CPA In The News
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
SF Examiner
July 12, 2011
By Ari Burack
SAN FRANCISCO - City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit Tuesday against a Chinatown restaurant and pastry shop for alleged underpayment of workers.Herrera said in a news release that he was hoping to recover $440,000 in back pay for seven employees of Dick Lee Pastry, Inc., located at 716 Jackson St.Herrera said the employees worked six days per week, with shifts between 11 and 14 hours per day, and were paid between $3.02 and $3.91 per hour, based on their semi-monthly wages. They also never received overtime pay as required by law, Herrera said.San Francisco’s minimum wage is $9.92.“Dick Lee Pastry stands out even among the most egregious perpetrators of wage theft in San Francisco,”...
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
SF Examiner
July 12, 2011
By Ari Burack
SAN FRANCISCO - City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit Tuesday against a Chinatown restaurant and pastry shop for alleged underpayment of workers.Herrera said in a news release that he was hoping to recover $440,000 in back pay for seven employees of Dick Lee Pastry, Inc., located at 716 Jackson St.Herrera said the employees worked six days per week, with shifts between 11 and 14 hours per day, and were paid between $3.02 and $3.91 per hour, based on their semi-monthly wages. They also never received overtime pay as required by law, Herrera said.San Francisco’s minimum wage is $9.92.“Dick Lee Pastry stands out even among the most egregious perpetrators of wage theft in San Francisco,” Herrera...
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Members of Youth MOJO share their experiences and what they learned from CPA's US/Mexico Border Exposure Trip. Listen on APEX Express.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Supervisors and activists decry businesses that deny wages to low-income workersCarly NaimSan Francisco Bay GuardianFriday, May 13, 2011http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2011/05/13/supervisors-and-activists-decry-businesses-deny-wages-low-income-workersFor one of this country's first government hearings regarding wage theft yesterday (Thurs/12), San Francisco activists, public employees, and politicians alike were determined to find ways to address issues surrounding low-income workers who are paid below minimum wage or otherwise deprived of money they're entitled to.Wage theft may involve a number of different violations including payment below the minimum wage, obligation to work off the clock, and denial of overtime and sick pay. Low-income...
Thursday, May 12, 2011
SF supervisors propose wage theft lawHeather IshimaruMay 12, 2011ABC7-KGO TV San Francisco, CAhttp://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=8128462
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco supervisors are considering a new law to protect worker's wages and benefits. Advocates say workers in a number of industries are being denied their legal due.There is a staggering statistic coming out of San Francisco's Chinatown from the Chinese Progressive Association. They say one out of every two workers there in 2010 made less than the legal minimum wage. However, the problem is not limited to Chinatown or just the restaurant business.More than a dozen workers' rights groups rallied at San Francisco City Hall in support of a...
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wage Theft RallyTFCBalingtangAmericaMay 12, 2011http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPkZIIFdHHs&feature=player_detailpage
Thursday, May 12, 2011
The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays - May 12, 2011 at 6:00pm
Click to listen (or download)
Low-wage workers from the Progressive Workers' Alliance demand an end to wage theft in San Francisco. Listen at: 32:53.
Monday, March 7, 2011
On the fifth floor of a building in Chinatown salty porridge, fried p astry, and oranges were being passed for at a special Women's Day meeting of the Chinese Progressive Association. Of course, the day itself is Tuesday , but as member Wen Lan Ro ng told me (through an interpreter), in China the holiday is a much bigger deal: women often get the day off work to go out to special meals or outings wit h their lady friends. Staff and volunteers passed out roses and folic acid vitamins to the females in the r oom, but the morning played host to a discussion of a campaign that, if successful, could be a much more sub stantial way of honoring women in our society: the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights and...
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
A complex and controversial project that would involve five San Francisco hospitals — including building a huge showcase facility for the wealthy atop Cathedral Hill — has prompted a debate about what average city residents need from the health care system.
California Pacific Medical Center, an affiliate of Sutter Health, proposes to downsize St. Luke's Hospital, which primarily serves a low-income population in the Mission District, as part of a $2.5 billion proposal to renovate and retrofit three existing medical campuses, close another one, and build housing and a megahospital on Cathedral Hill that would draw patients from around the country.
CPMC's grandiose plan was being considered strictly as a land use decision, despite...
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
CPA Members speak about Wage Theft and Restaurant Working Conditions
Friday, September 17, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO -- With its legendary culture and cuisine, Chinatown is one of the crown jewels of San Francisco, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
But because of a new report, many people might be shocked to learn how the people who serve them here are treated. “These numbers are outrageous, and frankly they are criminal,” said SF Board of Supervisors President David Chiu.The UC Berkeley, UCSF, and San Francisco Department of Public Health study found that 50 percent of restaurant workers don't make the city's minimum wage of $9.79 an hour.While 40 percent work overtime, 76 percent of them are not paid overtime. And 64 percent received no on the job training leading to more injuries.“She did not get...
Friday, September 17, 2010
Chinatown restaurants routinely pay workers less than the minimum wage, according to a study by local activists that brings the national trend of so-called wage theft home to San Francisco.
The 30-page report being released today by the Chinese Progressive Association culminates a two-year survey of about 400 workers - more than half of whom said they were being paid less than the San Francisco minimum wage, currently $9.79 per hour.
"We believe this is the largest study of its kind in the country," said Meredith Minkler, a UC Berkeley public health expert who helped train workers from Chinatown to survey their peers to penetrate the language barrier.
The reported prevalence of minimum-wage avoidance among Chinatown restaurants...
