Rallying in S.F. for a living wage

SAN FRANCISCO--Sixty labor organizers, immigrant rights activists and their supporters gathered on October 19 to protest the effects of the economic crisis is having on working people and to demand a living wage.

"We feel we have an answer to the current economic crisis," said Karl Kramer of the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, "and that's bottom-up economics. Instead of giving a trillion dollars to the bankers and hedge funds, the money should be going to increasing people's wages."

The protest--sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121, the California Nurses Association, Instituto Laboral de la Raza, the ILWU Northern California District Council, UFCW Local 101 and SEIU Local 1021, among many other organizations--also demanded universal health care, affordable housing, quality public education and a progressive taxation of corporations and the wealthy. Protesters called for "social and economic justice for all regardless of race or immigration status."

San Francisco is one of the least affordable cities to live in the U.S., second only to New York. San Francisco has a higher than national minimum-wage requirement of $9.36 per hour, yet as protester Antonio Arbarca said, "Here in San Francisco, you have to at least be making $18 to $20 an hour just to make ends meet. So making minimum wage or making $10 an hour is not enough."

Citing the failing economy and the budget woes of state and municipal governments, Anna Chavez Fisher, a worker at City College of San Francisco, expressed her concern about teacher layoffs in the San Francisco Unified School District.

Many protesters were afraid of the impact that the deepening recession and budget crisis will have on future generations. "I got kids and bills to pay." said Alonzo Reed, who joined the rally. "And when things go bad with the economy, they'll lock me up for stealing." Referring to the show of force by the police at the rally, Reed said, "Look at them watching us. They should be watching the executives on Wall Street. They're the one's who are stealing."

Reed, who was in the U.S. military and whose father was in the service for 27 years, expressed his disgust with the government's priorities. "What's happening to our kids' money?" he asked.

As labor organizers and immigrant families marched through the Mission District, a predominantly working-class neighborhood of San Francisco, they chanted "¡Sí se puede!" and "Living wage. Yes! Poverty wage. No. Corporate greed has got to go!" At the rally at 24th Street and Mission, several speakers talked about the attacks faced by undocumented immigrant workers. They demanded an end to repressive raids that are breaking up of working families.

Several speakers also urged participants to attend another rally later that day to protest the Mortgage Bankers Association, which is holding its national conference at the Moscone Center, with the demand, "No to foreclosures and evictions--housing is a right!"