Tidbits - June 18, 2015 - Bernie Sanders, Tamir Rice, Kalief Browder, Ella Baker, BDS, Low-Income Schools, Paul Robeson, and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Bernie Sanders; Tamir Rice; Kalief Browder; Ella Baker; BDS; Low-Income Schools; Rachel Dolezal; TPP; Edward Snowden; Greece; Bessie; Okinawa; Puerto Rico; Jazz; Watts Rebellion; Immigration; Announcements: March to Shut Down Rikers; Detroit Tribute to Paul Robeson and His Work for Peace; Solidarity Delegation of 20 US Activists to Visit Venezuela

Tidbits - May 21, 2015 - Victories in Philadelphia, Los Angeles; Third Party Builders; The Nakba; David Letterman Show and whiteness; Educators Make a Difference; more....

Portside
Reader Comments- Progressive Wins: Philadelphia / Los Angeles; Third Party Builders Meet; What U.S. Really Owes Black America; Thirty Years After MOVE Bombing; The Nakba: The Intentional, Deliberate Dispossession of Palestinians; Remembering Guy Carawan; David Letterman Show and whiteness; Educators and School Staff Make a Difference; Mike Brown Would Have Been 19; Announcements- Greece Solidarity 4 All U.S. Tour; Left Forum 2015 Today in History-Post-War Strike Wave

labor

Nurses Authorize Two-Day Strike of Kaiser, Providence

MARNI USHEROFF Los Angeles Business Journal
The California Nurses Association is calling on more than 2,400 nurses to strike Providence Health and Services hospitals in Santa Monica and Torrance and at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center over staffing levels and retention rates.

The Play “Chavez Ravine”: A Tale of Ongoing Urban Removal

Jimmy Franco, Sr. LatinoPOV.com: A Latino Point of View in Today's World
Culture Clash's play about money, manipulation and red-baiting ending with destruction of a closely-knit LA Latino neighborhood over fifty years ago rings true today as the present economic power of developers and the drive to profitably exploit vulnerable communities within the central city and drastically change their ethnic, class and cultural composition continues to steadily displace the long-time residents of many neighborhoods.

labor

Labor's New Reality -- it's Easier to Raise Wages for 100,000 than to Unionize 4,000

Harold Meyerson Los Angeles Times
Unions historically have supported minimum wage and occupational safety laws that benefited all workers, not just their members. But they also have recently begun investing major resources in organizing drives more likely to yield new laws than new members. Some of these campaigns seek to organize workers who, rightly or wrongly, aren't even designated as employees or lack a common employer, such as domestic workers and cab drivers.

labor

At union rallies across L.A., teachers seek more than just a pay hike

HOWARD BLUME Los Angeles Times
More than 500 teachers union members and supporters gathered late Thursday afternoon at Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights to rally for their contract demands. United Teachers Los Angeles is putting forward an agenda on staffing levels, classroom conditions and policies aimed at improving academic results.

How Do Los Angeles Uber Drivers Protest? They Take a Beach Day

By Josh Eidelson
“If it comes to it, says DeWolf, drivers should call the industry’s “independent contractor” bluff and stage a walkout some Monday morning, rather than logging in to their apps. “Perhaps, you know, have our meeting at Santa Monica Beach, and a picnic as well,” he says.

Creating Community On Skid Row

David Bacon Equal Voice News
Starting around 1999, public policies that spurred development in Los Angeles' Skid Row started. Buildings that were dubbed underused were transformed in the 50-block area. Well-heeled residents have moved in. In 2014, Skid Row's streets have a vibrancy of sorts - one in which families, the homeless, the hip, the elderly and even well-treated dogs coexist in an ever-changing place.

labor

Los Angeles Airport Service Companies to Face Labor Peace Requirement

Dan Weikel Los Angeles Times
Andrew Gross Gaitan, director of the Service Employees International Union's airports division, which supports the measure, said unionized companies could develop labor peace agreements with the unions representing their workers or any other organization or employee committee. Non-unionized companies elsewhere have reached such agreements, he said. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who received $198,000 in contributions from SEIU in the last election, backs the proposal.

Cities Passing Higher Minimum Wages Laws - $11.50 in Metro DC Area and $15.37 in LA for Hotel Workers

Katie Ashmore and Monica Kamen; Josh Eidelson
A Los Angeles City Council committee voted unanimously to authorize a study on nearly doubling the minimum wage for employees of large hotels in the nation's second-largest city. The L.A. proposal is one of several municipal moves toward raising wages well above the 5-year-old federal rate of $7.25; at $15.37, it would set a local hotel industry wage floor far beyond the $10.10 proposed by congressional Democrats.
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