Journalists at MediaNews Unionize

A majority of newsroom workers at the largest newspaper company in the Bay Area have voted to create a new unit of The Newspaper Guild-CWA. The election capped a nine-month organizing drive by news workers at properties including the Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group.

Last August MediaNews withdrew recognition from the previous union, the 20-year-old Guild unit at ANG Newspapers, which included the Oakland Tribune and four other East Bay dailies. In response, journalists across the East Bay came together to create the new union, dubbing the campaign “One Big BANG: One Guild Universe.” (See http://onebigbang.org) Their new Guild unit will be represented by the Northern California Media Workers Guild for collective bargaining on pay, benefits and work conditions.

More photos of Solomon’s First Day

Today was quite a day and I am tired. Today was the birth of grandchild number six, Soloman Sloan. I have covered the day in several ways:

• The day in pictures on Flickr
• The trip in pictures on Flickr
• My Twitter Feed
• My Family Blog

I am too tired to do or say more. Wow, what a day!

I am up in Washington and we have a grandchild coming today. This is grandchild number 6!

I will be posting updates on the trip and birth on my family blog and on my twitter stream.

~Steve

University fails to respond within time lines?

Apparently the university has failed to respond to the level two hearing of the skateboard, bicycle grievance. This clears the way for the union to file this grievance at the Chancellor’s Office. According to California State University Employees Union Labor Relations Representative Michael H. Hejazi, “The response is late. I will appeal to Level 3.” The next step after level 3 would be arbitration.

UPDATE: Both parties, by mutually agreement, have extended the Level 2 response time-line on the Campus Bike Safety Grievance to Monday May 19, 2008.
[Click here to see more related photographs]

[Copy of Grievance Here]

Union Meeting, Thursday May 15, Noon

Full contract bargaining 2009, Budget crisis looming, What better time:
Let’s Build our Union at SJSU!
Bring a friend, Bring your ideas, Bring lots of enthusiasm!
Featuring special guest speaker:
Russell Kilday-Hicks
SFSU CSUEU Chapter President, Editor, University Employee Newsletter
May 15, Thursday, Noon to 1pm, Clark Hall Room 100H, “The Fish Bowl”
Refreshments will be provided
Please RSVP to Steve Sloan
steve.sloan@sjsu.edu
408/605-0692

The end of the semester is near

Students are hunkering down and working hard; for the end of the term is near. Few opportunities to study are being wasted.

Gus Lease sent an Email on the safety issue

Just in case you don’t know who Gus is, let me tell you. Gus Lease is one of the nicest people you might ever meet and on top of that; he is a university treasure. Gus has been on the faculty at SJSU for 56 years. He sings the national anthem at graduation. Gus was once the chairman of the Music department and he currently teaches Music History in the History department.

He has dedicated his life to SJSU. He has lived much of the history of this university. He remembers and tells stories about our university that are a pleasure to listen to. When he first told me about the skateboarder who almost hit him he said, “if he had hit me going as fast as he was, I think he would have killed me.”

Gus parks in the campus disabled parking spaces on the north part of seventh street.

About two weeks ago when I was parked on 7th street, I got out of my car and was going to the back of the car to get my teaching equipment out of the trunk when a skateboard rider coming down the street almost hit me. Since I have a disability and use a cane to walk, had I been hit, I could have suffered a serious injury. Also, today one of the student bicycle riders along the sidewalk between Clark and the administration building was going extremely fast and had to swerve to avoid hitting me.

I do hope you will relate my concerns to the committee that Skateboarding, and bicycling on Campus is a serious Safety issue for all who are walking on campus.

Gus C Lease
Department of History
May 7, 2008

In a recent Email on the same topic, University Police Chief Andre Barnes said, “I am not in agreement with you that it is a significant safety hazard or a position that I can argue comfortable in favor of changing the current policy.”

My Email to Chief Barnes

I know during our recent phone call you said you and your officers had not seen or reported much dangerous activity or unsafe practices on the part of operators of non-motorized vehicles including skateboards, bicycles and razors. At 4:35 pm on May 5 I saw these youths doing acrobatics on the railings of the east side of Clark Hall. I called the UPD dispatcher and the call was logged on my cell phone at 4:35pm. Since it was time for me to go off work, I went back into the building, got ready to go home, took my camera and went out of the building. I had expected to see an officer there since it is maybe 750 feet from there to UPD. Since I saw no officer I started taking pictures. I kept taking pictures. I shot about 25 photos until I finished my roll of film. (Yes, I still shoot film.)

I then walked over to the bike corral and got my bicycle and rode home (circumnavigating SJSU of course.) I never saw any officers and I guess it is no wonder they never saw any dangerous activity or unsafe practices on the part of operators of non-motorized vehicles that day.

