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Some Good News for Working People
By SARAH RINGLER
One of my first jobs, outside of babysitting, at age 17 was at The Millbrae, a union movie theater in Millbrae on the Peninsula south of San Francisco. I didn’t know it was a union shop until a year or so after I quit when I got a decent check in the mail for underpaid wages. When I worked there in 1967, I sold tickets, worked behind the candy counter and ushered; I made $1.25 an hour.
I found myself in a union again when I started teaching in the Pajaro Valley, first in Adult Ed and later in three middle schools. I was an active union member serving as a site rep and on the union’s executive board. I also represented our union on the board of the Santa Cruz, then later called the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council. I’m currently president of the Pajaro Federation of Teachers 1936-Retiree’s unit.
The latest December issue of Labor Notes, a monthly newsletter that has published news on unions and workplace organizing mostly in the US since 1979, highlighted some major gains extracted this year. I will review some of the high points from Jenny Brown’s article “Big Strikes, Bigger Gains.”
“Strikes and threats of strikes extracted contracts ranging from good to excellent from employers across the country this year. Half a million US workers walked out—machinists, teachers, baristas, nurses, hotel housekeepers and auto workers—with much of the motion coming from unions led by reformers,” according to Brown.
Both the United Auto Workers, UAW, and the Teamsters union in 2022 experienced major leadership changes that resulted in more democratic worker-driven leadership. Former UAW president Gary Jones, and his predecessor Dennis Williams, as well as a dozen others were convicted and sent to prison for embezzlement and other crimes related to their time in office. Years of corruption were changed when in a referendum, members voted to switch to a one-member, one-vote system.
With the Teamsters, years of corruption came with threats of a government takeover. That was forestalled with a consent agreement that agreed to the same one-member, one-vote system for election of top leaders. More involvement by union members and workers create a more active and committed movement.
Threats to strike by 340,000 Teamsters at United Parcel Service, created the largest contract gains ever. This took on-site organizing, constant reporting on negotiations and hard bargaining. Some of their gains included ending driver-facing surveillance, raises and more.
Starting Sept. 15, UAW, went up against the Big 3 auto makers, with rolling strikes where over 150,000 auto workers eventually were involved. They won contracts that ended wage tiers instituted over ten years ago where newly hired employees were hired at lower pay scales than previous employees. The strike also brought pay up for the lowest paid workers.
New York Nurses, NYSNA, went on strike and won strong language on staffing levels for 7,000 members. Their hospitals now have to pay big penalties if there isn’t sufficient staff on the floors.
In Wichita, 6,000 Machinists at Spirit AeroSystems, who rejected an offer to work 60- to 70-hour work-weeks that leadership wanted, got their weekends back.
In October, a coalition of unions that included 75,000 people across four states struck against Kaiser Permanente and won a 21% raise.
Hotel workers, 15,000, in 62 hotels in Los Angeles, have been out on a rolling-strikes trying to bring up wages to match the high cost of housing. Many live out of their vehicles or commute hours each way to work.
There were more strikes and actions in 2023 but the largest was the 160,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Televisions and Radio Artists, SAG-AFTRA who walked out in July followed by 11,000 screen writers of the Writers Guild of America, WGA. They were out for four long months. Gains were won on pay, staffing, residuals from streaming and with restrictions on AI.
As more contracts expire next year, I think we will see more action. The contract for 220,000 American Postal Workers Union expires Sept. 20 and on May 20 for 100,000 Rural Letter Carriers. Feb. 24, 28,000 grocery workers at the Meijer chain in Michigan see their contract expire. Also, two big teachers’ union, 25,000 in Chicago and 13,000 in Philadelphia, expire during the summer. AT&T have two contracts coming up in 2024: 25,000 wireline workers made up of 9,000 Communication Workers of America, CWA, in California and Nevada, and 16,000 in the Southeastern states.
Contract expires Sept. 30 for 17,000 East and Gulf Coast International Longshoremen’s Association dock workers who have not struck since 1977.
