership with allies from Seattle to Newark, N.J. – will make our
congressional debut. We’re excited to be taking the fight for good jobs
and clean air to our nation’s capital.
EBASE and a “blue-green-brown” coalition
are fighting to reform the broken port trucking system. It impoverishes
the truck drivers who transport the food and supplies you and I use every day. And it exposes both drivers and local residents to toxic
diesel pollution.
I’ve met with truck drivers and seen first-hand some of the injustices they endure. But don’t take my word for it. As Ablelom, an Oakland driver, told the New York Times
last fall: “This is straight-out slavery, only modern. The companies
tell you to keep your mouth shut, take what they give you, and don’t
say anything because if you say anything there’s always another guy who
can do it.”
Fixing this broken system is key to building healthy communities and creating an economy where everyone earns enough to live with dignity.
Why Washington, D.C.?
We came close to passing a comprehensive clean truck policy at the
Port of Oakland last year, but the global shipping industry joined
together to block our progress on the road to justice. They simply
don’t want to pay their fair share to fix the system. They profit off
the status quo, in which low-wage drivers bear the enormous costs of greening the port’s truck fleet, and low-income communities of color pay with their health.
To remove the industry’s roadblock,
EBASE is “going national” with this journey to Washington, D.C. As a
member of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, we’ll be making the
case for putting an end to “sweatshops on wheels” before the
Congressional Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
If you agree that global corporations should not profit at the
expense of Oakland’s low-income communities of color, I invite you to learn more and also consider helping us get to Washington. Together, we can make our rallying cry of “good jobs, clean air” a reality.
On April 3rd, EBASE launched the Emeryville Community Empowerment Project, a 6-part leadership program that gives Emeryville residents the opportunity to develop their skills and experience in grassroots organizing. Participants gathered on Saturday morning eager to learn about the issues they currently face in Emeryville and to come up with collective solutions.
Residents got down to business, discussing the various approaches people have taken to affect change in Emeryville’s history and the importance of community organizing as the way to build real power for residents. “It feels empowering to be part of something bigger than yourself”, said Sarah Harper, a training participant.
In that spirit, residents are ready to build resident power and there is a rising tide of change among the grassroots. Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE) formed over a year ago and continues to build a powerful voice for residents to advocate for a more inclusive, livable city.
Through their work with EBASE on the campaign to Build a Better Bay Street, residents have built the foundation for a ground-up movement to hold public officials and corporations accountable to the needs of residents.
Come join the movement for grassroots social change in Emeryville! The next training will be Community Organizing 101: Tools to Build Power on April 24th, 11:00 am – 1:30 pm @ East Bay Pilates, 4053 Harlan Street, Suite 113.
Outraged by a series of startling revelations of abuse and misconduct,
some 60 protestors staged a boisterous gathering last Thursday, April 8 outside the
Oakland office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union, Thursday's
action was one of at least half-a-dozen from coast to coast - a
national wave that even earned a mention for Oakland in the Washington Post.
Our ask: stop an out-of-control immigration enforcement
strategy that only wastes taxpayer resources, hurts hardworking people,
and devastates communities. The only real solution to the nation's broken immigration system is a just and comprehensive immigration refom.
We made sure our message reached Washington by whipping out our
cellphones and calling Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano en
masse - a moment that KTVU, Univision, and Telemundo's camera crews all dramatically swooped in to capture.
Thursday's spirited protest represented true labor-community collaboration, with members of Mujeres Unidas y Activas walking and chanting side-by-side with SEIU cleaning workers.
Sad you missed out on the excitement? You can still make your voice
heard by calling 202-282-8495 and telling ICE to clean up its act.
"How many of you are close to someone who has lost their job?" musician
Michelle Shocked asked the crowd at her recent stop in Berkeley, CA.
Michelle recently launched a national tour, ironically titled American
Idle: A Celebration of our "Jobless Recovery." The question,
one of many throughout the night, highlighted the economic turmoil
plaguing our communities.
