Volume 2 Issue 42, April 15, 2022 View as Webpage
Reel Work Graphics by TONI BAUER

2022 - A Propitious Year for Labor
By SARAH RINGLER

Many of us unionists have been thrilled by the successful campaigns to unionize at the Amazon warehouse on Staten Island, as well as with MIT Graduate Students in Cambridge, MA, and Starbucks around the country.

Many of these drives have been led by the workers themselves. According to Lauren Kaori Gurley in her article, "The Amazon Labor Union Took On America's Most Powerful Company - and Won," the Amazon Labor Union spent $120,000 raised through a GoFundMe account to organize as opposed to Amazon, that has spent $4.3 million in anti-union consultants around the US. ALU became the first union in US history to successfully win a campaign against Amazon, the second-largest employer in the country. In the final tally, the union won 2,654 to 2,131.

Now, their success is inspiring others. Brett Daniels, director of organizing at the ALU and a warehouse worker at the Amazon warehouse on Staten Island was quoted in Gurley's article as saying, "Not only are these messages coming from all over the country, but from all over the world. We've had workers reach out from Japan. We're talking to workers in India, South Africa, Italy, Germany, Spain and France." This has to be one of the most propitious years for the labor movement in a long while."

In 1968, in my late teens, I was in a union when I worked the candy counter at the Millbrae Movie Theater for $1.25 an hour. I didn't know I had been in a union until I received a check of around $200 a year after I quit for underpayment of wages. Later, when I became a teacher, I joined the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers where I served as a site rep and was on the executive board for years. I'm currently the president of the retiree chapter. You might be surprised how many principal skirted around labor law and our contract. The work doesn't stop with getting a union. You need a contract and then you have to work like hell to uphold it.

Reel Work May Day Labor Film Festival Returns for Its 21st Season

For the last twenty years, the Reel Work May Day Labor Film Festival has brought films from around the world featuring issues that confront working people. It takes a long time to make a film but we hope by next year we will be able to present the story of the Amazon Labor Union.

This 21st year, we have a festival full of films that continue in this vein. Films will be live and online, available to be viewed for free for one week followed by online Zoom panels with international, national and local filmmakers and others discussing their work.

The opening week has already started with the film below, "Cuba's Life Task Combatting Climate Change." See below. Watch the film now here. Sign up to join the Apr. 16 webinair, 12-2pm, "How Cuba Combats Climate Change and How the US Blockade Affects Cuba" with Dr. Helen Yaffe, University of Glasgow Economic Historian who specializes on Cuba.

Work can be dangerous and films during the week of April 20-26 will focus on the theme "Work Can Hurt." Films include sweatshops in Cambodia, a sterile oil drilling station in Alaska, the effects of neoliberalism on public school systems and the good and bad of working at the Davenport Cement Plant.

Movies can be streamed April 20-26 and the panel discussion with filmmakers and PVFT president Nelly Vaquera-Boggs will be Apr. 26 at 7pm. Go here to sign up to watch films and join the panel. See poster below.

Jon Silver's "Foodie for the People" will be showing again at the Del Mar Theater, 1124 Pacific, Apr. 21, 7pm. See below.

To see all of this year's films, go to the Reel Works website. Serf City Times will highlight each week's presentation.
Triple Trouble Tuesday: Trio of Terrible Items Scars Santa Cruz City Council Agenda
By ROBERT NORSE 

Bad news for buskers, street vendors, and RV-dwellers hit the Santa Cruz City Council agenda Tuesday on items 24, 30, and 31 in yet another "public not wanted" Zoomed meeting. 

A "Strangle the Street Vendors" ordinance severely limits street vending, reinstitutes the "stay in your box" space restrictions on Pacific Ave., and awards special-interest legislation for brick-and-mortar stores, a return to the old regime. 

The backward-looking city council laid out their "undo the Martin v. Boise" decision last summer with the CSSO restored Sleeping/Camping Ban. We witnessed a back-from-the-grave RV ban previously vetoed by the whole Coastal Commission in 2016 last fall. Last month it was the street vendors turn to feel City Council's bad-spirited backstab, as they slip past the legislature's 2019 law temporarily cancelling the Santa Cruz's repressive downtown and Beach St. ordinances. 

Now it's the turn of anyone involved in a public protest, parade, demonstration, or regular outdoor's event to face a "no more Black Lives Matter or Food Not Bombs" events decree. 

