| CPA Spring 2007 Newsletter |
| Download CPA's Spring 2007 Newsletter here. |
| Common Roots Summer Program Applications Available |
|
Come Join Common
Roots
Organize for Environmental Justice in the SUMMER Program runs from July 9th 2007
thru August 17th 2007
Download
the CR Informational Brochure here (PDF)
Download the 2007 Summer Application here (MS Word) We are a youth organizer program between People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER) and the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA). We aim to unite youth from the Latino and Chinese communities in SF to build grassroots community power and find commonalities between the two historically segregated low-income communities. Our Requirements are: - Be interested in developing leadership and organizing skills to further help the SF community. - Participate in all workshops, activities, and events. - Ages: 14-19 Rewards: - To meet new people and other youth from the community - Have fun on our trips - Build leadership and develop organizing skills - Gain real-world experience - Learn issues around the community - Free food and transportation - Looks great in a resume, transcripts, and college applications |
| Chinatown Residents To Hold Candlelight Vigil for Peace and Justice |
| For Immediate Release Contact: Eric Shih, (415) 391-6986 x 303 MEDIA ADVISORY 3/15/07 Chinatown Residents To Hold Candlelight Vigil for Peace and Justice Immigrant Youth, Seniors, and Working Families Oppose War in Iraq on 4th Anniversary WHAT: Chinatown Community Anti-War Candlelight Vigil WHEN: Friday, 3/16/07, 6:00pm – 7:30pm WHERE: Portsmouth Square, Upper Plaza San Francisco Chinatown (between Clay and Washington) San Francisco—Residents in San Francisco’s Chinatown and the Chinese Progressive Association will host a candlelight vigil to mark the 4th anniversary of the U.S. war in Iraq and to symbolize Chinese immigrants’ unity in their continued opposition to the unjust war. The vigil will take place on Friday, 3/16, from 6:00 – 7:30pm at Portsmouth Square in San Francisco Chinatown and will include speeches, presentations, music, and poetry. Speakers and presenters will discuss the impact of the war on immigrant working-class families and youth from a personal perspective, and there will be candlelight at sunset along with readings of historic Chinese anti-war poems. This event will be conducted bilingually in English and Cantonese. In addition to Chinatown residents, attendees are expected from the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC), Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition Against War (APICAW), and the May 1st Alliance, which includes St. Peter’s Housing Committee, La Raza Centro Legal, Day Labor Program, and People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER). The Chinese Progressive Association will also be participating in the 4th anniversary anti-war march and rally happening in San Francisco on Sunday, 3/18, and will be gathering in Chinatown at Portsmouth Square at 11:00am as well as at Embarcadero BART (Drumm St. and Market) at 11:30am. CPA will march with a group of our immigrant Chinese members and have Chinese/English banners, signs, and chants. |
| King Tin Restaurant Workers Win Groundbreaking $85,000 Wage Settlement |
| CASE HIGHLIGHTS
SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATION AND THE NEED FOR STRONGER
ENFORCEMENT OF LABOR LAWS IN CHINATOWN 2/23/07 San Francisco - Last week upon the Chinese New Year holiday, seven former King Tin Restaurant workers joined with the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), community supporters and representatives from San Francisco's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) and City Attorney’s Office to celebrate a groundbreaking economic justice victory. At media event at CPA's office, checks ranging from $8,000 to $23,000 were distributed to the workers, all monolingual Chinese-speaking immigrants, providing them with a combined $85,000 in back wages and interest owed to them by the restaurant since 2004. The case is the first involving legal action by the City to enforce San Francisco's Minimum Wage Ordinance, and it highlights the need for strong collaboration between community based worker centers and government agencies to ensure justice for society's most marginalized and exploited workers. Known as one of the oldest and most popular restaurants in San Francisco Chinatown for over twenty years, King Tin Restaurant abruptly closed in July 2004 and filed for bankruptcy after workers organized and contacted state labor officials about months of unpaid wages. On average, workers labored for over 55 hours a week at sub-minimum wages with no breaks, overtime, paid sick leave, health insurance or other benefits. In some of the most severe cases, dishwashers and janitors worked up to 105 hours a week, 15 hours a day and 7 days a week with no mealtime and/or breaks for what amounted to barely $3.00 per hour. In the July of 2004, King Tin Restaurant workers were