It’s almost another half a million workers listed above with contracts coming due in. 2024. If 2024 follows 2023 in numbers of workers standing up for better pay and working condition, it could be the long-awaited beginning of shift away from largest growing inequality gap in income and wealth in the US between the rich and the poor in over 50 years. We can all hope can’t we.
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
The names and ages of 121 people who died while unhoused in Santa Cruz County in 2023 are shown on placards placed on chairs in the front rows of the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium Dec. 21 at the annual Homeless Memorial gathering.
Hard Cold Numbers – Dying Without a Home in Santa Cruz
By SARAH RINGLER
Dec. 21, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, the County of Santa Cruz presented their annual Santa Cruz County Homeless Memorial, a report of people without homes who died during the Solstice year, from 2022 to 2023. Here is a summary of the report from the Homeless Persons Health Project.
This year, 121 people died, although a 122nd person died on the day of the event creating a 34% increase from last year’s number, 91. According to the County Health Services Agency, people experiencing homelessness die at 9.4 the rate of the housed. By gender, 102 men died and 19 women.
The report records what it calls, Primary Factor Leading to Death although none of the categories mention exposure to extreme heat or cold from the weather. Fentanyl was behind 50% of the deaths, and there were two, homicides and two suicides. Other causes include heart related, sepsis, respiratory illness, blunt force trauma, cancer liver disease with 18 pending and seven unknown.
Almost a quarter of those who died, 24%, were men and women under 40 years old; of that group, five were women and 24 were men. Those under 40 died at almost six times the rate of the under 40 population who are housed.
At the time of death, 42% died on the streets, about a quarter died in the hospital, and the rest died in various other places or places yet to be determined, 8%. 55% died in Santa Cruz and 20% in Watsonville. In the county outside these urban areas, four people died in Soquel, two in Capitola, two in Aptos and one in Felton.
Click HERE for a list of names from the Homeless Memorial. Many were Santa Cruzans although that data was not included in the report. We do know that according to the last Homeless Count in January 2023, 75% of the homeless were living in Santa Cruz when they lost their housing.
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Say What?
BY LARRY BENSKY ON DEC. 26, 2023
Say what, and to whom, and why?
Such are the questions being asked these days by those who want to say something. And those questioning what those wanting to say something mean to say.
Can you say anything you choose to say to people in a class in college? Or might what you say get you fired (if you’re a school President or even a teacher) or a bad grade having nothing to do with your course work if you’re a student)?
Can you say what you choose to say to a reporter? What if you believe reporters in general are unreliable?
Can you freely say something in writing (a form of speech)? Is writing your thoughts “protected” by the constitution so that anyone can advocate even horrific actions?
Such questions, normally discussed in law schools and philosophy classes, are now the stuff of TV sound bites, and newspaper articles. As well as daily commentaries.
Exempt from all those concerns is a new multi-million dollar industry targeted on, and practiced by, self-centered fanatics. They center their energies elsewhere.
They work on “motivation.” Their leader is a 55 year old former triathlete and music composer/performer, Jesse Itzler.
For a full portrait of Itzler, read “Peak Performer” by Tad Friend in the Dec. 8 “New Yorker.”
Friend has spent a lot of time with Itzler and a handful of other motivationists . It would be comical to read about them in a work of satire, or investigation. But it isn’t funny to learn about how motivationoids gather in small groups, larger seminars and occasional huge stadium and arena spectaculars.
Itzler and others harangue each of those in attendance — and by extension each of US — about being motivated to climb high mountains, swim vast lakes, lift weights we can’t even move.
And find fulfillment in giving money not to help people, but to help ourselves. And, munificently, the self of Itzler.
A speech by him — one speech! — can bring half a million in dollars, not bitcoin or cryptocurrency, which he distrusts.
He and his ilk survive and thrive doing what they do, while M. Elizabeth Magil and her cohorts are in the headlines, pulled out of their “solos” by events far beyond them.
