5 weeks in, my first blog post.
With 2 weeks remaining, although in the throes of the activity that remains, I find myself reflecting back on the experience in Baltimore this summer.
Things began shakily, when I discovered that I would be working essentially alone, with no office, coworkers, or supervision to speak of. I was asked to begin contacting clergy and asking them to be part of a coalition that had not yet formed, which would work to oppose a proposed Wal*Mart development in Baltimore city.
As the weeks rolled by, and I attempted to do the work with which I was charged, I began making my own routine and style of organizing, met with some modest successes, and with a great deal of learning.
Our coalition is growing rapidly, with a name--Baltimore CAN (Baltimore Community Action Network), a new website: www.baltimorecan.net, and about 30 member organizations. All in the last 4 weeks!
Although we have been working mostly on building our coalition, we have a few different goals we have been working towards:
1) The proposed Wal*Mart development has a PUD (Planned Unit Development) hearing before the City Council August 5, and we hope to pack the house and rally beforehand
2) We are working with the Community Law Center to draft principles of Community Standards in development into legal language, with the hope of incorporating it into the new Zoning Code, which is being revised by the City of Baltimore for the first time in 30 years.
3) Yesterday we had a big hearing for a proposed bill for a Living Wage in Retail. We helped set up a panel of testimonials by clergy, workers, and others. Unfortunately, the bill died. It was exciting to be part of it, though. It was controversial and covered heavily in the Baltimore press. Here is one article: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-living-wage-council-20100722,0,7730729.story
I am also working now on putting together a clergy breakfast to promote the goals of the coalition. There is a lot to do in very little time!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
New Internship Site!
Hello All!
Just three short weeks (ish) until we are all reunited in Chicago! So hard to believe. This past week brought lots of adventures, starting with a site change to the Interfaith Council on Economic Justice out here in San Jose, CA. I'm grateful for the time I had in Portland, ME and all the wonderful people I met there, but the Workers Center out there was in a point of transition and it was not the best time for them to host an intern.
In San Jose I'm joining our fellow IWJ intern Becca! She has been wonderful introducing me to the area and the organization and I am excited to be working with her for the next few weeks. We will be helping to organize Labor in the Pulpits, a mass of support for those in need in Arizona due to SB1070 at the cathedral, a joint speaker event with the NAACP on economic justice and religion, and much more! We did sneak in some time for fun this past weekend though and ventured to San Francisco for the weekend. Enjoy the picture and we will see you all soon!
Friday, July 9, 2010
TAMFS is not participating in or affiliated with demonstration on GA floor
The civil disobedience disruption of the proceedings of the General Assembly plenary session is not endorsed by That All May Freely Serve or any other group representing LGBT persons within the PC(USA).
We join with Presbyterians around the country in our sadness that the church declined to take steps towards a more inclusive church by broadening the definition of marriage and rejoicing in the overwhelmingly positive steps taken towards ordination and benefits for same-sex domestic partners.
We join with Presbyterians around the country in our sadness that the church declined to take steps towards a more inclusive church by broadening the definition of marriage and rejoicing in the overwhelmingly positive steps taken towards ordination and benefits for same-sex domestic partners.
Arizona Interfaith Alliance for Worker Justice
Hey everyone,
This is my first post since getting here and it is long overdue. My first four weeks have gone well and have been challenging at times. The worker center here is on the smaller side. We are only 2 years old and still working to organize and create structure. Everyone at the office is so great it is like we are a family. Maria Alva who makes almost all of the calls and organizes the workers is a former worker that won her case with us against Food City a grocery company here in the Valley. Nic De la Fuente is a part time employee and a part time intern which makes him a full time employee. He works with intake and individual cases. Cristina Sanidad is here two days a week and has been with the center from the start. She also does intake and works on cases and has become an expert on recourse for wage theft. Trina Zelle is the director and stops in every week to meet with us and provide us with direction and any resources we need. This summer we are working on focusing and getting more organized. We have moved to working on group cases and we are focusing on wage theft. We are also trying to get faith communities and faith organizations involved with the worker center as well. That is where I come in.
I arrived here with the training for community organizing from IWJ so that immediately qualified me as the person with the most organizing training and experience. My job is to get faith communities on board and support our worker center. On thing that we are trying to do is move our worker rights trainings that we hold bi-weekly into the community. So I have been trying to get churches to hold worker trainings on site. The reason we are trying to do this is because we have recently seen a large decline in attendance to our worker trainings. This is mainly caused by the passage of SB1070. Our workers and the international community is scared to travel and only leave their home is if the have to. We feel that by holding trainings in churches people will feel safer and more willing to come to a church rather than our worker center. I started with a phone, the internet and a couple suggestions of communities that I could approach. I have really made an effort to reach out to the Catholic community because that is the community I was brought in and am most comfortable with. To date we have set up two trainings in Spanish speaking parishes sponsored by the parishes and 2 events for worker rights awareness in more affluent Anglo communities. Work is moving along and I plan to move into other faith backgrounds next in hopes to get some diversity in our religious support.
