Return to Goal 4. Strengthen Social Justice

Labor in Richmond

Improving the Lives of Working Families

The history of Richmond is tied to its role in the economy as a center of industry. The industries of Richmond have required a consistent labor pool that has drawn people from around the world throughout the twentieth century. The workers of Richmond are the ones that have allowed companies like Chevron Texaco and Kaiser become incredibly wealthy trans-national corporations.

The government and health care sectors have also been among the largest employers in the greater Richmond area. The school district, municipal, county, state and federal governments have all been significant employers of the people of the greater Richmond area. Kaiser – Permanente, the Doctor’s Hospitals, and many smaller clinics and private providers have always employed many of Richmond’s people.

Richmond has had issues of chronic unemployment since its heyday as a shipyard. Millions of dollars have been spent through the decades on employment programs and employer incentives to address this problem. Labor market segmentation and discrimination in the work place has always been an issue in the employment arena is still too common.

Economic development strategies emphasizing unrestricted outward growth in El Sobrante and Hilltop and upscale development in the Marina and Point Richmond has historically benefited developers and workers not from Richmond. Housing development has been targeted to the fringes of the city has allowed the housing stock in central Richmond deteriorate or disappear. The largest employer in Richmond, Chevron Texaco, historically has a workforce that is less than 15% Richmond residents. Local government is now going through a period of ugly and divisive downsizing and layoffs. Immigrant day laborers have been victims of police harassment and are frequently ripped by nonpayment by casual employers.

Richmond is in desperate need of recognizing the importance of a healthy, well-educated and skilled work force and its relationship to fair, healthy and respectful employment – all workers should be paid a living wage and health insurance for them and their families. Small business is still the primary employer of local workers and must be supported and promoted. The institutional employers have many issues to resolve in a fashion that respects the community’s needs and workers ability to make a living wage.

City of Richmond

The City of Richmond is in the midst of an historic financial crisis. This has been accomplished trough gross mismanagement and corruption at the highest levels of city management and the City Council. Contract negotiations with all bargaining units are now taking place. Recent layoffs have disproportionately fallen on the backs of members of SEIU 790. The public safety employees, police and fire, have used their extraordinary influence on City Council members to obtain early retirement plans that are financially untenable during this prolonged recessionary economy. These same employees are now refusing to participate in the same benefit sharing arrangement SEIU 790 employees have agreed to if the other bargaining units do the same. It is time for the City of Richmond to revisit and and, if necessary revise provisions in the public safety contracts. Unfortunately, cost sharing in benefits payments is a method that has become increasingly more common as government has been starved through tax cuts and tax shifting.

Increasing Local Employment Opportunities

Traditional efforts at increasing employment opportunities such as job skills development, integration of educational institutions and employers and economic incentives for employers should be maintained and increased. Past efforts to establish “Hire Richmond First” type programs should be strengthened and given more teeth if companies want to do business with the city, especially if they are going to be long-term contracts.

Since small business is the primary employer of the community, more resources should be directed at providing opportunities for community members to receive small business loans to help infill develop the historical commercial thoroughfares. Recent immigrants from Mexico, Latin America, South and South East Asia and have pioneered this effort without much assistance. Providing greater support in establishing and expanding these efforts should be encouraged. By re-establishing and expanding a thriving small business culture there will be a greater sense of community enhancing the economy and public safety.

Current trends toward big box companies and chain store development does nothing to enhance community and serve to drive down wages in the community. They send their profits out of the community rather than recirculating them in the community.

The public education system must be better calibrated to educating the youth of the community in fields that will help integrate them into the local and regional economy, provide skills in entrepreneurialism and business management, all with a perspective of sustainable growth and responsible community development.

Jornaleros – Day Workers

All work is dignified and all workers should be treated with respect. In recent years Richmond has attracted more and more immigrant workers who provide day labor to a variety of contractors in construction and landscaping. These workers are primarily Latinos. They have been victimized by unscrupulous employers who hire them, then fail to pay them because they are immigrants and have now where to turn for justice. They have been the victims of police harassment who try to clear them away from prospective employers. Recently an agreement was crafted between the Jornaleros and the Richmond Police Department that is a model for respectful relations. This agreement should also be adopted by the El Cerrito Police Department. Furthermore, the Richmond Progressive Alliance calls for the elimination from the Richmond Municipal Code of Section 14.72
which is the unconstitutional prohibition of the right of day laborers to gather throughout the city to make it known that they are available for work. The Mexican American Legal
Defense and Education Fund took the City of Los Altos, CA to court and forced the city to “eliminate the “no solicitation zones” and to recognize this right