Throughout her tour, Michelle is
spotlighting groups and organizations that build alliances and work
toward bold solutions to our economic and environmental crises,
including:
Michelle invited us to talk about the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, an
exciting "blue-green-brown" alliance working for good jobs and clean air
across the country and here at the Port of Oakland. Through her tour,
Michelle is hoping to bring together local groups working for real
solutions to our economic crisis. She sees herself as part catalyst,
part bridge-builder, and part "inspirer," hoping to connect movements
and organizations through her art.
Kristi Laughlin, ICWJ
organizer and long-time Michelle Shocked fan, said after the concert
that "being part of the American Idle tour reminded me that EBASE's work
is connected to a growing national movement that addresses real
problems and builds a more vital and sustainable economy."
Do
you know someone doing exciting work along her tour route?
Are you an activist who wants to be recharged and inspired to keep
working for a better future and an economy that works for everyone?
Check out her tour dates and see when she'll be near you!
California is facing a $20 billion shortfall. Oakland is in a $15 million mid-year budget deficit, predicted to double in the new fiscal year. Both of these deficits have resulted in massive cuts to services and public sector jobs, like teachers, city workers, and librarians, impacting thousands of working families across Oakland.
The budget system at the state and local level is broken and we need real solutions that will bring services back into our neighborhoods, like schools, health clinics and job-placement centers. At the same time, now is the opportunity to ensure that we are counted in the 2010 Census to bring the federal funding we need and deserve back to Oakland, which has been historically undercounted and under-resourced.
Join EBASE in talking to Oaklanders about what it will take to build a strong and healthy city, where working people thrive!
Volunteer Opportunities Whether you are a seasoned activist or a first-time phone-banker, we will provide everyone with a comprehensive training. Food, drinks, and plenty of fun guaranteed!
Phone-banks: March 18, 5:30-8:30pm @ Ella Baker Center (344 40th St, Oakland) March 23, 5:30-8:30pm @ Ella Baker Center (344 40th St, Oakland) April 1, 5:30-8:30pm @ EBASE (1814 Franklin St, #325, Oakland) April 6, 5:30-8:30pm @ EBASE (1814 Franklin St, #325, Oakland)
Door-knocks: March 20, 10am-2pm, meeting at downtown Oakland City Hall April 3, 10am-2pm (location TBD)
EBASE is part of Oakland Rising, a social justice collaborative that is building a citywide electoral base to advance an agenda that addresses the issues and needs of our flatland communities.
Exciting news – the port campaign has made the front page of New York
Times business section! The national spotlight is now on the efforts
of our blue-green-brown alliance to transform and fix the broken port
trucking system to improve working conditions for port truck drivers at
American ports, ensure they have a voice on the job, and are driving
low/no emission trucks to improve public health.
And now, we need your
help to build on this momentum!
Share/Tweet the story to your social media network
Become a fan of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports on facebook
We lost a beloved colleague and friend when Jaime Ortiz, Teamster
organizer working on the Campaign for Clean and Safe Ports, died in a
tragic automobile accident on Wednesday, February 10th. The proud son
of two Teamsters (members of Local 601 in Stockton, California), he was
32 years old and, for the past three years, has dedicated his life to
organizing truck drivers at the Port of Oakland.
An
inspiration to us all, he touched all of our lives deeply and will be
sorely missed by friends and family. He was fiercely committed to
working for justice for truck drivers at the Port of Oakland, and was
deeply beloved by his family, friends, coworkers, and his family among
the truck drivers. No words can fully express our grief for our friend
or our admiration of him.
Now more than ever, we will
remember Jaime's dedication to fight for the rights of port truck
drivers to organize into a union and make port truck driving a
family-supporting job. We will continue to fight for clean air and good
jobs in his honor.
If Toyota closes Fremont’s NUMMI plant next month, the economic devastation
will reverberate throughout California, with some 50,000 workers joining the
army of the unemployed. But a growing movement of workers, union leaders, and elected
officials is pushing
to avert the closure or mitigate its impact. To turn the tide, support from
faith communities will be crucial. EBASE’s Interfaith Committee for Worker
Justice is proud to join this critical campaign.
