By RUBÍ MARTÍNEZ
EL NUEVO SOL
“By designating La Paz as a national monument, President Obama is ensuring that future generations will have a place to learn about this extraordinary man and the farm labor movement that improved the lives of millions of workers,” said Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar.
POR CYNTHIA LEMUS
EL NUEVO SOL
En California hubieron entre 247 y 500 muertos en áreas laborales en el 2011. Por segundo año consecutivo, el total de trabajadores latinos muertos fue más grande que el de trabajadores blancos: 131 y 129 respectivamente, a pesar de que los latinos representan una proporción menor de la fuerza laboral del estado.
By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
In this feature-length documentary, low-wage immigrant hotel workers in Southern California battle for new contracts with Disney and Hyatt. The campaigns are hard-fought, but unions in the US are a shadow of their former selves – membership stands at a 100-year low, as corporate power has grown to unprecedented heights. The hospitality workers of Unite Here demonstrate creativity and determination in their struggle for justice on the job, but will that be enough?
By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
Prominent liberal journalist Harold Meyerson sits for an extended interview, in which he discusses the recent history of Los Angeles and the rise of Latinos as a political force, the decline of unions nationwide and the shoddy coverage they receive in the corporate press, as well as his thoughts on corporate power and the shrinking American middle class.
By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
Charles Bowden, award-winning journalist and author of Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields, discusses his new book about the devastation wrought by the ongoing drug war in Mexico. Bowden shares his views on a variety of pressing social and political issues, as shown in a series of video excerpts from the discussion.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
This series of videos highlights several speakers from the “RePower LA” community meeting at the Pacoima Community Center on November 5, 2011. Speakers include Ricardo De Los Santos, a DWP trainee weatherizing low-income homes for energy efficiency; Eric Garcetti, the president of the Los Angeles City Council; Kent Minault, volunteer coordinator for the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign; and Ron Nichols, the general manager of Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
A coalition of civil society groups, including the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), Pacoima Beautiful, and the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, meet in the Pacoima Community Center on November 5, 2011 in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, CA, to share the thinking behind the RePower LA project, which seeks to achieve financial and environmental savings by improving energy-efficiency in the homes of area residents, and creating hundreds of new “green” jobs in the process.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Linda López, una recamarera del hotel Hyatt Century Plaza con quince años de experiencia, participa en una protesta fuera del lujoso hotel Hyatt Andaz en West Hollywood, CA., el 21 de julio de 2011. López describe cómo ella y otras recamareras están bajo presión constante, cómo se lesionan por exceso de trabajo y lo que el Hyatt Corporation quiere quitar a los trabajadores en sus negociaciones de contrato de dos años de duración.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Hotel housekeepers for the Hyatt Corporation, and an official of their union, speak at a protest in front of the luxurious Hyatt Andaz hotel in West Hollywood, CA on July 21, 2011. They paint a picture of abnormally high injury rates, chronic overwork, and management that is deaf to the workers’ entreaties.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
A variety of voices explain why they joined the strike against the Hyatt Andaz luxury hotel in West Hollywood, CA from September 8-15, 2011. Speakers include a housekeeper currently working at the Hyatt Andaz, as well as the union local president, a Congresswoman, a City Councilman, a member of the California Assembly, and the union’s Communications Director responding to a statement from Hyatt management.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Housekeepers and their allies at the luxurious Hyatt Andaz hotel in West Hollywood, CA take part in a week-long strike, in four cities throughout the US. Elected officials from the local, state, and national levels march alongside the workers, as the labor action stretches down the block and around the clock.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Unite Here International President John Wilhelm discusses Hyatt’s dismal record of workplace safety, the difficult conditions under which the housekeepers struggle every day, as well as what the union would like to see in terms of legislation regarding the use of fitted sheets and long-handled mops. Wilhelm draws a parallel between the farmworker struggles of the 1960s and the hotel housekeepers of today.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
At the Disney Community Forum for struggling hotelworkers in Anaheim, California on September 27, 2011, Maria Elena Durazo – the Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor – shares an anecdote about a simple thing a utility executive once told her, which goes a long way to explaining why corporate executives are so greedy.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Workers from the three Disneyland Resort hotels hold a community forum in Anaheim, CA on Sept 27, 2011 to share developments in their three-year-plus fight with Disney over a new contract, and fair working conditions. The workers say that Disney has moved to price the health insurance plan so high that no workers can afford it, and that management is shifting full-time positions to part-time, in an effort to erode further the benefits earned by the hotel workers.
By PAUL LAVERACK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Concession stand workers at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA march in multiple pickets around the ballpark, to protest unfair treatment by Aramark, the company which provides the hot dogs, beer, and pizza during baseball games and concerts at the stadium. Workers have been without a contract for the past two years, and while their wages hover near the federal poverty line, the company proposes to freeze pay rates at present levels for another three years.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Dining Hall workers and their supporters among students, alumni, and faculty hold a picket and rally at Pomona College in Claremont, California, outside the college administration building on Wednesday, August 3, 2011. The event included accusations of unfair labor practices, conflicting views on the proper way for workers to unionize, and an implicit critique of President Obama’s effectiveness on labor issues.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Hundreds of hotelworkers and their supporters protest at the Hyatt Andaz luxury hotel in West Hollywood, California, on Thursday, July 21, 2011. The action draws attention to the abnormally high injury rates among Hyatt housekeepers. The hotelworkers shut down traffic, and several housekeepers perform their work tasks in the middle of the street, inviting the world to see the hazards they face on the job.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
At a hotelworkers protest outside the Hyatt Andaz in West Hollywood, California, on July 21, 2011, a musician and activist outlines the concept and goals of the Clean Car Wash Campaign in Los Angeles, a drive to win workplace dignity for “carwasheros,” the often-exploited immigrant laborers who shine the metal and polish the glass in Southern California’s world-famous car culture.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
Civil society leader Jesse Jackson, in Sweden on July 4, 2011 for that nation’s annual weeklong festival of politics, speaks about labor under attack, corporate power in ascendancy, and the need for a mass uprising of ordinary people. He also offers encouragement to students of Cal State Northridge, who are reeling from yet another fee hike, as the state budget implosion continues.
By PAUL MAVERICK
POLITICAL MUSCLE
The California budget meltdown brings thousands of teachers and their allies out in force, for the “State of Emergency” rally in Pershing Square on Friday, May 13, 2011. From all corners of Los Angeles and Orange County they come, to show their strength in opposing the devastating cuts to public education funding, which may go as high as $12 billion next year – following several years of deep cuts already – if Governor Brown’s tax extension package is not passed.
