An open letter to Jessica Hayes, (Chair, San Diego Democratic Party) and Dale Kelly Bankhead (Secretary-Treasurer for the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council), from Sara Kent.
Over the past two months, I have hoped for brave action from each of you. As women who hold positions of power in San Diego who should be stalwarts of fundamental Democratic ideals, instead of being proud of your leadership, I am gravely disappointed.
Not only for you, but for all of us. [Read more…]
Last week I dedicated my column to outlining how, despite the emergence of inspiring protests in the streets and amongst the progressive base, many key Democratic figures in Congress and in the national leadership of the building trades unions still didn’t seem to understand what time it was. Sadly, it only took a few more days to see a couple of stunning examples of how not to be the resistance right here in San Diego.
On January 26th, Jessica Hayes, the newly elected chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, took advantage of her presence at a forum hosted by the Democrats for Equality entitled “#The Resistance: Women Lead the Way” to attack not the dangerous plutocrats running the country, but a key element of the Democratic base: unions.
The last few weeks have also held its challenges for local labor leadership as protesters, including Donna Frye and Irene McCormack, picketed outside the monthly delegates meeting at which there was no mention whatsoever of the elephant in the room, the lawsuits filed against Labor Council President Mickey Kasparian and what this means for local labor at this perilous moment in the history of the movement. [Read more…]
Four years after the Bob Filner scandal, little has changed with the leadership culture in the centers of power on the left in San Diego–namely labor and the Democratic party.
The enablers and apologists for workplace sexual improprieties, gender discrimination, and retaliation continue to use the political clout and cash flow of their organizations as a shield, preventing them from answering for their behavior or learning from their mistakes.
Engaged women are leading the resistance to what portends to be an era of oppression and repression. They can’t fight the good fight locally or nationally if women within this movement are subjugated by abusive men in powerful positions. They cannot be expected to roll up their sleeves to make changes only to realize the institutional power they need amounts to more of the same. [Read more…]
Center on Policy Initiatives
A new report from the Center on Policy Initiatives finds that a third (33%) of all household in San Diego County have incomes below the level needed to cover basic living expenses.
Women and children are most impacted, largely because employed women throughout the county earn 74 cents for every $1 paid to men. Among households headed by single mothers, 69% have incomes below the bare-bones level known as the Self-Sufficiency Standard. [Read more…]
As inspiring as the big marches were last week, it didn’t take long for evidence to emerge that there are still plenty of folks in the Democratic party and elsewhere who just don’t get what time it is. As I wrote on Martin Luther King Jr. day, it was dismaying to see prominent Democrats like Senator Cory Booker and twelve of his Big Pharma funded friends vote against Bernie Sanders’ effort to reduce prescription drug prices before the inauguration.
And that low bar was then pushed a bit further down when ex-Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and consummate corporate tool, Joe Lieberman, gleefully presented Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos while slamming American public education at her confirmation hearing. At that same hearing, Lieberman also failed to disclose that his law firm represents Trump. [Read more…]
On a cold Wednesday evening in Kearny Mesa prominent San Diegans Donna Frye and Irene McCormack joined community members to show their solidarity with Sandy Naranjo, Isabel Vasquez and Anabel Arauz and call for the resignation of the President of UFCW Local 135 and San Diego and Imperial Labor Council, Mickey Kasparian.
Naranjo, Vasquez, and Arauz filed separate lawsuits against Kasparian accusing him of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and other misdeeds. Also named in all three complaints are the union itself and in Arauz’s filing, Richard Barerra, executive assistant of the local.
McCormack was the chief communications aide to disgraced, former mayor Bob Filner and the first of many women to accuse him of sexual harassment. Former City Councilwoman Donna Frye, alongside lawyers Cory Briggs and Marco Gonzalez, was the first person to come out publicly to condemn Filner and call for his resignation. [Read more…]
By Staff / The OB Rag
The campaign against San Diego labor leader Mickey Kasparian is heating up, as a protest calling for his resignation as head of the local labor council is being held today, Wednesday, Jan. 25th at 6pm outside a labor delegates meeting.
