by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

Workers score a win – ­Workers and labor activists celebrate after a judge ruled in their favor against Woodfin Hotel (photo courtesy of working East Bay)­

The Emeryville City Council voted unanimously in a special hearing on August 27th, ordering the Woodfin Suites Hotel to pay about $300,000 in fines and back wages to workers. In a milestone for the protracted battle between the hotel and its housekeeping staff which has brought immigrant and living wage issues to the forefront of city politics, the Council’s rejection of the Woodfinís appeal of an earlier decision is final.

After a rally outside the city hall, over 200 workers, supporters and activists packed the hearing, crowding both of the hall’s chambers and the overflow basement. For months, workers and activists have picketed the hotel, demanding that the company pay back wages to housekeepers who were illegally underpaid under the Cityís living wage law.

The Woodfin has until September 14th to pay the wages and the fines, though they have announced that they wonít accept this decision. If the hotel refuses to obey, Emeryville would have to sue to make them pay.

The saga at the hotel began last Dec. 11 when the hotel put 21 immigrant workers on two-week paid leave after workers demanded that the hotel comply with Emeryville’s 2005 living wage ordinance. It then fired the workers, claiming that their Social Security numbers did not match government records. Earlier this year, the city of Emeryville conducted an investigation of the workers’ claims that they were retaliated against and that they are owed a substantial amount of back wages.

“This is not charity these are wages that the workers earned for themselves and deserve to be paid,” said Brooke Anderson, Organizing Director at the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, speaking to KTVU news.

Luz, who worked at Woodfin for 3 years and has become a spokesperson on the issue, said that for years the hotel never questioned her immigration status, until the workers began to ask that the hotel comply with the city wage regulations. When Woodfin fired the 21 workers, it justified the action by saying that they were afraid of Immigration, though it was later revealed that the hotel had used its influence with the Republican party to call in the immigration authorities themselves. Woodfin’s lawyer Bruno Katz, who was escorted out of the hearing at one point for speaking out of turn, made a statement backing up the hotel’s actions as an effort to comply with Immigration and C  For the past two decades employers have threatened, and often implemented, similar terminations across the nation.

“Firings for no-match discrepancies are a misuse of the Social Security database,” reported David Bacon in The Nation. “Employers have used those efforts as pretexts to discharge employees when they organize unions, demand better wages and try to enforce labor standards, or simply to replace higher-paid workers with lower-paid ones.”

“We do not have the workers our economy needs to keep growing each year,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said at a recent press conference. “The demographics simply are not on our side. Ultimately, Congress will have to pass comprehensive immigration reform.”­

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by the El Reportero news services

Hugo Chávez

After months of speculation since his decisive electoral triumph in December 2006, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez finally presented the details of his proposed constitutional reform last week.

The reform, drawn up under the enabling law he passed at the turn of the year, which granted the executive full powers to legislate in key areas, is designed to enshrine the concept of 21st century socialism into a new constitution by 2008.

Chávez presented the constitutional reform to the 167-seat national assembly, which unanimously approved it in the first of three readings on 21 August. It will then be presented to the Venezuelan people in the form of a referendum.

Chavez’s largesse unprecedented in Latin America

TOOLS CARACAS, Venezuela – Laid-off Brazilian factory workers have their jobs back, Nicaraguan farmers are getting low-interest loans and Bolivian mayors can afford new health clinics, all thanks to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Bolstered by windfall oil profits, Chavez’s government is now offering more direct state funding to Latin America and the Caribbean than the United States.

A tally by the Associated Press shows Venezuela has pledged more than $8.8 billion in aid, financing and energy funding so far this year. While the most recent figures available from Washington show $3 billion in U.S. grants and loans reached the region in 2005, it isn’t known how much of the Venezuelan money has actually been delivered. And Chavez’s spending abroad doesn’t come close to the overall volume of U.S. private investment and trade in Latin America. But in terms of direct government funding, the scale of Venezuela’s commitments is unprecedented for a Latin American country.