With the power to permit being the power to destroy, Santa Cruz city staff are undertaking a thinly-disguised preemptive strike on the power of people to speak out and walk out against its gentrification agenda.

For information and to comment, go here
RosaAzul Concert at Studio Judy G
By ADAM SCOW
 
RosaAzul is a new ensemble of professional musicians that perform some of the best Mexican music with a polished flare. They will be perforning Apr. 24, at Studio Judy G in Watsonville. Led by Jose Chuy Hernandez and Adam Bolaños Scow, this performance will feature Russell Rodriguez, Assistant Professor at UCSC, on Guitarron and Jose Sanchez on trumpet.  


Apr. 24, 2pm, Doors open at 1:30pm
Studio Judy G, 430 Main St, Watsonville
$20 - adults, $10 kids, 

Studio Judy G, Watsonville’s newest art gallery, is now displaying its first group show, Welcome Aboard, that includes photographs from Tarmo Hannula. Exceptional works of art showcase the rich history and beautiful landscape of the Pajaro Valley, spanning 100 years of local history. 
Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Who cares if Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter? Who really gives a damn about 4 billionaires that are shot into space for 8 minutes. Meanwhile the US sends $800 million to Ukraine as I step over one homeless person after another on the levee and throughout downtown Watsonville, people that one dollar makes a big difference.

The disparity between the yacht club/Pebble Beach golfers, the mansions with two Teslas in the driveway and the cardboard box homes sprinkled nearly everywhere around town just really doesn’t seem to mean much to many Americans.

One day in the history books, I’m convinced we’ll look back and wonder what the hell were we thinking (or not thinking), leaving hundreds of thousands of men, women, children and the elderly to live on the levees, plazas, parks and street doorways.

My friends in downtown Santa Cruz say each night when they walk through town, almost every doorway along Pacific Avenue has someone camping in it, sleeping on cardboard beneath whatever they can find to keep them warm.

And it’s getting worse. Musk said he’d buy Twitter for $43 billion. He has that much money to throw around on a whim and ego boost. How far would that cash go in building homes for the needy? For those billionaires to go into space to take a few selfies, high-five one another, email an emoji and brag about it at the next cocktail hour really comes across as a slap in the face to so many.

What’s next, buying the Moon? Then there’s Mars. What would the Galaxy go for? 
Tarmo Hannula
Photo by TARMO HANNULA
A deer wanders the hills and open space of Corralitos.
Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report
By SARAH RINGLER

The Santa Cruz County Health Department regularly releases data on the current status of Covid-19 in the county. Total known cases as of April 14 were 48,042, up 234 cases from last week's 47,808, rounding off to a 1% rise. There were no new deaths.

The government is issuing four free Antigen Rapid Tests for free here.

Because of all the home tests currently available, these numbers are underestimates according to Corinne Hyland, County Health Services Agency spokesperson. She recommends people with minor symptoms stay home, isolate and rest.

Hospitalizations have not changed since March 10. Click to view a graph of hospitalizations here.

There have been changes in the last week in the active cases. Active cases in south county increased by 4%, north county decreased by 3% and mid county decreased by 1%. See details in the chart below.

On the county's vaccination webpage, the vaccination rate has not changed since Feb. 6; 80% of the county have had at least one dose and 74% have had two doses. Here are more details on the county's vaccination data

This webpage also has a link where you can get a digital copy and scannable QR code of your vaccination record. Keep track of your four digit code because that is your access to the site.

The county's Effective Reproductive Number is below one. See chart below. Numbers above one show the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing.

To get information of COVID-19 testing locations around the county visit this site. Click here to make an appointment to get tested.

Any Californian age 12 or up can get vaccinated for free. For information on getting vaccinated, click here.
% deaths by ethnicity:
White - 57% 
Latinx - 35%
Black - 1% 
Asian - 6%
American Native - 0%
Unknown - 0%

% deaths by gender/% of population:
Female - 49%/50% 
Male - 51%/50% 

Deaths by age/259:
25-34 - 2%
35-44 - 3%
45-54 - 4%
55-59 - 2%
60-64 - 6%
65-74 - 18%
75-84 - 24%
85+ - 43%

% active cases testing positive by region/% of population:
Mid-county - 12%/12% 
North county - 64%/56% 
South county - 23%/32% 
Under investigation - 2%

Deaths by vaccination status: 
vaccinated - 27/259 = 10%
unvaccinated - 232/259 = 90%
 
