Las Vegas: Part One

I flew into Las Vegas on Friday morning and Cesar, Karla and Sam greeting me with flowers at the airport. Cesar is the lead organizer for OPEIU whom I met at the training in Santa Fe. Sam and Karla are shop stewards for the OPEIU taxi workers in Las Vegas who are taking a leave to work as organizers for their union. As we drove to the office the group give me the low-down. There are seventeen taxi companies in Las Vegas. Unlike in New York, the Transit Authority (the government body that regulates the taxis) only issues medallions to taxi companies and not individual drivers. There are seventeen cab companies in Las Vegas. OPEIU represents the drivers at five large companies; the Steelworkers represent the drivers and four large companies. The remaining eight small companies are unorganized. About two years ago OPEIU and USW formed a partnership called the Alliance for Taxi and Limousine Drivers. The two unions organizer independently but coordinate on industry-wide issues.

Unfortunately, Nevada is a Right-to-work state so not all workers at an organized employer have to join the union. This makes collective action especially challenging. At OPEIU's largest company, Yellow Checker Star, about a thousand drivers are in the union and six hundred are not. Caesar was recently given ninety days to sign-up one hundred and fifty new members at YCS so he brought on Sam and Karla to launch an internal organizing campaign. The union is currently in contract negotiations with YCS so it is important that the workers build as much support among themselves as possible. The organizers have been struggling to sign up new drivers because many don't see the union as a source of power in the face of the Transit Authority. About a year and a half ago the TA began authorizing a flood of new medallions so that there is an excess supply of drivers on the road. Many drivers who used to earn a decent living from the job are now struggling to make ends meet. The workers are trying to bargain a contract with YCS but at the same time a fighting among themselves to create a strong union.

Our task for the day was to sign-up new members at Yellow Checker Star and also get the contact information of drivers who are interesting in participating in an action for a better contract. Organizers are not allowed on company property so we opened up shop outside of the parking lot where the employer keeps the taxis. We sent up a table and stopped drivers as they were pulling in and out of the lot. Karla, Sam and I must have stopped three hundred cars over the course of the day. We were able to sign up a few and compiled a long list of contacts but we still spoke to so many drivers who were angry with the union and angry with the TA.

My day in the field with the organizers reminded me a lot of working at NYHTC. Like hotel workers, cab drivers come from all over the world. Management too takes advantage of cultural divisions as uses it to divide the workers. The cab drivers shared a lot of the same frustrations as the workers at Local 6, just as the staff here face a lot of the same challenges as the staff in New York. Cesar ended up offering me a job with the Alliance. I kindly declined but would recommended this challenging yet exciting position to anyone out there who is looking.

I was exhausted from yacking on my feet by the end of the day, though it was an eye opening opportunity. I really value learning from the different organizing experiences out there.



Cesar, Karla, Sam at Alliance office; Sam with my sign from the airport


Stopping cabs as the leave the lot

Charmed: Six Hours in the Hollywood Hills

I got into LA after midnight and would have fallen asleep at the wheel driving to Alex's new place if my renal car's GPS wasn't barking at me every two seconds. One can imagine the challenges of the course without a navigation system - below is a map of the roads from the freeway exit to the house, not to mention the 30 degree incline:



The east face of the house borders Griffin Park and with the panorama windows alongside my bed on the couch I felt like I was on an ideal camping trip: all things I like about camping ("nature") with out the aspects I hate (the weather, the accomodations, giant mountain lions, sleeping outside). It was helpful to have the sun as an alarm clock since I had to wake up so early to drive to Bakersfield. I was quite enchanted by the vision of the Hollywood sign from the back of the house on my way out of town. I think I stopped hating LA (I wanna be a STAH!)


Downtown LA by night; by day


Camping!


