This month, DataCenter joined Just Cause Oakland in a community workshop for the Right to the City (RTTC) white paper, HOMESICK: A Community-Driven Prescription to the Affordable Housing Crisis, coming out this summer. Across the country, our RTTC allies are holding similar workshops, from New York to New Orleans, taking a first hand look at local research on public and subsidized housing, and making room for the lived experiences of residents. (more…)
On 04.20.09, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
On 12.01.05, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM)’s Immigrant Justice Program and CAAAV’s Women Workers Project (WWP) in New York City have joined together to conduct a community documentation project to show how Asian low-income immigrant workers are affected by unfair immigration policies and practices.
DRUM’s Immigrant Justice Program builds the power of low-income immigrants to end rising detention, deportation and abuse of immigrant detainees, and to end anti-immigrant policies of the Department of Homeland Security. As New York City’s economy increasingly relies on the exploited labor of undocumented immigrant service workers, CAAAV’s Women Workers Project seeks to develop leadership among and create spaces for Asian women working in these sectors to unite with other immigrant workers to fight sweatshop conditions and build power for all low-wage workers City-wide. Women Workers Project also mobilizes Asian women workers to oppose racist immigration practices that tear communities apart, and promotes policies supporting human rights and dignity for all. (more…)
On 12.01.05, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
Two years ago, Domestic Workers United (DWU) asked if we’d support them to analyse the domestic worker industry in New York. As we talked through how to approach the project, it became clear that reliable information could not be gathered from existing labor market research sources—DWU would need to collect it. And so DWU embarked on a community-based project conducting surveys amongst their membership and community of domestic workers. The project was designed, carried out, and led by domestic workers. Although DataCenter has long integrated popular education methods into our trainings, this project opened up for us an additional approach to flatten inequities that exist between researchers and communities that are researched. (more…)
On 12.01.05, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
For almost a year, the DataCenter has been tracking Intel corporation’s international pursuit of government subsidies and tax breaks. Our research, prompted by Intel’s successful request for an additional $16 billion dollar Industrial Revenue Bond from Sandoval County NM to modernize its Rio Rancho facilities, is informing Albuquerque-based Southwest Organizing Project’s campaign to replace corporate globalization with locally controlled, sustainable, community-based alternative economic institutions. (more…)
On 12.01.05, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
Demonstration photo courtesy of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy.
The Morrison Hotel in Los Angeles, immortalized on the cover of a 1970 Doors album, has returned to the headlines as the target of a high profile anti-slumlord campaign led by Strategic Actions for a Just Economy. Morrison Hotel tenants put up with years of living amidst rats, roaches, chipping lead paint and raw sewage leaks, only to be served with eviction notices meant to empty the building so that it could be sold. When tenants spoke with SAJE organizers, Morrison management retaliated by shutting off electricity and even locking people out of their homes. Tenants and SAJE fought back. It took 50 demonstrators and intervention by the police and city housing officials for tenants to win back access to the building. Since then, the City Attorney has filed a criminal complaint, the City’s Housing Department has taken over rent collection, and the tenants have filed their own lawsuit. (more…)
On 09.19.04, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
In 2000, the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition was successful in passing living wage laws in San Francisco to support low-wage workers – the San Francisco Minimum Compensation Ordinance and the subsequent Health Care Accountability Ordinance. The Coalition is now exploring how to extend these laws to cover more workers and to provide health coverage for workers’ spouses and children. Coalition members, including no- and low-income workers and their allies, are conducting an extensive research project to inform their legislative strategy. To inform the research process and strengthen members’ research skills, we provided a campaign research training in November that covered research strategy, obtaining public records, and presenting data effectively. We are giving a follow-up training in March on research techniques and to address specific questions Coalition members have on their particular research projects. We also collaborated with the Coalition on research to assess San Francisco’s implementation of negotiated workfare reforms.
On 09.19.04, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
In January, Levi Strauss closed its last two U.S. plant operations, both in San Antonio, laying-off 800 workers. Workers at the San Antonio plants have sewn and finished jeans for a quarter century. Levi Strauss will be contracting out this work to manufacturers in foreign countries with cheaper labor cost. For more than a decade, Levi Strauss has been closing plants and laying off workers. After massive layoffs in 1990 Fuerza Unida quickly emerged. For years, the DataCenter has been assisting Fuerza Unida’s efforts to carry forward the long-term struggle for Levi workers’ rights and to publicize the growing disparities at home and abroad of apparel industry outsourcing strategies. In the midst of these new closures, Levi Strauss is negotiating with the Union of Needletrades Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) over severance packages. Fuerza Unida is working to make sure that UNITE and the workers have the best information to negotiate a fair deal. To support the workers’ demands, we provided research on past worker severance packages and compared these to current executive compensation and examples of generous executive severance packages.