McGill was, until a few days ago, President of the University of Pennsylvania. She was forced to resign because, during a Congressional hearing, she refused to say she would discipline faculty or students or staff who didn’t share Congressional Committee optics about the Middle East.
What did those Congressmembers want?
Anyone at Penn, or Harvard, or anywhere, who doesn’t share the Congressmembers self-important outrage and dares to say so should be excluded from campuses.
This goes even beyond what Trump and DeSantis and their book-burning acolytes advocate . Ideas and the people who have them, not just books, would be no-nos too, if the Congressmembers had their way.
In fact, what Dr. McGill said took up thirty seconds in five hours of testimony. It was immediately denounced as anti-Semitism, a ludicrous charge given her career. Instances of real blatant anti-Semitism have gone without Congress being so stirred up for decades. (Can you say Richard Nixon or Henry Kissinger?)
Itzler will never have to worry about testifying to Congress because unlike McGill, his concerns are personal, not political. He, like his company, has lawyers but they work on contracts and finances. McGill has expensive lawyers too, but they now have to work as word police (the same law firm worked for Nixon!)
When speech becomes political, politics becomes speech.
Each is always the case, but any sense of balance is now gone. The current battle, seemingly about words used in reference to the Middle East, is really about who gets to speak like Itzler.
He’ll never testify to Congress. They don’t care about what he does, because that’s capitalism. if Congress decides to take more he’ll just make more by raising his prices. Victims of his hustle will never get money back from him because he can always say he didn’t promise riches.
And anyway didn’t all that money paid make them stronger?
McGill can’t claim damages, either. She’s not President of Penn any longer, but a full time law professor there, which she is, gets about $150,000 a year. And also additional income for outside speeches, for which her lecture fees now may be the highest in the nation.
So who can say what to whom, and why? Yelling fire! In a crowded theater is usually considered to be a crime.
Yelling theater! at the scene of a crime is generally seen as deranged.
The Israel-Palestine situation is not a subject for debate. Real people are suffering death by the hundreds of thousands. Who has agency and who is performative?
Larry Bensky welcomes questions and comments. Lbensky@igc.org
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Help the Warming Center
By SARAH RINGLER
The Warming Center is back in action with Warming Wednesdays. From 12-3pm at the levee-side of 150 Felker St. in Santa Cruz, people can access blankets, jackets, tents, clothing, shoes, hygiene supplies, as well as cold and wet weather support gear
Our Homeless Emergency Information Hotline 246-1234 will be updated with weather news and info regarding emergency shelters and how to access them.
Donations are needed from money to street clothing, shoes, all rain and cold-weather gear, blankets, tents, etc.
Donation Barrels are located at:
- REI Sports, on Commercial Way (next to Marshall's)
- 150 Felker St., Santa Cruz
To donate money online: Click Here. Mail money to: Warming Center Program, PO Box 462, Santa Cruz, 95061 Office is at 150 Felker St. Santa Cruz. Our Website.
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The Winds They Call Corona
By WOODY REHANEK - APRIL 2020
It's so uncouth to touch your face
we must maintain our distance
with the rich no longer recherché
the poor can't pay the mortgage.
Supply chains cross the 7 seas
on paths of least resistance
wherever they can make it cheap
the hell with local business.
Sharp growth curves make us crazy
& then comes mad consumption.
The hoi polloi fall out of grace
without a one-check cushion.
Rebel youths they gather
with bravado in the rubble
they think boomers grabbed the plunder
& left them worlds of trouble.
Our topple-down economy
has cratered, plain to see
if back-to-work will set us free
then let's forget the quarantine.
The problem is, the virus spreads
like wildfire in close quarters
it's hard to make it when you're dead
from winds they call Corona.
The boom's gone bust, so give
your life for the economy
if it's hi-ho, to work we must,
ignore the piles of bodies.