Opposition swings again at Ecuador’s Correa

On 23 August the supreme court asked congress to strip President Rafael Correa of his immunity so that he could be tried for criminal libel. Congress is unlikely to give the supreme court permission to try the president but it may well use the threat to force President Correa not to dissolve congress as soon as the constituent assembly is elected. The constituent assembly elections are on 30 September, and Correa as become increasingly outspoken about congress, calling it a sewer that needs to be shut down. Even some of Correa’s supporters fear that without congress there will be no checks of the executive.

Realignment in the Mercosur

The past month saw a realignment in the Mercosur, the South American customs union with ambitions of becoming a political alliance. It all started with the successive visits of the Argentine and Brazilian Presidents, Néstor Kirchner and Lula da Silva, to Mexico.

The visits brought Mexico closer to the Mercosur, but also revealed differences between Argentina and Brazil. Lula also embarked on a tour of Central America and the Caribbean, prompting the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, to take a counter-tour to strengthen his position in South America. Chávez had a clear advantage over Lula in their struggle for infl uence in the region. Yet a Venezuelan link to an Argentine scandal has offset this balance.

by Salome Eguizabal

Several organizations and distinguished scholars have added their voices to the Defend the Honor campaign to press the Public Broadcasting Service and Ken Burns to disclose what additional footage has been 5included in his World War II documentary.

This, they say, is essential for them to evaluate the TV documentary’s representation of Latinos.

The first episode in the series of seven programs is scheduled to air Sept. 23, coinciding with Hispanic Heritage month.

Eleven Latino organizations and 52 individuals— 18 of whom hold Ph.D.s—released a public statement Aug. 20 emphasizing that the issue is far from resolved and they will continue pressing for a solution The campaign expects the list of supporters to grow in the upcoming weeks.

The list includes prominent Latino figures such as author Sandra Cisneros, former FCC commissioner Gloria Tristani and former California Congressman Esteban Torres.

Besides requesting a meeting with PBS and Ken Burns to discuss the new material, the advocates are demanding an explanation as to how the network plans to incorporate Latino perspectives in future projects.

Burns’ documentary initially excluded any mention of Hispanic participation in the war.

In response to constant public pressure, Burns says he has added 28 minutes to the series, featuring interviews with two Hispanics Marines and one Native American.

“We want to see how the Latino experience is depicted,” Gus Chávez, co-chair of the Defend the Honor campaign, told Weekly Report. “We do not know how an add-on piece of less than 25 minutes of footage covering Latinos can be representative.”

Burns said in early May he would include the additional footage following talks with the American Gl Forum and the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility. The Forum chapter in San Antonio now has joined with the Defend the Honor campaign.

“Ken Burns cannot choose to make a secret deal with only two of the many Latino groups that were involved in discussion with him and PBS, and then claim that the matter is resolved,” stated Marta Garcia, a co-founder of Defend the Honor.

Jess Quintero, president of the Hispanic War Veterans of America—another advocacy group in the forefront of this issue— told Weekly Report that PBS’s World War II project has so far failed Hispanic and Native American veterans.

“We feel that by not including the contributions of Latinos and Native Americans, Mr. Burns and PBS are practicing media exclusion,” said Quintero, adding that, “We are intent on continuing to press the issue even after the so-called documentary airs.”

Quintero called on PBS in the future to: 1) Make a commitment to projects that are inclusive and equal, 2) to tell the truth, and 3) to implement review boards to assess the fairness and inclusion of their planned programming.

“If the history of the United States is to be told’ let it be told inclusively of those Hispanic and Native American warriors who fought so bravely,” Quintero said.

Other advocates expressed the hope that regardless of how the current issue with “The War” concludes, the Latino protests over exclusion will force PBS to adhere to better standards for future projects.

“PBS will never again exclude Latinos when it comes to making programming of this magnitude because they continue to be criticized by the Latino community at large,” Chávez said. “This has become the core issue of the year.”

Chávez said Defend the Honor continues to write letters to companies that are promoting the documentary.

“We want to let them know what they’re being accomplices to.”

Hispanic Link.