unpaid for up to two months. After the fed up and desperate workers demanded their wages, contacted state labor officials and organized a press conference with the Chinese media, the two employers Kai Yuen Ng and Kem Guang Tang eventually paid the back wages. During that time, CPA educated the workers about wage and hours laws, and many of the workers discovered that the back wages they received were far below San Francisco's new higher minimum wage standard and also in violation of State overtime law. CPA and the Asian Law Caucus assisted the workers to file wage claims with the local and state labor agencies. For the last two plus years, CPA supported and organized the workers to claim the full compensation owed to them by their former employers. The workers' campaign was made more difficult when King Tin Restaurant closed down and the owners filed for bankruptcy protection, a common occurrence among Chinatown businesses that owe back wages to workers. Federal bankruptcy law places workers' wage claims at a lower priority than debts owed to "secured" creditors such as banks and the Internal Revenue Service, effectively killing most wage claims filed through the State Labor Commissioner's office. Despite the King Tin bankruptcy filing, CPA and the workers organized a series of public actions to maintain the visibility of this case, to ensure that local and state labor agencies vigorously pursue the wage claims and, more broadly, to highlight the need for stronger enforcement of labor laws. In 2005, the State Labor Commission filed suit against Tang and Ng, as part owners of the restaurant who were also in charge of its day-to-day operations, for violations of state wage and hour laws. In coordination with OLSE, the City Attorney filed a companion suit against the same former owners seeking relief for the King Tin employees under the City's Minimum Wage Ordinance. By September 2006, the City Attorney reached an out of court wage settlement with the former employers for $85,000. The King Tin settlement is a victory for all workers in the Chinese community and a sign of hope for the future. Significantly, the outcome is a rare example of holding individual owners accountable for the criminal labor abuses of their bankrupt corporation. The persistence and active involvement of the workers themselves throughout the two plus year campaign and the diligence of OLSE and the City Attorney's Office in pursuing the wage claims were keys to the positive outcome. Through this campaign CPA, local government agencies and the King Tin workers forged an effective collaboration to ensure justice. Despite this victory, the King Tin case is just the tip of the iceberg – gross violations of workers' rights are widespread in industries with a high concentration of immigrant workers. To address the broader problem of worker exploitation and prevent cases like King Tin from occurring in the first place, CPA and a coalition of community and labor groups recently worked with Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor's Office to pass Minimum Wage Enforcement legislation which strengthened the powers of OLSE, increased wage enforcement staffing and created a new worker outreach program. CPA looks forward to building on the King Tin victory and the City's increased wage enforcement capacity to step up our efforts at ensuring justice and dignity for exploited workers in the coming months and years. |
| Workers Disrupt MacWorld, Ask Apple to Tell Noel Lee to Stop Being Such a Monster |
| 1.10.06
- On Wednesday, Jan. 10, at 12:30 pm, over 50 laid-off Monster Cable
workers and their supporters marched from Yerba Buena Gardens to
various retailers including the Apple Store, CompUSA, Radio Shack and
then to the MacWorld Conference and Exposition at Moscone Center. Laid
off workers marched to expose the hypocrisy of Monster Cable CEO Noel
Lee’s claims that he can’t afford to treat workers
fairly,
and call upon Apple Computers, Inc., which sells various Monster Cable
Products, to tell Monster Cable “Stop being such a
Monster!” At both Radio Shack and CompUSA, while protesters marched outside and handed out flyers, a small delegation of workers was turned away from the store. Workers planned to deliver a brief message and letter to store managers, but the managers refused even to speak with the three workers who entered the store. At the Apple Store, the entire group entered the store. The manager Tim Cherven agreed to speak with the delegation if the rest of the workers left, and subsequently agreed to relay the message of the workers and appeal for Apple’s support, to the district-level and corporate headquarters. At MacWorld, workers entered the lobby on Moscone North and refused to leave until a senior-level management from the conference organizers came to speak with them. Security finally forced workers to move just outside the convention hall doors, on the grounds that they were creating a fire hazard. The Public Relations Manager of IDG (the group that produces MacWorld), Charlotte