To hunker down is pretty mild
& leaves less carbon footprint
we're no longer running wild
to make us feel important.
Forget the trouble coming round
just think how quiet things have been
just wait for checks to bail us out
let's bend to tend a life in Zen.
******
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
Persimmons decorate their own tree in the winter.
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Winter in the Valley
of the Birds
By KATHLEEN KILPATRICK
Here, in this fertile valley,
Demeter does not put on
her snowy cloak, although,
frequently for days on end,
she dons a silver shawl,
and sometimes weeps.
Still, she keeps the colors,
trees and bushes wear
bold green, red berries,
gold and scarlet, purple,
even bare trees may hang
with orange persimmons,
pomegranates shaded
the magenta of dark blood.
Her fields, a patchwork:
deep, adobe brown
awaiting rain, and then
too wet too plow and shape,
pale white expanses draped,
and also waiting in suspense,
for berries to begin again,
green hills and leafy rows,
a promise: cows and people
will not go hungry.
And yet, sometimes
she walks beside
the dark and stormy sea,
wondering, where is
that other world,
the underground one
where her daughter sleeps?
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Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report - Rt Numbers Decreasing
By SARAH RINGLER
The California Department of Public Health and Santa Cruz County Health Department regularly release data on the current status of Covid-19 in the county. Since cases are still appearing, and there are still vulnerable people, I will continue reporting the graphs below.
There have been some changes in how the state and county report data. The California Department of Public Health now reports data on Covid 19 as well as other respiratory viruses like influenza (flu) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
At-home Covid-19 test kits that were sent free from the government earlier are now expiring. The program that started in Jan. 2022 has distributed 600 million test kits. If you still have those tests, before using, check the date on your box or go HERE to get more information. Over a month ago, the Biden administration announced that it will provide four free tests per household that will be delivered by the US Postal Service. Go HERE to order.
The three graphs below give a picture of what is happening as of Dec. 27. The first graph below shows the Rt Number. Numbers above one show the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing.
The second graph below shows data that the Health Department collects for Covid from wastewater at the City Influent, for the city of Santa Cruz, and from the Lode Street pump stations for the county.
The third graph below shows hospitalizations.
The vaccination data for the county has stayed fairly constant increasing very little over time. Go HERE for new information on vaccination records, treatments, vaccines, tests, safety in the workplace and more.
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Photo Tarmo Hannula
Fashion Street - Is there or is there not a detour ahead in downtown Watsonville?
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Labor History Calendar - Dec. 29 - Jan. 5, 2024
a.k.a Know Our History Lest We Forget
Dec. 29, 1890: Wounded Knee massacre of Oglala Sioux, Pine Ridge, S.D.
Dec. 30, 1936: GM sit-down spreads to Flint, Michigan.
Dec. 31, 1969: UMW dissident Joseph Yablonski murdered by gun thugs
Jan. 1, 1831: Garrison founds Liberator, abolitionist newspaper.
Jan. 1, 1994: Zapatista rebels attack government building in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
Jan. 2, 1905: Conference of Industrial Unionists in Chicago leads to formation of IWW.
Jan. 3, 1917: Mooney tried in San Francisco in bombing frame-up.
Jan. 3, 1932: Martial law declared in Honduras to quell revolt started by sacked United Fruit Co. workers.
Jan. 3, 1964: 450,000 NYC public school students strike against de facto racial segregation and poor conditions.
Jan. 4, 1966: Transport Workers Union officials jailed in NYC transit strike.
Jan. 5, 1869: 1st Black Labor Convention.
Labor History Calendar has been published yearly by the Hungarian Literature Fund since 1985.
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“Yes, Marcos is gay. Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10pm, a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.
Marcos is all the exploited, marginalized, oppressed minorities resisting and saying `Enough'. He is every minority who is now beginning to speak and every majority that must shut up and listen. He is every untolerated group searching for a way to speak. Everything that makes power and the good consciences of those in power uncomfortable --
this is Marcos.”
