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We Were Not Here | 1968

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This year we have looked back on the U.S. of 1968, including the assassinations of Dr. King and presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy. However, for hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops overseas or on the seas, we were not here. Those of us trained for combat were serving in the major duty areas of Vietnam, Germany, and South Korea for 12-month assignments or longer.

The lack of the internet, cell phones, or even U.S. television disconnected us from these events. We were immersed in military life, which was and is very structured, with defined duties and daily accountability to one’s superiors and fellow soldiers. 1968 was the height of the Vietnam War and there was a military machine operating 24/7 with equipment to run, planes to fly, ships to sail, communications to process and with millions of people coming in, being trained, getting out.   [Read more…]

Fast Food Chains Forced to End ‘No Poaching’ Policies, Others Under Investigation

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We have heard the argument against the “Fight for 15” campaign, which tells us fast food jobs require no skill and no expertise and, therefore, are not worthy of making $15 per hour.

That argument is rubbish, something fast food chain employers know all too well — and the primary reason behind their ‘no poaching’ policies. These policies allows food chains to block workers from changing branches in search of better pay or promotions, all while the company pays the lowest wage they can. In fact, they will even cheat these skilled workers on their already low wages hoping nobody reports them to our local Employee Rights Center or the State Labor Commissioner’s office.

Now, according to the Associated Press, the state of Washington has busted several food chains, including McDonald’s, Arby’s, Carl’s Jr., and Buffalo Wild Wings for having such policies that violate the state’s anti-trust laws. The state’s attorney general said businesses must compete for workers just as they compete with other businesses. Those chains have agreed to settle legal claims by ending those practices.   [Read more…]

The Janus Case: Free Riders Are An ‘Injury to All’

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The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide the “Janus Case” and determine the legality of state laws that allow public employee union contracts to require all covered employees to pay at least a “fair share” fee to cover the union’s cost of negotiating and enforcing their agreement. There are 23 states that have such laws and California is one of them.

In 1977 the Supreme Court decided unanimously that yes, states could do that. But just a few years ago several of the current conservative Supreme Court Justices let it be known that they would be willing to revisit that 1977 decision. So the Janus case worked its way up the legal system. Now the Supreme Court has heard the Janus case and will announce their decision in the coming months.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Rapid Response to ICE

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There can be no doubt that ICE raids at workplaces and in neighborhoods will once again become major activities in our area – top officials in ICE have said so.  After California’s Governor Brown signed a law limiting California law-enforcement officials’ cooperation with federal immigration authorities, Mr. Holman, a top ICW official warned, “California better hold on tight—they’re about to see a lot more deportation officers.”

Top ICE officials have also said that they intend to instill fear among all undocumented immigrants, to force “self- deportation”, and we see this is beginning to happen.  Fear is real when facing immediate, forced separation of families on a moment’s notice – without even knowing how to find loved ones – losing everything that residents have worked for sometimes for decades while here in the United States.

Those of us paying attention read of a Virginia mother was sent back to El Salvador after her 11 years in the United States unraveled because of a traffic stop. A Connecticut man with an American-born wife and children and no criminal record was deported back to Guatemala.  A workplace raid in California nets 6 workers that ICE was not looking for and now they face deportation back to Mexico.  150 more are reported arrested in the Bay Area in recent days.   [Read more…]

Trump Gets “Cotton” Mouth on Immigration!

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For years, those of us advocating for comprehensive immigration reform have heard the loudest objections be “no amnesty” or no reward for “illegals.” In objectors’ minds, this includes even those legalized by DACA — those who were brought here as children by their parents without documents. Those objectors say simply these immigrants “broke the law” and the only acceptable remedy is for them to return to their native countries — all 11 million of them.

When confronted by the total impracticality and immorality of this task, they have no answer.  Trump’s repeated calls to “Build the Wall” and “Make Mexico Pay” are attractive to these folks because, for them, it’s not a question of practicality or even the billions of dollars’ in expense, but rather something else entirely. 

In fact, there is something quite irrational about advocating for the blanket deportation of 11 million people, but it goes beyond that. There’s a viciousness to it.  Candidate Trump has made it clear what kind of irrationality it is – racism at its core – when he coupled his demand for the wall with the demonizing of the Mexican people as a nation.  He didn’t invent this stuff, but he made it a key rallying cry to his supporters who cheered and jeered in enthusiastic support all the way to his election and now during the current debate on a deal for immigrant youth under DACA.   [Read more…]

Brian Alexander’s ‘Glass House’: Examining Industrial Grief in the Heartland

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For those of us in California, the older industrial belt of the Midwest including Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, is a world away from us regarding immigration issues.  Our state is doing what it can to protect its immigrants from attacks from the Trump administration. But if we want good national immigration reform anytime soon, what happens in upcoming election cycles in the Midwest is very important.

The Republican Party has bought the Trump base with its anti-immigrant, nativist politics that only grow more rabid by the day.  The only path to improve national immigration laws in the near future is through the Democratic Party winning back the Congress in 2018 or 2020 on a platform of inclusion.  

While President Trump was elected by a majority of white voters in every popular category, it was the white “swing” voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, who had voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, that were a surprising part of Trump’s narrow margin of victory in those states last year.

What’s going on back there to make this happen?   [Read more…]

Labor Solidarity – Despite Our Differences

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For those who read Jim Miller’s recent articles recounting the unfortunate splits in the local Labor movement, it may seem they result from just personal differences among labor leaders. Jim reported the events that led the AFL-CIO, the parent organization of the Labor Council, to take over the council and restore it to functioning as it should.

However that came about, that is what the AFL-CIO as the parent organization is supposed to do. It will be hard work.

This work will pay off if San Diego’s Labor Council is restored to the level it maintained for over two decades beginning in the late 1990s when it helped union families leverage their collective strength in improving wages and benefits, as well as playing a key role in local elections. It can be said definitively that the lives of hundreds of thousands of people improved in this region because San Diego had a strong, unified Labor Council.   [Read more…]

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