Close to 100,000 jobless Californians will lose as many as 20 weeks of federal unemployment insurance benefits by the end of May. Improvements in California’s economy and a drop in the unemployment rate will end an extension of federal benefits. At an Employment Development Department on Franklin and Turk, KALW’s Angela Johnston spoke to Little Vila, John Saunders, Maurice Gonzales and Yvette, who wouldn’t give her last name. Here are their thoughts on being unemployed in today’s economy.
Category: Labor
Posted inHuman Trafficking, Labor, Public Safety, Social Justice
State labor agencies slow to coordinate with law enforcement on trafficking cases
This special report appeared in the Spring 2012 print edition of the San Francisco Public Press.
Despite a strongly worded recommendation from a California-wide task force four years ago urging labor standards officials to look for signs of human trafficking, state and local investigators say there has so far been little coordination or direct follow-up with law enforcement or organizations supporting victims. The task force, which was disbanded in 2007 but is reconvening throughout this spring, outlined the need to identify and rescue victims — as opposed to deporting them in the course of routine labor enforcement sweeps.
Posted inLabor
Domestic workers organizing march to end abuse
Matilda Vasquez’s mother worked more than 10 years for a family that provided her no insurance or vacation time and “no rest,” she said. “That kind of abuse has to stop. We pay taxes like everybody else,” said Vasquez at a meeting on Wednesday at the Women’s Building in San Francisco to organize for a Jan. 24 march on Sacramento in support of the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, AB889.
Posted inEducation, Labor
Amid criticism, CSU tweaks presidential salary comparisons
Responding to criticism from the Legislative Analyst’s Office and others, California State University officials have revised a proposed list of peer universities they plan to use to help set pay for campus executives. The new list, provided to California Watch, no longer considers Temple University in Pennsylvania a peer of San Diego State University because Temple has a medical school – a feature that tends to drive up the cost and complexity of university operations. Temple paid its president $536,000 in base pay in 2009-10.
Posted inFood Systems, Labor, Public Safety
As work conditions shift, inhumanity of immigrant labor becomes human rights concern
Gabriel Thompson worked alongside immigrants in the back of restaurants in New York City and in factories that produced some of the most basic foods in the American diet: lettuce and chicken. Not an immigrant himself, Thompson used his investigative reporting techniques to lift a veil on working conditions that many undocumented immigrants and low-income Americans face daily. His colleagues experienced excruciating soreness from physical labor. They had no employee benefits. And they had to do monotonous and repetitive work, which led to a high rate of injuries. Thompson’s one-year immersion into the lives of working immigrants, documented in his recent book, “Working in the Shadows,” comes at a time when working conditions are changing. The immigrant workers are leaving the workplace under pressure from law enforcement, a trend that is forcing the employers to look for new ways of attracting workers.
Posted inCity Hall, Labor, Transportation
Muni operators deserve payout from settlement, says Mayor Lee
San Francisco transit workers got an unexpected holiday bonus, of sorts, after winning back a contested $8 million in health care payouts that the city initially refused to give because it was trying to cut its 2011 budget. Mayor Ed Lee said Tuesday that he agreed with the decision by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to relinquish the funds to the Transport Workers Union 250-A.
Posted inBetter Budget, City Hall, Labor
Pensions, infrastructure and public health trimmed in 3rd year of San Francisco deficits
City estimates that costs are rising three times faster than tax revenues
Police and firefighter unions will pay more out of pocket toward their pensions. Disease prevention programs and street beautification will be scaled back. At least $37 million in capital projects will be added to a growing deferred maintenance backlog. Hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts approved in July forestalled a fiscal day of reckoning for San Francisco, a city that for three years has, like hundreds of local governments across the country, struggled to stay solvent in response to a fluctuating tax base and rising labor costs. City staff estimate that costs are rising three times faster than tax revenues.
Posted inBay Area, Labor, Media, Media Meltdown
Story of a survivor: coastal paper maintains civic coverage despite cuts
This article appeared in the spring print edition as part of the Public Press’ media package of stories.
When the Santa Cruz Sentinel was sold by Ottaway Newspapers to the ever-expanding MediaNews Group, editor Tom Honig didn’t like what he was seeing. The printing plant was shuttered, layoffs were orders and the newspaper moved out of Santa Cruz itself to nearby Scotts Valley. He made himself one of the layoff victims. But looking back, he now sees that civic journalism has survived thanks to the hard work of the smaller staff.
Posted inLabor, Media, Media Meltdown
Editors’ note: reporting on ourselves
ON THE MEDIA REPORTING PROJECT: Traditionally, news organizations have drawn clear distinctions between opinion and factual reporting. And in the event of even the appearance of a conflict of interest, the reporter is reassigned. The problem is, the media are powerful. What journalists write and say can make the difference in clarifying complex public policies, helping consumers make wise decisions and preventing social and even criminal injustice. The Public Press commissioned a team of experienced journalists to report — and in some cases reflect on — the rapidly changing media landscape. All have conflicts of interest in that they make their living, as best they can, in what remains of the news industry. Nonetheless, we thought that this was an important story to tell.
Posted inLabor, Media, Media Meltdown
Half of Bay Area newspaper jobs gone in last decade
MEDIA CENSUS: Newspapers hardest hit, losing nearly 4,000 workers
This article appeared as part of the Public Press’ Spring print edition media package of stories.
State and federal labor statistics show that employment among Bay Area media workers fell 43 percent since 2001, a result of massive restructuring at local news outlets whose financial losses measured in the billions of dollars. Newspapers were hit the hardest, shedding upwards of 4,000 employees. As dozens of papers merged in an effort to cut costs, reporters who used to compete for scoops found their jobs redundant. While employment appears to have risen in the television and radio sector over all, journalists among them did not fare so well, state employment data suggest.