[Click here to see more related photographs]

[Copy of Grievance Here]

Discrimination and the bike policy The photo shown above is of a university employee riding his bicycle as he is exiting a university building. There has been something bothering me, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, that has nothing to do with the safety argument related to president Kassing’s new bike policy, the part that extends this benefit, “Bicycles are not permitted in buildings unless in a private office, closet, or enclosure…”

The other day it hit me, like a ton of bricks, I should have been more sensitive to it. Like the rider in the photo above, very few of the folks I have seen keeping bicycles in their offices are minorities. Our highest areas of minority employment are among job classifications that do not have a private office, closet, or enclosure where they can store a bike. Most of the minorities in our bargaining units work in classifications that would not be able to use this benefit. I am concerned that by extending this benefit to classifications that are much more likely to be non-minority, my university may have committed de-facto discrimination.

Article 25.1 of our union contract should be also added to this grievance, the part that says, “The CSU prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ancestry, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical disability, mental disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition and/or national origin…”

To be able to keep their bike at their work place, in my opinion, that benefit like all benefits have to be given to all employees without prejudice, even unintentional prejudice.

For the best information, please go directly to the SBLC Web Site: http://www.atwork.org

Living Wage campaign @ SJ International

Better airport service and security will come from extending San Jose’s Living Wage policy to cover all San Jose International workers. The South Bay Labor Council, Working Partnerships USA, faith and community leaders launched a campaign to do so last week, supported by Vice Mayor Dave Cortese and City Councilmember Forrest Williams.

Speakers at the April 30 San Jose City Council Rules Committee meeting expressed the urgent need for action by the Council, relating tales of severe economic hardship - exacerbated by continually increasing housing and food prices. A recent survey indicated that workers who don’t receive wages at the standard of a living wage are far more likely to seek other employment, resulting in continuous turn-over and new, untrained employees at the airport.

Visit www.buildingabetterairport.com for more information and to get involved in the campaign.

Sunnyvale Council supports Service Workers

The local Labor movement and UNITE HERE won big in Sunnyvale last week when the City Council, led by Mayor Tony Spitaleri and Councilmember Otto Lee, adopted a resolution encouraging companies to hire food service, janitorial and security contractors that meet Code of Conduct standards. The 5-2 vote asks employers to ensure that workers receive good pay, benefits and working conditions, be allowed to remain in their jobs when contractors change, and be allowed to unionize.

Leading up to the vote, Silicon Valley religious and community leaders, organized by the Interfaith Council, gathered at Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church in a community forum on Human Dignity for Silicon Valley Service Workers.

Food service, janitorial and security workers shared their testimonies of struggle for dignity and respect at the April 7 forum, held almost 40 years to the day after King’s assassination. Dr. Clayborne Carson, founding director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford, and a panel of faith leaders called on local elected officials to pressure business leaders to adopt a Code of Conduct for companies that contract out their support services.

Justice for Janitors @ Applied Materials

More than 400 workers and supporters marched on Applied Materials’ Santa Clara offices April 10 calling for improvements in janitors’ wages and benefits. The march, called by the Interfaith Council, called on Applied Materials will publicly display its support for Justice for Janitors and send a clear message to contractors that the rights and dignity of janitors must be recognized.

More than 20,000 California janitors San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, and Sacramento are bargaining for new contracts this spring leading in the largest-ever statewide mobilization effort. They are demanding good jobs including wages you can raise a family on, access to quality heath care and respect.

Breakfast with candidates primary campaign

Have breakfast with City Council candidate Ash Kalra and Board of Supervisors candidate Dave Cortese on Saturday morning, then spend some time phone banking to kick off the June 3 primary campaign.

Breakfast will be served at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 3 at the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council offices at 2102 Almaden Road, Suite 107 followed by a few hours on the phones. Regular phone banking will run 5:30-8:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays at the Labor Council. Please RSVP to Gloria@atwork.org.

With the campaign underway, be sure to contact the Labor Council to signup for a night of phone banking! Everyone’s small contribution leads to success on Election Day. And with more than two-thirds of votes expected to come from absentee voters who begin voting next week, the time we need volunteers is now!

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins @ Cornell University

“Our movement is about justice and human rights,” not just wages and benefits, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins told Cornell University’s annual Union Days event last week.

The executive officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council was one of four speakers invited to participate in a panel discussion on “Worker Power in the 2008 Election: Is Change for Real,” sponsored by the Ithaca, N.Y., university’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Also on the panel were Jane McDonald-Pines, executive assistant to the executive vice president of the AFL-CIO; Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute; and Barbara Lifton, New York State Assemblywoman.

For this and more information visit: http://www.unionvoice.org/