McCormack, informed workers that she contacted Apple but that the Public Relations Manager was off-site. She said that he has been contacted via e-mail and phone about this issue. Because there was nobody else who could to represent the company, Ms. McCormack agreed to relay the message and letter intended for Steve Jobs to the company. Workers continued to protest outside, calling on Apple to support worker justice, and drawing the attention of hundreds of MacWorld convention-goers. A huge red banner was hung briefly from the pedestrian sky-walk across Howard Street. It read, “Apple and MacUsers: Join our Fight Against a Real Monster! Monster Cable Workers Deserve Respect and Justice”. For More Info and Photos about the Monster Cable Workers Campaign, check out our blog at monstercableworkers.blogspot.com |
| “Head Monster” Says Can’t Afford More for Workers: Throws Concert in LV at CES 2007 |
| 1.9.06 - After
weeks of protest, “’Head Monster’ Noel
Lee finally met with worker representatives during the holidays, only to tell them he doesn’t have money to offer them a fair severance or support the community that made him wealthy. Meanwhile Monster Cable is organizing an expensive star-studded awards ceremony and concert for over 4,000 people at CES 2007, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, boasting that this annual show has “become the biggest social event of CES in Las Vegas.” (Monster Cable press release, December 13, 2006) “A small group of us finally met with Noel Lee, Monster Cable CEO on Dec. 30th. He told us that company finances were not good, and so he could not meet our demands,” says Yijun Huang, who worked at the factory for over 16 years. “And yet, we know that the company owns several dozen fancy sports cars and is throwing an expensive concert at the Las Vegas CES. Clearly, they are doing well! Unfortunately, the CEO doesn’t want to pay any attention to laid-off workers, so we are going to more retailers and to MacWorld. We hope that Apple will help us put some pressure on Monster Cable.” Workers are turning to Apple Computers Inc. and to electronics consumers to tell Mr. Lee “Stop being such a monster!” They hope to raise awareness about the plight of Monster Cable workers and more broadly, the issue of labor practices in the electronics industry. Currently, Monster Cable Inc. makes a number of products for Apple Computers Inc., including the iTV link, iEZClick, iSplitter, iCruze, iCarPlay, iCable and iStudioLink, which cost up to $100 per product. |
| MONSTER CABLE Worker Update! |
12.22.06 - Last weekend, over 100 laid-off Monster Cable workers and their community supporters held a press conference and holiday march for justice, delivering candy canes to major electronics retailers who carry Monster Cable Products, such as Circuit City, Cambridge SoundWorks and Guitar City for them to call on CEO Noel Lee's "holiday spirit" to fairly resolve the concerns of laid-off workers. Background On Oct. 20, 2006, Monster Cable Products, Inc. laid off over 120 production workers from their Brisbane facility, outsourcing their jobs to low-wage labor overseas to increase profits. The company is a highly profitable company which sells high end audiovisual cables, home theater equipment, etc. The laid-off workers are mostly monolingual middle-aged Chinese, Vietnamese, Latino, and Eastern European immigrants who worked an average of over 8 years and as many as 20 years for the company. Laid off workers want a just severance as with previous laid off workers and want the company to address their long term unemployment issues by contributing to a Community-Worker Transition Fund. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has introduced a resolution supporting the workers and urging Monster Cable to comply with the workers demands. The introduction of the resolution was marked by a press conference on Dec. 5th with speeches by worker leaders, Supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Tom Ammiano, local labor and community leaders, and a spirited street theater piece. ****Major Retailers that Carry Monster Products**** Best Buy Home Depot Radio Shack Frys Electronics CompUSA Target Circuit City Cambridge SoundWorks Guitar Center Apple Store |
| Volunteer! Political Empowerment Campaign |
| 10.19.06 - Join an exciting progressive
electoral campaign this election! CPA's Political Empowerment Campaign (PEC) is focused mobilizing the progressive vote and building long-term political power with CPA's growing community base! This election cycle, we are targeting 19 voter precincts of high concentration of working class Chinese immigrant voters in Chinatown and Southeast San Francisco (Portola / Silver Terrace) and focusing on passing key local and state propositions: PROP F would
require SF businesses to give workers paid sick leave allowing 116,000
low-wage workers to care for their health and that of their family
