Labor

Construction boom brings industry jobs back to the Bay Area

Eight years after the financial meltdown on Wall Street, the Bay Area construction industry has finally managed to recover all the jobs it lost in the Great Recession. “From what I’ve seen and heard, we are doing better now than we were before the recession,” said Andreas Cluver, secretary-treasurer of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County, an umbrella organization of building trade unions. “We now have people coming off one job and quickly being called back out…

Night shift workers speak out against sexual assault

Leticia Soto—single mother, undocumented worker and rape survivor—stood in the auditorium at the Oakland State Building and addressed the crowd. In one hand, Soto clasped a placard reading: “When you’re alone at night, no one can hear you.” In the other, she gripped the microphone. “Just because I’m an immigrant or just because I’m a janitor does not mean I need to live in fear of being raped,” she said. Soto, along with sexual assault support groups and a union…

Employees file lawsuit against popular Bay Area restaurant

About 100 current and former employees of the popular Bay Area restaurant chain Burma Superstar have filed a lawsuit claiming pay and benefit violations. The workers claim that Burma Superstar—in its three restaurants in San Francisco, Oakland and Alameda—routinely failed to pay minimum wages or overtime, while denying mandatory breaks and sick leave. The lawsuit also alleges the restaurants failed to keep accurate payroll records. The restaurant had not yet responded publicly to the lawsuit as of Sunday. Efforts to…

Labor Day picnic celebrates working person, attendees talk politics

Union members from Oakland and surrounding cities came to Alameda Point Park on Monday to enjoy some free hot dogs and to celebrate their solidarity at the annual East Bay Labor Day picnic. Political activity was not on the official program, but talk of the election could be heard coming from nearly every tent.