Weekly increases in positive tests: 
June 12-19, 2020 - 7% 
June 19-26 - 23%
June 26 to July 3 - 22%
July 3-9 - 23%
July 9-16 - 40%
July 16-23 - 20%
July 23-30 - 27%
July 30-Aug. 6 - 13%
Aug. 6-13- 12%
Aug.14-20 - 16%
Aug.20-28 - 10%
Aug. 28-Sept. 3 - 10%
Sept. 3-10 - 6%
Sept. 10-17- 8% 
Sept. 17-24 - 7%
Sept. 25- Oct.1 - 5%
Oct. 1 - 9 - 4%
Oct. 9-15 - 4%
Oct. 15-22 - 5%
Oct. 23-29 - 4%
Oct. 30-Nov. 5 - 6%
Nov. 5-12 - 10%
Nov. 12-19 - 11%
Nov. 19-26 - holiday
Nov. 19-Dec. 3 - 29% 2 weeks of data for this week only
Dec. 3-10 - 16%
Dec. 10-17 - 17%
Dec. 17-24 - 14%
Dec. 24-31 - 19%
Jan. 1-7, 2021 - 13%
Jan. 7-14 - 14%
Jan. 15-21 - 11%
Jan. 21-28 - 5%
Jan. 28-Feb. 4 - 5%
Feb. 5-11 - 2%
Feb. 11-18 - 2%
Feb. 18-25 - 1%
Feb. 25-March 5 - 1%
March 5-11 - 1%
March 11-18 - 2%
March 18-25 - .5%
March 25 - Apr. 1 - .7%
Apr. 1-8 - 0.1%
Apr. 9-15 - 1%
Apr. 16-22 - 2%
Apr. 22-30 - 2%
Apr. 30 - May 6 - .3%
May 6-13 - 2%
May 13-20 - 0%
May 24 - Data readjustment by county means percentages cannot be calculated this week.
May 27 - June 3 - 0%
June 3-10 - 0%
June 11-17 - .25%
June 18-24 - 0%
June 25-July 1 - 0%
July 2-8 - .3%
July 9-15 - .2%
July 16-22 - .5%
July 23-29 - 1.2%
July 30-Aug. 5 - 2%
Aug. 6-12 - .7%
Aug.13-19 - 4%
Aug. 20-26 - .7%
Aug. 26-Sept. 2 - 3%
Sept. 2-9 - 2%
Sept. 10-16 - 1%
Sept. 17-22 - 1%
Sept. 23-30 - 2%
Oct. 1-7 - 0%
Oct. 8-14 - 1%
Oct. 15-21 - 1%
Oct. 22-28 - 1%
Oct. 29-Nov. 4 - 1%
Nov. 5-11 - 1%
Nov. 12-18 - 2%
Nov. 19 - Dec. 2 - 2 weeks 2%
Dec. 2-9 - 2%
Dec. 9-16 - 1%
Dec. 16-23 - 1%
Dec. 24-30 - 2%
Dec. 31 - Jan. 6, 2022 - 5% Growth of home tests underestimates cases below. See above .
Jan. 7-13 - 9%
Jan. 14-20 - 15%
Jan. 21-27 - 9%
Jan. 28 - Feb. 3 - 31%
Feb. 3-10 - 3%
Feb. 11-24 (2 weeks) - 5%
Feb. 25- March 3 - 1%
March 4-10 - 1%
March 11-17 - 1%
March 18-24 - 0%
March 25-31 - 1%
Apr. 1-7 - 0%
Apr. 8-14 - 1%
Photo by TARMO HANNULA 
Fashion Street - A large outdoor mural fills a wall of a building in downtown Oakland.
Labor History Calendar for April 15-21, 2022

April 15, 1915: IWW union Agricultural Workers Organization formed in Kansas City, MO.
April 15, 1996: Portuguese dockers begin solidarity boycott of Liverpool shipping.
April 16, 1968 Memphis sanitation ends.
April 16, 1912: British labor paper, Daily Herald founded.
April 17, 1905 US Supreme Court overturns New Jersey 9-hour day law
April 17, 1961: Bay of Pigs invasion.
April 18, 1908: IWW poem, "We Have Fed You All For A Thousand Years" first published.
April 18, 1912: West Virginia coal miners' strike where strikers need to defend themselves against the National Guard.
April 19, 1943: Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
April 20, 1914: Miners' wives and children massacred at Ludlow by company guards and Colorado National Guard.
April 21, 1834: 30,000 marched for freedom for the Tolpuddle Martyrs, England.
April 21, 1892: Black longshore workers strike in St. Louis, MO.
April 21, 2008: Teachers' strike closes thousands of UK schools.