PROP H would increase the amount of relocation assistance landlords must pay tenants for "no fault" evictions PROP 86 would generate $2 billion per year for needed health services through an increase in the tax on cigarettes. We want to make over 1,500 contacts through phone banking and precinct walking and we can't do it without you! For non-Chinese speaking volunteers, we have important roles for you too! Here's how YOU can get involved... 1) PHONE BANKING - Phone banking will happen every Wednesdays night from now until the election from (10/25 & 11/1) 5:30-8:00 pm at CPA's office. We will also phone bank every Saturday from now until the election (10/14, 10/21, 10/28, 11/4) from 10:00-1:00 pm at CPA's office 2) PRECINCT WALKING - We will be concentrating our precinct walks in the Portola/Silver Terrace area and will be walking every Sunday from now until the election (10/22, 10/29, 11/5) from 10:00-1:00pm at the Palega Park Recreation Center in SF. 3) VISIBILITY WORK! Every weekend we will need to do visibility work, everything from leafleting, posting up signs, dropping literature, etc. 4) FINAL GET OUT THE VOTE! On 11/6 and election day 11/7, we will need many volunteers for our final Get Out the Vote Push through phone banking, poll checking and visibility work. (If you cannot make any of these dates, we can arrange a diferent date/time with you.) Please call or email Alex if you are interested in volunteering or need more information. 415-391-6986 x308 CPA's office is located at: 1042 Grant Ave, 5th Floor (between Jackson and Pacific) San Francisco Chinatown |
| CPA Releases Nov. 7, 2006 Election Slate Card |
| 10.16.06 - CPA's
Political Empowerment Campaign (PEC) releases its issue endorsements
for the November 7th General Election. Chinese
Progressive Association
Elections 2006 Slate Card
To increase our community’s progressive voice in the November 7th election, CPA urges you to vote on these important ballot initiatives: San Francisco Propositions Prop F: YES! Prop H: YES! California Propositions Prop 1C: YES! Prop 86: YES! Prop 87: YES! Prop 89: YES! Prop 90: NO For more information or assistance voting, call CPA at (415) 391-6986 ext. 301 |
| CPA Launches 2006 Political Empowerment Campaign |
| 10.14.06
- On Saturday, CPA will kick-off its 2006 electoral organizing
project known as the Political Empowerment Campaign (PEC) with its
close ally, PODER. As in years past, CPA will focus on educating,
organizing, and mobilizing the working-class Chinese immigrant
community to vote for social, economic, and environmental justice on
November 7th, and in this first year of collaborating with PODER, we
are hoping to contact over 1,000 Chinese and Latino voters! This year, we will be focusing our efforts on turning out "YES" votes for three San Francisco local and California statewide propositions: Prop F (Paid Sick Days for All Workers), Prop H (Protecting Tenants' Rights), and Prop 86 (Tobacco Tax Increase). If you are interested in joining up with CPA and PODER's ambitious effort to mobilize the immigrant vote here in San Francisco, please contact CPA at (415) 391-6986 x 308. Also, check back soon for CPA's full 2006 Elections Slate Card. |
| Summer Movie Nights Finish a Big Success |
| 8.19.06 - With a
total of 9 weekly screenings and over 45 youth attending this summer,
CPA Summer Movie Nights officially wrapped up this past Friday with a
screening of the L.A.-based documentary, Grassroots Rising.
Summer Movie Nights was intended to be a fun and easy way to create
social space here at CPA for the youth participating in different
summer programs like Common Roots (CR) or the Tobacco-Free Project
(TFP) to hang out with each other and their friends. Through donations
and membership dues, we also managed to fundraise enough money to pay
for our "big screen" that we used throughout the summer and continue to
use in meetings and presentations. Over the summer we screened films like Jet Li's Fearless, The Road to Guantanamo, V for Vendetta, and many others. This summer marked the debut of Movie Nights and given the positive response from our youth and allies, we will likely see its return in summers to come! Thanks to everyone who attended a movie night over the past few months, and if you weren't able to make it out this time, there's always 2007. |
| CPA Marches for Immigrant Rights |
| 4.23.06 - Since
February, the
Chinese
Progressive Association has been organizing in solidarity with all
immigrant communities in opposition to the anti-immigrant laws recently
proposed by Congress, such as HR 4437. On Sunday, CPA mobilized over 50 members--working-class immigrant workers, tenants, and youth--to march together under the banner "Dignity and Justice for All Immigrants" along with the over 10,000 other protesters in San Francisco. CPA will continue to press forward on this issue until all anti-immigrant attacks cease, opportunities for legalization of status emerge, and national focus turns to the neoliberal "free trade" policies that impoverish farmers and workers around the world and fuel global migration in the first place. Read CPA's Statement on Immigrant Rights here (PDF). |