You might be thinking - isn’t Toyota dead set on closing NUMMI? What can be
done?
But as Mason Cooley reminds us, "events
are called inevitable only after they have occurred."
What’s at stake?
The closure would be another major hit to California's already shaky economy.
It would:
affect 1,000 suppliers and
50,000 workers through the state
erase 5,000 family-supporting
jobs
drain $500 million that the
NUMMI plant generates in wages and benefits from the California economy
Each city and county will feel the effect of hundreds of people in their
communities losing jobs, health care, homes and futures.
Is Toyota going the way of Wal-Mart?
Toyota:
was #1 in retail sales last
year, selling one of out of every four cars to Californians
has never closed a plant in
the company's 73 year history
is investing billions of
dollars into building new plants in Texas and Mississippi, and intends to
shift production of other popular models to Canada and Japan
Sounds contradictory, right? The company had been known for its
commitment to its workforce, but we fear that Toyota has gone the way of
Wal-Mart and Wall Street, allowing greed and self interest to win the day.
Keeping hope alive
The faith community and members of the Interfaith Committee
for Worker Justice firmly believe that when people or companies lose their way,
they can be called back to fairness.
To support NUMMI workers, area faith leaders will
meet
impacted workers at a series of briefings this week
These
workers will be embarking on a pilgrimage from Fremont, to the Central Valley
to Los Angeles and finally to Japan. The group will visit and bring attention
to many of the communities that would be devastated by the plant closure.
To get involved or learn more, please contact Rev. Carol Been at 831-239-1254
or email Kim Carter.
Our immigration system is broken. And when employers can abuse our flawed immigration laws to retaliate against workers who stand up for their rights, all workers suffer. We know that for all workers - immigrant and non-immigrant - to have good jobs with dignity and respect, we urgently need a just and compassionate immigration reform.
At the end of January, the Contra Costa Times ran a great article profiling two Bay Area union members who were able to come out of the shadows as a result of the last overhaul of immigration reform in 1986. As Rosalinda Rodriguez, a Unite-HERE 2850 member recalls in the article, "[The employers] treat people
differently when they know they can take advantage of you. In my job now, I can speak up. I can speak without
fear."
Some people assume that with the political gridlock in Washington, immigration reform is not on the legislative agenda for 2010.
As Ruben Navarrette Jr. argues in his op-ed in the Mercury News, claims of immigration reform's death are premature.
We agree with Mr. Navarrette's conclusion, but his
claim that the labor movement is at odds with Latinos over immigration reform is completely false. Gerardo Dominguez, Director of Strategic Programs for UFCW Local 5, and Chair of the Worker Immigrant Rights Coalition, wrote the following letter to the editor:
"Ruben Navarrette is absolutely right that hope for humane immigration reform is alive and well. But he's absolutely wrong about the labor movement. As a Mexican-American union leader, I'm proud that in my union, and hundreds like it, immigrant workers form a vital part of our membership and leadership. And the labor movement is passionately committed to winning comprehensive immigration reform this year. It's common sense.
"A system where no one's in the shadows and everyone can contribute fully to fixing our economy helps all working people. As for guest workers, expanding guest worker programs in their current form is just not in Latino workers' - or any other workers' - interest."
Be sure to check out EBASE's work around immigration. Together, we can win humane immigration reform that
reflects our core values of equality and opportunity for all. To join our immigrant rights e-advocacy list, email info [at] workingeastbay [dot] org with "Immigration" in the subject line. To get involved with the East Bay Interfaith Immigration Coalition, email Elizabeth at elizabeth [at] workingeastbay [dot] org.
From fighting
for “Good jobs, clean air!” at the Port
to co-publishing reports like “Good Jobs, Safe Streets,” EBASE’s work to transform the local economy centers
on campaigns for better job conditions and efforts to connect residents to good
jobs. We know that for our communities to truly prosper, we need good, family-sustaining
jobs. But how do you define what a “good job” is?