Besides faith outreach and worker cases SB1070 has been the other big topic and focus. We are part of a Latino service organization network called Somos America. Somos America is organizing most of the effort against SB1070 in Phoenix. They are trying to organize 30 days of action in June with different actions each day leading up to the 29th. The actions are of all types and sponsored by all different groups. We are currently working on a possible campaign against a contractor Solomon Diaz who has been known to not pay his workers and is very violent as well. We would like to kick off the campaign against him with an action in the week leading up to the implementation of SB1070 on the 29th, as one of the days in the 30 days of action effort. It will have a joint purpose of fighting against SB1070 and what it means for our Latino brothers and sisters and an action to stand up for the injustice that Salomon is showing towards his workers. This action is just beginning to formulate and will take a lot of research and preparation to make sure that it is well organized and affective. We will also do everything that we can to promote the rally that will take place on June 29th against SB1070.
Being in Arizona right now is both frustrating and exciting. It is hard seeing the disregard my home state has for our Latino brothers and sisters but it is exciting to be here on the front lines of the fight. So far I have learned so much and will continue to learn every day that I am here. I look forward to the campaign that we are hoping to mount against Solomon and look forward to the June 29th rally against SB1070. We can use all the help we can get out here so if you would like to come out here we can always find something for you to do. The more voices that we have the louder we are. Hope that all of the other internships are going well. Sorry that the update is so delayed!
Paz,
Will Rutt
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Summer Update
So apparently I've been lacking on the blog frontier, and decided it was time to contribute my two cents. Life in San Jose has been really interesting. I'm learning a lot, constantly surrounded by action, and really getting to try out all sorts of different ways to be involved in justice work.
A brief summary of what's been filling my days...
*Multiple San Jose City Council meetings on the city budget (like 4-5, over 2 hours every time), speaking for the lowest paid workers in San Jose, fighting for unions etc. Surprisingly, it's been really interesting. Ironic that the first time I've ever gone to city hall, and it's in a place that I'm not an actual resident in. But, never-the-less, I've gotten a real taste of the political power struggle, the problems of a bureaucracy, and a handful of politicians who despite it all, really do care about the vulnerable of society. Unfortunately, not enough to make majority, so the mayor's budget passed. Cutting 10%+ from all city workers' wages, closing down police and fire stations, and firing 75 city janitors- to have them outsourced for 1/2 the wages and no benefits. Life and politics can be cruel sometimes.
*Justice for Mercado Workers campaign. Just starting off trying to organize spanish mercado workers for better pay and benefits, to receive lunch breaks, overtime, the pay they deserve etc. There are a lot of really bad examples of wage theft going on. One store closed down, and didn't pay any of the workers for the full time they worked the last week. If they were lucky they got 25% of the wages they deserved.
*Hotel Worker Rising- as we already know, the Hyatt Hotel is a really bad corporate chain that abuses its workers all over the US, and San Jose is no exception. Here in San Jose, they've been working for 2 years trying to unionize. Many of the problems are similar to the ones we heard about in Chicago. My first week there was an action called "Banquet in the Streets" with a dinner, speakers, and then a delegation to the management. Next Monday I have a planning meeting for the National Day of action at the end of July. I’m giving a presentation on non-violence and civil disobedience to the Hyatt Hotel Workers committee (mostly faith leaders). In San Jose, the action will involve a sit-in and civil disobedience.
*I’m also organizing Labor in the Pulpits, which is an event where over Labor Day weekend 165+ services in San Jose will have speakers come and talk about labor and the connection with faith. It’s a really cool idea, and lots of leg work to organize 165+ services and speakers etc. It's too bad that I won't be around in September to actually see the fruits of my labor (no pun intended).
*I've been making lots of phone calls. I’m an expert on ‘cold calls’ now. I could practically be a telemarketer. Except I would die if I was a telemarketer.
The most challenging aspect has probably been my social life. I knew what relocating meant, but I don’t think I really registered how hard it would be. I don’t really have any friends. I think adjusting to that has also been the weirdest part. By now I’ve gather a few people who are more of acquaintances, but I’ve kinda forced myself upon them. Almost everyone I meet is out of college and quite a few years older than me, which is also different. So, that’s been hard. I really miss everyone from school. But, it's getting better with time. And my host family is really nice.
Most unexpected is how political my work is. The fact that I’ve spent so much time at city council, and the office does phone banking for elections, and endorses political candidates, and I’ve met quite a few of the local politicians. That was a surprise. But an interesting one for sure. We are located in an office building with a) the Interfaith Council on Economics and Justice, b) Working Partnerships USA ( a collaboration of different non-profits working on social policy issues and community organizing (which includes the interfaith council) and c) the Labor Council-- not a non-profit, but rather part of the AFL-CIO working for the unions, which means it can be more political-- endorsing political campaigns, etc.
Well, that's all for now!
Paz,
Becca
p.s. I have no idea why this is in different fonts...sorry!
A brief summary of what's been filling my days...
