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Who’s the Boss at McDonald’s? Fast Food Industry Pay Scheme Going on Trial

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The struggles of low-paid employees working for fast food corporations will be in the spotlight next week as McDonald’s goes on trial at the National Labor Relations Board in New York. The case threatens the economic model for the company (and most franchise-based companies), which passes off daily operational responsibilities to franchise holders for 90% of its locations under a regimented program.

The company’s reaction to the campaign for better wages in the fast food industry in recent years opened it up to charges it violated labor laws. Now the NLRB will decide the question of whether or not corporate shares responsibility with local operators for the wages and working conditions of front-line employees.

Also… Friday Calendar of Upcoming Progressive Events Inside…   [Read more…]

Hundreds Brave El Niño Weather on the Streets of Downtown San Diego

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Jeez…the weather. Can you believe it? I spent 90 minutes getting home yesterday after hunkering down in the basement of a building at UCSD as all hell broke lose. Rain –then hail– came down sideways, trees flopped back and forth like rag dolls, and then we saw the eerie greenish glow of the sky associated with tornado events…

…At least I wasn’t homeless in San Diego. El Niño’s arrival has ripped off the tarp local politicians had thrown over our homeless problem.

KPBS reported that there were 800 people in downtown San Diego hunkered down in tents and under plastic tarp. City Beat tells us that 91 people died from various causes on the streets of our city last year and the back-up foul weather shelter plan announced by the mayor earlier this year amounts to “an unfunded, re-wrapped package of Father Joe’s longstanding practice of opening its dining halls.”   [Read more…]

Darth Niño Wreaks Havoc on San Diego

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A little less than two months ago, the San Diego City Council declared a ‘state of emergency in advance’, based on predictions of an unusually intense El Niño weather pattern.

What this meant in practice was the potential for more immediate access to State and Federal emergency funding. And now it’s looking like those funds will be needed. A procession of storms is coming through the area and the city’s already poorly maintained infrastructure is proving to be unable to handle the stress.

Scattered bands of showers turned into intense downpours on Tuesday afternoon. Roads throughout the region were closed by flooding. Lifeguards and fire rescue teams responded to 75 emergency calls in the late afternoon, most of them dealing with vehicles stranded in flooded intersections.   [Read more…]

Bottomless Pit of Right-Wing Lies Continues as City Pension Reform Scheme Loses Appeal

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Over the last few days we’ve heard, via the Union-Tribune and the Wall Street Journal’s free marketeers, a tale of woe arising from the ruling of a state agency holding that the city of San Diego violated state law by not negotiating with employee unions over a 2012 ballot measure that eliminated guaranteed pension benefits for most city employees.

Now we’re being told that greedy unions have circumvented the will of the voters. Talk-show host Carl DeMaio says the agency making this determination is a “kangaroo court.”

Then-Mayor Jerry Sanders worked hand-in-glove with local right-wing politicos to create and sell a “reform” program promising to save taxpayers untold millions of dollars. They lied, they cheated, and when they were called on it, said “so what?”   [Read more…]

Activists Call for Police Accountability in San Diego

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This week local activist groups are throwing their cards on the table, demanding accountability for the actions of those tasked with protecting the public. Recent events, both locally and nationally, have demonstrated the threat of and/or use of force is essentially exempt from meaningful review. The checks and balances supposedly built into the system are failing on a regular basis.

A list naming hundreds of persons killed by various agencies of law enforcement in San Diego going back to 1980 shows just how mundane lethal force has become in the city and county. A press conference by United Against Police Terror staged in front of police headquarters hopes to put a human face on those statistics.

Frustrated by their attempts to work within the system to enhance citizen oversight of the San Diego Police Department, activists with Women Occupy –backed by 19 civic organizations– are submitting a ballot proposal to the city clerk to make the Citizens Review Board on Police Practices (CRB) truly independent and transparent.   [Read more…]

Why the 2016 Race for City Attorney Matters

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There is no more important local electoral contest than the race for City Attorney. This relatively obscure office has been the part of government where dreams come to die, the priorities of the modern-day landed gentry are enforced, and the political will of the city’s business interests is turned into policy.