On 09.19.04, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
Over the past few years, we have worked with Strategic Actions for a Just Economy on supporting long-term campaigns addressing community impact of redevelopment agency decisions – one to secure affordable housing and living wage jobs in the face of the University of Southern California’s (USC) persistent expansion into the neighborhood community, and another to reform Los Angeles redevelopment policy to work for – rather than against – the interests of low-income residents. As part of this ongoing struggle, we are now working with SAJE’s Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice on a new campaign. The Figueroa Corridor is a 40-block strip between USC and the Staples Center. USC has decided to build a sports arena in this area and the Coalition wants to ensure that the millions of development dollars that will be spent have tangible benefits for the low-income people who live in the surrounding neighborhoods. To help the Coalition negotiate a stakeholder’s voice in future USC planning, we are researching Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) programs around the country to document “best practices” mitigating university impact upon local communities. We are also researching “Town and Gown” agreements, to document “best practices” for community/college relationships. In addition to providing research, we have been participating in campaign strategy meetings.
On 09.19.04, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance fights for a living wage, health benefits, and safe working conditions for drivers, who are often at the mercy of wealthy taxi owners and the Taxi and Limousine Commission. The DataCenter has been helping NYTWA research the finances and connections within the taxi industry.
According to a 2003 survey (1), New York City taxi drivers paid an average of $137 per day in operating expenses (to lease their cab and medallion, and buy gas and insurance), while earning $160 per day on average. Drivers’ take home pay averaged $22 per day.
Last April, the NYTWA petitioned the city to lower lease caps and raise taxi fares, with the purpose of securing a living wage for drivers that takes into account NYC’s cost of living and the high risks and long work hours of the job. Lease caps are the maximum amount that taxi companies can charge drivers to rent the medallion and taxicab. The Alliance also demanded compensation for losses following the September 11, 2001 disaster and record-high gas prices.
After a year-long campaign, NYTWA won a victory in March when the Taxi and Limousine Commission increased taxi fares by 26%, the first increase since 1996. For the first time in the taxi industry, the bulk of the fare raise revenue will go toward drivers’ wages, increasing their incomes by 20-40%. In 1996, drivers received only 14% of the fare increase. In 2004, due to NYTWA’s organizing, 60-75% of the fare increase will go toward driver incomes. NYTWA also defeated the taxi owners’ proposal to raise the caps on leases by 23%. The Commission agreed to only an 8% increase, limiting the increase to about $100 per week.
1- Conducted by Urban Justice Center for New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Survey findings reported in Unfare: Taxi Drivers and the Cost of Moving the City (32 pages, pdf).
On 09.19.04, In Economic Justice Program, Program Updates, By admin
Displacement Free Zone, 2003. Photo: Robin Doyno.
Earlier this year, we highlighted our work with Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, supporting campaigns to reform Los Angeles redevelopment policy to work for—rather than against—the interests of low-income residents, with the goals of securing affordable housing and living wage jobs. (see Spring 2004 projects). We are happy to report that SAJE’s Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice has made great progress!
The Figueroa Corridor is a 40-block strip between USC and the Staples Center. USC is building a basketball arena here and the Coalition has tied the millions of development dollars being spent to the housing needs of the neighborhood. The University’s lack of student housing, combined with a Los Angeles housing crisis, puts students and working-class families in fierce competition, often leading to evictions of families by unscrupulous landlords seeking higher rents from students.
The Coalition has brought these issues to the forefront in numerous public hearings and in the press. As a result, a Student Community Housing Coalition has been established on campus and articles about housing have become a regular feature in USC’s Daily Trojan newspaper. USC is in negotiations with three private developers to build several thousand units of student housing, and it initiated legal action against a property management company that was using the University’s name and logo to promote activities that displace neighborhood families. The Coalition is engaging with USC administrators in a collaborative process to incorporate community services, and potentially family housing, into a USC-owned multi-acre commercial site adjacent to campus.