Labor History Calendar has been published yearly by the Hungarian Literature Fund since 1985.
We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years

We have fed you all for a thousand years, 
And you hail us still unfed, 
Though there's never a dollar of all your wealth. 
But marks the workers' dead. 
We have yielded our best to give you rest 
And you lie on crimson wool. 
And if blood be the price of all your wealth, 
Good God! We have paid in full! 

There is never a mine blown skyward now. 
But we're buried alive for you. 
There's never a wreck drifts shoreward now,
But we are its ghastly crew. 
Go reckon our dead by the forges red 
And the factories where we spin. 
If blood be the price of your cursed wealth, 
Good God! We have paid it in!

We have fed you all for a thousand years -
For that was our doom, you know; 
From the days when you chained us in your fields 
To the strike a week ago. 
You have taken our lives, our husbands and wives, 
And we're told it's your legal share. 
But if blood be the price of your lawful wealth, 
Good God! We have bought it fair!

An anonymous reworking of a poem by Rudyard Kipling, "The Song of the Dead," made into an IWW song, orignally titled "The Cry of Toil." The "we" are working people.
Photo by TARMO HANNULA
Korean-style Warm Tofu with Spicy Garlic Sauce 
By SARAH RINGLER                            

Imagine a white rectangular block of warm, soft, custardy tofu covered with a crust of sesame seeds, garlic and green onions. Serve with a side of lightly sautéed greens and rice, and you have a perfect light dinner. 

There are many different styles of tofu. In most markets in the US, there are only soft and firm. The soft tofu is like a custard and wonderful with this dish. Firm tofu is grainy and dense. Neither has a lot of flavor. In most tofu recipes, the flavor comes from the accompaniments. It is low in calories and high in protein for a food that comes from a plant. It is also inexpensive.

The process of making tofu came from China over 2,000 years ago. It is made from a lengthy process where soymilk is made from soybeans which are then curdled, drain and pressed into a rectangular or square shape. It may be the world's first processed food.

Soft tofu is difficult to handle. I used a slotted spoon and my hands. Also, crushing the sesame seeds was a challenge. Seeds were flying everywhere. I ended up chopping them with the blade. I was afraid to pulse them in a food processor because I wanted to keep them from turning into sesame paste. Finally, without too much extra work, this dish looks beautiful served on a brightly colored plate with the greens on the side. 

14-18 ounces soft tofu, not silken or firm
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
pinch salt
¼ cups chopped green onions
2 teaspoons hulled sesame seeds, toasted and crushed with the side of a heavy knife
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon coarse hot pepper flakes
½ teaspoon sugar

Rinse tofu. Put into a medium sized saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Lower heat, cover and keep warm over very low heat. You can keep this warm for up to a few hours. 

Toast the sesame seeds in a pie tin at 300 degrees. Stand by and watch them so they don’t burn. Check often and shake the pie tin to distribute the seeds so that they brown evenly. Then, pour them onto a cutting board and crush with the side of a heavy knife or chop them until they look like crumbs and are slightly sticky. 

Mince and mash the garlic and add a pinch of salt to make a paste. Mix with the chopped green onions, toasted and crushed sesame seeds, soy sauce, sesame oil, hot chili pepper flakes and sugar. Stir well and let sit. 

Just before serving, carefully remove the tofu from the water and drain on a cloth. Pat dry. Transfer to a small plate and spread the sauce over the tofu. Serve warm with greens and rice. Serves two.
Send your story, poetry or art here: Please submit a story, poem or photo of your art that you think would be of interest to the people of Santa Cruz County. Try and keep the word count to around 400. Also, there should be suggested actions if this is a political issue. Submit to coluyaki@gmail.com

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Thanks, Sarah Ringler
Welcome to Serf City Times Over time, our county has grown more stratified and divided with many people feeling left out. Housing affordability, racism and low wages are the most obvious factors. However, many groups and individuals in Santa Cruz County work tirelessly to make our county a better place for everyone. These people work on the environment, housing, economic justice, health, criminal justice, disability rights, immigrant rights, racial justice, transportation, workers’ rights, education reform, gender issues, equity issues, electoral politics and more. Often, one group doesn’t know what another is doing. The Serf City Times is dedicated to serving as a clearinghouse for those issues by letting you know what is going on, what actions you can take and how you can support these groups.This is a self-funded enterprise and all work is volunteer. 
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