Incumbent City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, elected in 2008, deserves credit for molding his agency into a politically powerful entity. While his record is far from spotless, the more general thrust of developing a well-coordinated keeper of the flame for business interests has proven to be a valuable asset for the local moneyed classes.

Today we’ll take a sneak peak at the four candidates vying to replace Goldsmith, along with my general assessment of where they stand in relation to preserving the status quo.   [Read more…]

A Sneak Preview of 2016 Elections in San Diego

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Over the last few days of 2015 I’ll engage in speculation about what to expect for the coming year.

Today we’ll take a quick look at what San Diegans will be asked to vote on, a logical move since we’re headed into a presidential election year and a gaggle of ballot measures vying for voter approval in California. Later on in the year I’ll do in-depth profiles of candidates and ballot measures.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the legal system (including the race for City attorney) and regulatory actions likely to be a big deal in the coming year.   [Read more…]

San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis Spins the News in Quest to Justify Police Shooting Death

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County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ absolution of a San Diego Police officer in the shooting death of 42-year-old Fridoon Rawshan Nehad turns out to have been nothing more than poorly orchestrated spin.

Facing an impending court-ordered release of damning evidence, the DA released a made-for-the-media video and pleaded with the press to use her version of events.

A subsequent release of information by an attorney representing Nehad’s family casts strong doubt on that ‘version’ of the story.   [Read more…]

Progressive Activism in 2015: Fighting for $15 and/or Anything Else They Can Get

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This was the year that growing inequality became too big a problem to ignore. A growing chorus of voices broke through the white noise of the media’s slavish subservience to the concept of ‘trickle down’ as a viable economic choice.

None-the-less, all the national contenders for the presidency continue to swear allegiance to the failed idea. They are rarely challenged in interviews, editorials or debates, even though the preponderance of data demonstrates a growing disparity between the very rich and the rest of us. Why they don’t get laughed off of any stage where this bad idea gets bandied about is a mystery to me.

Today, we’ll look at some labor advocacy from 2015, focusing on the Fight for Fifteen campaign. Modern-day political reality dictates that the struggle to increase wages will be fought on the local level.   [Read more…]

Barrera Out at Labor Council, SDPD Shooting Video Released, and Other News Ladled Out on Tuesday

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San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Richard Barrera announced his resignation via a press release on Tuesday.

Barrera simultaneously announced he would be starting at the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) on February 1st as Executive Assistant and Secretary-Treasurer.

ALSO: Earlier today, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis released a private surveillance video capturing the police shooting claiming the life of Fridoon Rawshan Nehad.   [Read more…]

Progressive Activism in 2015: Addressing Climate Change in Many Different Ways

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Everybody is in favor of saving the environment these days. Or so they say.

The modern-day litmus test for whether an individual or company is serious about the environment comes down to whether or not they acknowledge climate change to be a man-made phenomenon.

This evolution of public consciousness didn’t come easy. It was built on the work of environmental activists and organizations. Throw a metaphorical rock in San Diego and chances are it will land at the feet of an organization working on some aspect of saving the planet. Today we’ll look back at the actions of the environmental movement locally, nationally, and internationally over the past year.   [Read more…]

Progressive Activism in 2015: No Justice, No Peace for People of Color

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There were no elections in 2015. No candidates or ballot measures competed for our attention. No promises or threats interrupted our TV viewing pleasure.

A lack of voting opportunities allowed other forms of activism to come to the fore. Non-electoral efforts, like demonstrations, rallies, and petition campaigns are, to my way of thinking, critical components of our national discourse. As Howard Zinn and other historians have pointed out, our nation’s history is chock full of agitation and dissent as a precursor to many of the institutions central to our society.

I’ll be looking back at 2015 this week, reviewing many of the issues and causes important to progressives in San Diego and around the nation. Today it’s about fighting the most brutal forms of injustice.   [Read more…]

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