Three women have filed gender discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuits against Kasparian, the president of UFCW Local 135, who also sits as the President of the Labor Council.
Sandy Naranjo filed a gender discrimination lawsuit after being unjustly fired. Retired co-worker Isabel Vasquez filed a sexual harassment claim alleging sexual misconduct. And current UFCW employee Anabel Arauz filed a retaliation/discrimination claim against the union, Kasparian and secretary-treasurer (and current San Diego Unified School Board President) Richard Barrera.
Supporters of the three women are holding the demonstration today. They will be holding signs in support of Sandy, Isabel & Anabel and will be calling on San Diego Labor Council Delegates to show public support for these women and to demand the resignation of Mickey Kasparian. [Read more…]
The relentless campaign being waged by supporters of Sandy Naranjo, Isabel Vasquez, and Anabel Arauz continued Wednesday night at the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 135 office in Mission Valley for the quarterly membership meeting.
Naranjo, Vasquez, and Arauz filed separate lawsuits against UFCW Local 135 president Mickey Kasparian accusing him of many things including gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation. Also named in all three complaints are the union itself and in Arauz’s filing, Richard Barerra, secretary-treasurer of the local.
Almost two dozen supporters came out on a cold weeknight to champion the cause of these brave women. Each protestor held a homemade sign showing solidarity with their union sisters or contempt for the man accused of harassing them. [Read more…]
In 1913, thousands of women took to the streets of Washington DC on the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration calling for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. More than twenty parade floats, nine bands, and four mounted brigades followed activist Inez Milholland riding on a white horse marching from the U.S. Capitol toward the Treasury Building.
Despite physical attacks by angry spectators hospitalizing more than 100 women, the parade, organized by Alice Paul and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, finished the route. [Read more…]
This past Saturday friends, family, labor, and community came together to support Sandy Naranjo and Isabel Vasquez in their quest for justice. In mid-December they both filed serious complaints against Labor Council President and UFCW Local 135 President Mickey Kasparian.
Naranjo’s complaint was filed based on gender discrimination whereas Vasquez’s complaint was for sexual harassment. A third complaint by Anabel Arauz, based on retaliation, was filed the same day as people gathered for the action.
The solidarity picket took place during the ADEM election for the 80th district at Machinists Hall in Chula Vista. Hundreds came out to vote with many of them standing in solidarity with these brave women. It takes a lot of guts to stand up against the most powerful labor leader in San Diego. [Read more…]
2017 awaits us fierce as a tiger with major assaults looming on multiple fronts. As I have written here quite recently, it is not an overstatement to say that we face existential threats. With so many things to worry about in the near future, what should labor and progressives be focusing on in anticipation of the coming storm?
Let me start by saying that our first order of business should definitely not be whether you are with or against the imperiled San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council President. It should also not be about which side you choose in a toxic internal struggle between factions inside of the San Diego labor movement. As I have said elsewhere, the honorable and prudent course of action would be for labor leadership to take these issues off the table because they will prove to be fatal distractions if we allow them to stop us from confronting a long laundry list of crises to come after inauguration day. [Read more…]
You wouldn’t know from reading today’s newspapers, but there were elections in California over the weekend. And, although the results aren’t finalized yet, it’s obvious something significant is going on in the state’s Democratic party.
Although these changes (in the short term) amount to little more than a sea of new faces at the state Democratic Party convention, the significance of record turnouts, competing slates of candidates, and the openly stated desire for progressive ideals all should give us optimism for a new era in politics in the Golden State.
Locally, controversies arose in Oceanside and Chula Vista. The North County event seems to have been procedural; the South County occurrence reflects a deep division among organized labor groups threatening the unity Democrats will need in opposing the actions of the incoming administration. [Read more…]