― Subcomandante Marcos
On Jan. 1, 1994, Zapatista rebels, the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, tired of being ignored by the Mexican government and suffering from poverty and neglect, attack government buildings in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. Following the Jan. 1 attack, the EZLN created a de facto autonomous territory in parts of the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. They refused all government help and set up their own education, health and governmental system. It was just disbanded this year in November but the movement is still alive. This year they are planning a four-day celebration. See information below.
From the EZLN website https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/:
"The Zapatista communities and the EZLN invite all people, groups, collectives, associations, organizations and movements that signed the so-called Declaration for Life, the indigenous peoples gathered in the National Indigenous Congress, the International Sixth, the non-governmental organizations defenders of human rights and, especially, those whose destiny is in artistic creation, to the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of the war against oblivion.
The celebration will be on Dec. 30 and 31, 2023 and Jan. 1 and 2, 2024. Guests will be able to arrive from the 29th, not before that day."
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
St. Louis Gooey Cake - Pass It On
By SARAH RINGLER
This recipe appeared in Melissa Clark’s column in the New York Times in November 2009. It appealed to me because it looked simple enough and was different; it has a yeast crust with a topping that Clark describes as, “yeasty on the bottom, like a babka, and sweet and gooey on top, like a cheesecake but stickier.” Sounded good to me.
Because of the yeasty crust, you need a few hours to prepare this. Also, be aware that the final result turned out to look more like a bar cookie than a cake.
As you can see in the photo, I halved the recipe and made it in a eight-inch square pan.
When I looked up information on the Internet I came across many versions of cake with the same name. Some used a yellow cake mix as the crust with a cream cheese topping. Other recipes called for almond flavoring. The next time I make this I’m going to try the almond flavoring or some lemon rind.
The mythical origin is attributed to a German baker in St. Louis who, in the 1930s, confused the amounts of sugar and flour while attempting to make a regular cake. So, here’s the benefits of that confusion.
St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake
Crust:
3 tablespoons room temperature milk
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
6 tablespoons unsalted butter – room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Topping:
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 large egg
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Confections sugar for sprinkling on the top.
In a small bowl, mix milk with 2 tablespoons warm water. Add yeast and whisk gently until it dissolves. Mixture should foam slightly.
Using an electric stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and salt. Add yeast mixture. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat in the egg. Alternately add flour and the milk mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition. Beat dough on medium speed until it forms a smooth mass and pulls away from sides of bowl, 7 to 10 minutes.
Press dough evenly into an ungreased 9-by 13-inch baking dish. Cover dish with plastic wrap or clean tea towel, put in a warm place, and allow to rise until doubled, 2½ to 3 hours.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. To prepare topping, in a small bowl, mix corn syrup with 2 tablespoons water and the vanilla. Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat in the egg. Alternately add flour and corn syrup mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition.
Spoon topping in large dollops over risen cake and use a spatula to gently spread it in an even layer. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes; cake will rise and fall in waves and have a golden brown top, but will still be liquid in center when done. Allow to cool in pan before sprinkling with confectioners’ sugar for serving.
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Subscribe, contact or find back issues at the website https://serf-city-times.constantcontactsites.com
Thanks, Sarah Ringler
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Welcome to Serf City Times Our county has problems and many people feel left out. Housing affordability, racism and low wages are the most obvious factors. However, many groups and individuals in Santa Cruz County work tirelessly to make our county a better place for everyone. These people work on the environment, housing, economic justice, health, criminal justice, disability rights, immigrant rights, racial justice, transportation, workers’ rights, education reform, gender issues, equity issues, electoral politics and more. Often, one group doesn’t know what another is doing. The Serf City Times is dedicated to serving as a clearinghouse for those issues by letting you know what is going on, what actions you can take and how you can support these groups.This is a self-funded enterprise and all work is volunteer.
Copyright © 2023 Sarah Ringler - All rights reserved
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