Over
the past ten years years, EBASE’s research has lifted up several core standards. And with “jobs" now
firmly established as a national buzzword, the discussion is bound to get
interesting. In fact, earlier this week (Feb. 1), none other than US Secretary
of Labor Hilda Solís offered up her own
definition of a “good job”:
Can support a family by increasing incomes.
Offer fair compensation.
Narrow the wage gap.
Allow for work-life flexibility.
Promote safe and healthy workplaces.
Give workers a voice.
Foster fair working conditions in the global marketplace.
Are sustainable and innovative, such as green jobs, providing
opportunities to acquire the skills and knowledge for the jobs of the
future.
Help restore the middle class.
In our view, that's a great start. Kudos to Secretary Solis
for these concrete standards. But we also think it’s important to be clear what
“voice on the job” means: the right to organize, improve their pay, benefits
and conditions and be represented by a union, free of the intimidation that so
many workers currently suffer from unscrupulous corporations. (Food for
thought: “The Union Advantage for Low-Wage Workers,” a 2008 report by the Center
for Economic andPolicy Research, found that unionization increases the typical
low-wage worker’s salary by 20.6 percent.)
We agree with Solis that good jobs should be healthy jobs
and that we should straighten out jobs misclassified as independent contractors.
That’s why we are fighting alongside Port of Oakland truck drivers, West
Oakland residents and public health advocates to clean up dirty trucks and
create family-supporting jobs.
Lastly, as we create good jobs, it’s crucial that economic recovery
opens doors for people who have been locked out of economic opportunity for so
long. Redeveloping the Oakland Army Base is a chance to do just that.Over the next decade
there will be 1,000s of jobs created at the former base – construction,
warehouse jobs and others. Will these jobs meet our good jobs standards? Will
Oaklanders be trained and prepared for them?It’s up to all of us.
Beginning January 1st, 2010, state environmental regulations went into effect requiring all truck drivers to meet new truck engine standards. By now, you may have seen news coverage of the crisis at the Port of Oakland and the intervention by Mayor Dellums, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Port to provide independent truck drivers with a little more time and funding to comply with the state regulations to clean up port trucks. These well-intentioned efforts demonstrate compassion for port truck drivers, as hundreds (if not a thousand) are likely to be out of work if they cannot afford to upgrade their trucks.
Unfortunately, a vast majority of drivers still will not be able to afford to purchase or maintain retrofits. We believe that while some use of government funds may be necessary to help cross the bridge to a cleaner port trucking system, in the long run the industry that profits from the goods movement must be made to pay the price to move those goods in an environmentally sustainable manner. The industry cannot continue to expect taxpayers to bail them out. For more information and analysis, read our coalition's op-ed that recently ran in the Oakland Tribune.
Meanwhile, EBASE has been active in supporting hundreds of truck drivers displaced by the industry's refusal to pay for clean trucks. EBASE hired three displaced truck drivers to conduct eight weeks of outreach to fellow drivers.
On January 9th, EBASE partnered with the Workforce Collaborative, the ATLAS Program, the Alameda Labor Council, and the Teamsters to hold a jobs and resource fair. Around 100 drivers and their families attended the fair to enroll in clean diesel and hybrid auto mechanic job training programs at our community colleges and receive critical information about food programs, health care, and tax/financial assistance. Watch coverage of the job fair.
In order to create a sustainable port trucking system - where drivers are not forced to choose between paying for a clean truck or being out of work - the companies that use our ports must be responsible corporate citizens. It’s time to end the free ride for the likes of Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and J.C. Penney’s, along with the trucking companies they contract with.
That’s why EBASE and the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports are pushing Congress to update outmoded federal laws governing port trucking. Ports need the clear authority to implement 21st century policies that will protect the environment; ensure that port truck drivers earn a living wage in which they can support their families; and paves the way for future, good, green growth jobs.