*Multiple San Jose City Council meetings on the city budget (like 4-5, over 2 hours every time), speaking for the lowest paid workers in San Jose, fighting for unions etc. Surprisingly, it's been really interesting. Ironic that the first time I've ever gone to city hall, and it's in a place that I'm not an actual resident in. But, never-the-less, I've gotten a real taste of the political power struggle, the problems of a bureaucracy, and a handful of politicians who despite it all, really do care about the vulnerable of society. Unfortunately, not enough to make majority, so the mayor's budget passed. Cutting 10%+ from all city workers' wages, closing down police and fire stations, and firing 75 city janitors- to have them outsourced for 1/2 the wages and no benefits. Life and politics can be cruel sometimes.
*Justice for Mercado Workers campaign. Just starting off trying to organize spanish mercado workers for better pay and benefits, to receive lunch breaks, overtime, the pay they deserve etc. There are a lot of really bad examples of wage theft going on. One store closed down, and didn't pay any of the workers for the full time they worked the last week. If they were lucky they got 25% of the wages they deserved.
*Hotel Worker Rising- as we already know, the Hyatt Hotel is a really bad corporate chain that abuses its workers all over the US, and San Jose is no exception. Here in San Jose, they've been working for 2 years trying to unionize. Many of the problems are similar to the ones we heard about in Chicago. My first week there was an action called "Banquet in the Streets" with a dinner, speakers, and then a delegation to the management. Next Monday I have a planning meeting for the National Day of action at the end of July. I’m giving a presentation on non-violence and civil disobedience to the Hyatt Hotel Workers committee (mostly faith leaders). In San Jose, the action will involve a sit-in and civil disobedience.
*I’m also organizing Labor in the Pulpits, which is an event where over Labor Day weekend 165+ services in San Jose will have speakers come and talk about labor and the connection with faith. It’s a really cool idea, and lots of leg work to organize 165+ services and speakers etc. It's too bad that I won't be around in September to actually see the fruits of my labor (no pun intended).
*I've been making lots of phone calls. I’m an expert on ‘cold calls’ now. I could practically be a telemarketer. Except I would die if I was a telemarketer.
The most challenging aspect has probably been my social life. I knew what relocating meant, but I don’t think I really registered how hard it would be. I don’t really have any friends. I think adjusting to that has also been the weirdest part. By now I’ve gather a few people who are more of acquaintances, but I’ve kinda forced myself upon them. Almost everyone I meet is out of college and quite a few years older than me, which is also different. So, that’s been hard. I really miss everyone from school. But, it's getting better with time. And my host family is really nice.
Most unexpected is how political my work is. The fact that I’ve spent so much time at city council, and the office does phone banking for elections, and endorses political candidates, and I’ve met quite a few of the local politicians. That was a surprise. But an interesting one for sure. We are located in an office building with a) the Interfaith Council on Economics and Justice, b) Working Partnerships USA ( a collaboration of different non-profits working on social policy issues and community organizing (which includes the interfaith council) and c) the Labor Council-- not a non-profit, but rather part of the AFL-CIO working for the unions, which means it can be more political-- endorsing political campaigns, etc.
Well, that's all for now!
Paz,
Becca
p.s. I have no idea why this is in different fonts...sorry!
Friday, July 2, 2010
End of Week Three
This week was interesting. I did a lot of research, which I am actually enjoying. We are gearing up for a clergy meeting in the middle of July. I am very excited about that. I think it will be a good way for me to learn. Also, I spent some time at the IWJ this week. I got to speak with my liason. I will say that IWJ has been very supportive throughout the experience.
I have dug even deeper into the bus drivers and to be honest I am a little conflicted. I definitely think and feel that these drivers need a voice and better wages. 100%. But part of me feels that it is more of a bad boss than a union. We ran into a worker this week who had been a part of union before and wanted no part of a new one. She wouldn't even let my co-driver out of the car. Why would she be so anti-union? If we are trying to help, why tell us to get back in our car?
I am really trying hard to understand why people are pro-union, especially those who are hardcore and vice versa. Is there no middle ground? Are the companies really helping themselves by not agreeing to better conditions for their workers? Why are the organizer so passionate?
I hope in the next few weeks I can answer some of these. To be honest I am smack in the middle. Maybe I just want everyone to be happy with their job, life, and situation. Maybe I want people to understand themselves better.
More questions. Less answers. Another Shabbat.
Jeremy Fine
I have dug even deeper into the bus drivers and to be honest I am a little conflicted. I definitely think and feel that these drivers need a voice and better wages. 100%. But part of me feels that it is more of a bad boss than a union. We ran into a worker this week who had been a part of union before and wanted no part of a new one. She wouldn't even let my co-driver out of the car. Why would she be so anti-union? If we are trying to help, why tell us to get back in our car?
I am really trying hard to understand why people are pro-union, especially those who are hardcore and vice versa. Is there no middle ground? Are the companies really helping themselves by not agreeing to better conditions for their workers? Why are the organizer so passionate?
I hope in the next few weeks I can answer some of these. To be honest I am smack in the middle. Maybe I just want everyone to be happy with their job, life, and situation. Maybe I want people to understand themselves better.
More questions. Less answers. Another Shabbat.
Jeremy Fine
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