View from the mater bedroom; neighbors


Proof of wildlife (fox prints? pumas?); Griffin Park - whence came that critter

Petaluma, CA: "Magnetic Hill"

I want to add more context to this but I am running out the door to performance rehearsal (for the 2/18 show!) and then leaving straight for the airport. I'm flying into LAX late tonight and driving up to Bakersfield tomorrow morning and then driving back to LA/flying into SFO tomorrow night. I think I will be computer-less for a minute (I'm flying to Vegas first thing Friday AM) so I wanted to leave my five (!) readers with a little something for now:

Fringe Culture

Inspired by a fantastic creme flapper dress recently lost on Ebay, Lula and I set out today to buy some fringe for a little DIY project. In my articulation of an ideal near future I will be performing so many solo burlesque numbers that I will require many homemade costumes with yards and yards of fringe. Today's effort was an experiment to test the feasability of this (at least the a costuming end). I ended up buying four yards of green fringe and a couple of fugly pink flowers. On the way home I stopped off at Mission Thrift and bought a vintage bra. In my fringe fury I also bought a black flapper dress. On Mission and 22nd I passed a Chinese grocery store and picked up a sunny red lantern (with yellow fringe on the bottom!)


Dress and lantern swish

It didn't take me too long to glue on the fringe. All in all it was pretty easy, but at 4 bucks a yard I think I can find a better deal from a trimming store downtown. Man, if I lived in NYC I would know exactly where to go. In SF, I am stuck yelping everything like a little tourist.


Hubba hubba!

I am satisfied with the overall outcome - it looks great with a lil shimmy in it! I think I will use shorter trim next time and maybe a better color.

GOTV

I have been volunteering around elections since before I could vote. This generally violates my long standing (subject of college admission essay) philosophy (for another blog post) about electoral politics but on a micro level I think it is an important exercise. I remember flyering for "Row H" with the Working Families Party during the 2000 presidential elections and Clinton's congressional race. I went on house visits with 1199/WFP for Ydanis Rodriguez city council race for the 10th District in Washington Heights 2001. I did some voter reg in college but regrettably, I wasn't very involved in the GOTV efforts in '04.


Super Tuesday or States abstaining from Mardi Gras festivities?

I met Nischit last night (finally!) at the Alameda Central Labor Council in Oakland. She and her colleagues have been GOTVing there for the past two weeks. I put in an hour or so with them. We called up all the union members in the county remind them of their polling site. We asked them to vote NO on California Propositions 94-97 on the Indian gaming legislation which are some seriously anti-worker deals. I voted yesterday at City Hall but I am eager to see the results of today's polls.

World's Large Rubber Band Ball: Access Denied

As promised in the last video blog, I went hunting today for the Large Rubber Band Ball (exact superlative now unknown). My journey led me to the Pride Superette on 22nd and Guererro, the rumoured repository of the elastic wonder. Upon entering I approached the shop clerk about the ball. My question elicited an emotional response. In a tenor shy of a shriek, he told me I would never be able to see it, that it was long gone, that he lost the world record by a mere 700 pounds, that he was a failure. When I pressed him to see it he only grew more hysterical and continued to yell at me even as I walked out the door. Needless to say I was quite disappointed, though nothing could compare to this man's utter sense of disillusion with the Guinness Book and the world itself.

I did a bit of research online and found that the shop owner, Samir Keishk, lost the World Record for Largest Rubber Band Ball several years back to Delaware college student John Bain. Bain's record was later beat in 2006 by Steve Milton if Chicago, Illinois. The current champion stands at over 6 feet and 4,600 pounds.

http://www.gettingit.com/article/522

http://bestof.sfweekly.com/bestof/award.php?award=28382

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_band_ball



Despite this apparent dead end, I vow to return - perhaps during a different shift. I will hug that ball!! In the meantime I leave you with a 2005 shot of Aurthur Goldstein of Ocean Park, Brooklyn with his very large ball of twine.

The Year of the Rat

For a split second today the rain clouds parted to let some sun shine onto the city for the first time in days. Phillip and I took advantage of the UV rays during an afternoon in Chinatown, one of the greatest treasures in San Francisco. With the New Year only a week away the streets were bustling. Shop and sidewalk merchants alike hawked red and gold decorations for the celebration. We found a new tea pot. We went to the San Francisco Fortune Cookie Factory, a tiny operation on Ross Alley. We went for a proper tasting and lesson at a tea house. Phillip bought a new orchid. Gung hay fat choy!