From: Arindrajit Dube (arindube@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jul 03 2002 - 13:51:20 EDT
Help San Francisco Day Laborers!
Dear allies of the San Francisco Day Labor Program:
It is confirmed that Mayor Willie Brown will place the Day Labor Program, a project of La Raza Centro Legal, up for bid this month !! The Mayor's Office stated that La Raza Centro Legal has made the Program "too political" and is "using the day laborers for its own political agenda." Pam David, Director of the Mayor's Office of Community Development (MOCD), stated that the Mayor's decision was in response to the workers' recent "Fathers Day" protest in front of the Mayor's office. That day, around 80 day laborers protested peacefully against continuing police harassment of workers on Cesar Chavez Street.
The Mayor is retaliating against worker organizing by giving the Program to an agency that will not prioritize worker empowerment and that will agree to City Hall's "get-them-off-the-streets" policies.
WE URGENTLY NEED YOUR SUPPORT !!
This is what you can do:
1) Write A Letter to the Mayor Supporting La Raza and the DLP! (For a Sample Letter, Go To the Bottom of this Email) Willie L. Brown, Jr., Mayor , City Hall, Room 200, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102. You can also send him an email at : damayor@sfgov.org
Please fax or e-mail a copy to Elly Kugler at the Day Labor program as well, so we can keep track of how much support the program is getting: fax 255-7593 or address 474 Valencia St. #295 SF, CA 94103
2) Call Mayor Brown's Office! Please express your outrage over the Mayor's retaliatory action: (415) 554-6141 TDD: (415) 252-3107
3) Come, and Bring Others, to a Rally/Press Conference Organized by the Workers! The day laborers are organizing a rally and press conference to protest the Mayor's action.
MONDAY JULY 15 10:00 AM
THE CITY HALL STEPS
Our opponents (the racist neighbors from Bernal Heights and Inner Mission) are circulating written misinformation stating that Renee Saucedo, Program Director, has quit or was fired, and that the Program is changing hands. Please be assured that nothing is further from the truth. La Raza Centro Legal continues to run the Day Labor Program and, under the workers' leadership, will continue to fight for the Program's survival. WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP!
For more information, please contact Renee Saucedo at (415) 553-3404.
____________________________ SAMPLE LETTER ___________________________________
Dear Mayor Brown and Office of Community Development:
As a community agency member and as an ally to workers and immigrants, I respectfully demand that you leave the city’s Day Labor Program funding with La Raza Centro Legal and that you halt the open bidding process which has been initiated.
During the time in which the Day Labor Program has been under the auspices of La Raza Centro Legal, the program has succeeded in tapping into new sources of employers, has instituted a women’s collective for female workers, has prioritized hiring current and former day laborers as staff people, has obtained a membership in the San Francisco Food Bank, and has sent thousands of workers to jobs, among many other accomplishments. The sudden and unexpected open bidding process which the city has initiated interrupts the Program’s continuity and ignores the high level of services that the Program consistently provides. It also appears to be blatant retaliation against the workers for their recent Father’s Day protest at City Hall.
The Day Labor Program receives funding from the city in order to run a hiring hall and assist the workers with skills development and basic survival needs. The Day Labor Program staff spends the vast majority of its time dispatching jobs, seeking out employers, finding trainings for the workers, giving references for clothing and shelter, and assisting workers with unpaid wages and other problems. The Program also receives funding from other sources which is specifically earmarked for leadership development and community organizing with the workers. In community organizing, workers are given a space to make decisions and take action around problems which affect them. The SF Day Labor Program works hard to provide both top-notch services and opportunities for worker organizing and empowerment. This balance of service and organizing is a nationally recognized model which is utilized by dozens of organizations which are connected through the National Network of Day Laborers .
If the city truly cares about serving the day laborers instead of seeing them as a political threat, it will terminate the open bidding process. An open bidding process is a terrible idea because it breaks the Program’s continuity and mangles the carefully formed relationships of trust and accountability that the Program has with workers and employers. It takes years to find the appropriate resources to serve primarily undocumented, very low-income, monolingual workers. It also takes years to develop appropriate job development strategies for the unique employment situations that the day laborers face. The Program needs to be in the same hands for a lengthy period of time without having to spend its limited resources struggling to maintain funding.
That the mayor’s office chose to put the program up for public bid immediately after a worker protest which took place at city hall is blatant retaliation. Instead of attempting to honestly deal with workers who are working to make a difference in their lives, the Mayor’s Office is treating these workers and their program as a political threat which must be silenced.
____________________________ Name and date
_____________________________ Org
listed for id purposes only? Y / N
_____________________________ Phone number
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