Bezo's WP Likes Mamdani's Suit Stop Bonus Of Teachers Aids $10000 bonuses teach Mamdani a lesson about the teachers union The New York mayor sues to block bonuses he once promised but he has good reasons. …https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/09/07/zohran-mamdani-goes-court-over-new-york-city-teachers-aide-bonuses/
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) is learning a lesson about the insatiable appetites of public-sector unions. After the City Council approved $10,000 bonuses for about 25,000 paraprofessionals in July, the first-year mayor sued last month to block the measure, even though he supported the idea during his campaign.
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The move is earning the democratic socialist rare praise from the right, but this is less a profile in political courage than a collision with fiscal reality and a recognition that one-time cash awards can’t fix structural problems.
Compensation changes for unionized city employees are usually negotiated through collective bargaining between the city and organized labor, but the United Federation of Teachers instead pushed the measure through the City Council. UFT President Michael Mulgrew threatened “all-out war” against Mamdani if he opposed the payouts to school paraprofessionals.
Mamdani did not veto the bill, reportedly because he knew the council would override him. Instead, he waited to let it become law and then sued the council. The mayor argues that the council violated New York labor law by going around him. The union filed a motion in court to support the payments late last month.
The mayor’s office says the bonuses would cost the city about $325 million, but the real cost would be what comes next. Allowing the teachers union to end-run the collective bargaining progress would open the floodgates for other unions to do the same. Just two days after the council approved the bill, for example, another member was already looking to pass bonuses of $20,000 or more for EMTs and paramedics.
Mamdani sensed the coming wave, and he’s now trying to patch a dam that he wanted to smash less than a year ago.
What’s lost in the political fracas is any movement toward the real reforms urgently needed by the city schools’ paraprofessional program. These teacher aides, who provide one-on-one instructional help to students with disabilities, are some of the lowest-paid school employees. A starting annual salary can be as low as around $33,000.
The union says the city has about 1,600 paraprofessional vacancies. But the school system doesn’t actually know how many it’s missing, because there are not clear criteria for when a student needs a paraprofessional’s help, according to the Manhattan Institute’s Jennifer Weber.
That means boroughs with laxer standards divert resources from other parts of the city. Staten Island assigns far more paraprofessionals per school, not necessarily because it has needier kids, Weber says, but because it sets a lower bar for when a student warrants one-on-one assistance. Setting clear criteria, and perhaps raising the overall pay levels for these aides, can help ensure students get the tutoring they need.
But $10,000 bonuses won’t solve those problems. Mulgrew, the head of the teachers union, faced his stiffest leadership challenge in more than a decade last year. Paraprofessionals make up about a fifth of active members. Getting one-time checks for them seems motivated more by shoring up Mulgrew’s standing with the rank and file than improving education.
The New York mayor sues to block bonuses he once promised, but he has good reasons.
www.washingtonpost.comhttps://www.facebook.com/digitalkashmiri/posts/pfbid0ddRWevC2ikDRqsPvYAx3JLRrEDnJhB5JtmFy5MR39m8Lo2cWyRySmPYux8HkjfSql
Happy Labor Day from Voices Against Privatizing Public Education!!
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Campus protest rules bill barely clears the Legislature. What was the debate?
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article317117089.html#storylink=cpy
By Tarini Mehta September 7, 2026 5:00 AM
\UC Davis law students speak to a crowd of about 70 students during… a walkout near Mrak Hall on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, as one of the campus' Egghead sculptures appears to join the protest. The students wore masks to protect their identity in fear of retaliation. RENÉE C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com A bill pushing for greater transparency around implementation of campus protest rules at California’s public universities divided Democratic lawmakers in the final days the legislative session. After spirited debate in both the Senate and Assembly, it made it through with just enough votes in its favor. Now, it heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for final approval. Assembly Bill 2551, authored by Assemblymember Sade Elhawary, D-Los Angeles, would require the California State University and request the University of California systems to provide annual data on student code of conduct violations during protests disaggregated by race and gender. The reports would have to include descriptions of the disciplinary action imposed on those students. TOP VIDEOS The measure also asks that campuses host open forums before the end of 2027 to elicit student feedback on current time, place, and manner policies that restrict when, where and how protests are conducted on campuses. Elhawary said during a committee hearing TPM policies were “intended to prevent hostile campus environments” but had arguably increased hostility for students of color. “Students of color report experiencing violent arrests at peaceful protests, targeted disciplinary actions, and bureaucratic barriers that suppress their right to protest, leading many student organizers to fear severe repercussions and reprisal,” Elhawary said. “As a former student activist myself while I was at UCLA, I care deeply about empowering all students and protecting their abilities to organize and advocate. Through data collection and student hearings, this bill helps ensure the equitable and consistent enforcement of time, place and manner policy.” What prompted the bill? The bill is a direct response to what the author calls unintended consequences of legislation passed in 2024. At that time, following encampments and rallies protesting the ongoing war in Gaza that swept campuses statewide, the legislature required the UC and CSU systems to develop uniform protest policies. Jewish groups reported antisemitic incidents on campuses. The state passed a law asking the CSU and UC systems to enforce those protest restrictions and “prohibit violent, harassing, intimidating or discriminatory conduct” that creates a hostile environment on campus. The UC and CSU prohibited encampments, restricted masking to conceal identity when violating policies and put in place disciplinary actions to be utilized against those in violation. Meanwhile, hundreds of student and faculty who participated in pro-Palestinian protests had already been slapped with legal and academic repercussions amid a crackdown on the movement. In the time since, some students say the implementation of protest policies and the disciplinary actions meted out to violators didn’t just create a chilling effect on campus but also disproportionately targeted Muslim, Black and Brown students. In a 2025 report, the Council on American-Islamic Relations-California — a sponsor of AB 2551 — raised concerns over the newly strengthened campus protest restrictions, especially given what it called “targeted enforcement” of the existing policies. The report said several California universities used law enforcement disproportionately in response to pro-Palestinian protests when compared with other events that violated the same policies. The University of California Student Association, a coalition of student governments across the system, has voiced similar concerns. However, these allegations of inequitable implementation are so far only anecdotal; there is no data to substantiate them. That’s the gap Elhawary’s bill seeks to fill, by mandating that universities provide data on violations of campus protest policies, disciplinary actions taken, and the affected students disaggregated by race and gender. Despite major amendments, the UC and CSU systems remained opposed to the bill throughout, worrying it could create uncertainty around their current policies and compromise student privacy. At a committee hearing Aug. 30, a UC spokesperson said disaggregation of the data could enable easy identification of involved students, given the number of total violations is a small number. In a February report, the UC system recorded 71 violations over a one-year period. The CSU system reported 201 violations in the 2024-2025 academic year. The California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches at the CSU, was a sponsor and strong voice in favor of the bill. Why were lawmakers divided? The bill required a simple majority to pass in both the state Senate and Assembly. It passed 23-12 in the Senate and 44-8 in the Assembly with 27 lawmakers who were either absent or abstained. While the California Legislative Jewish Caucus took no formal position on the bill, six of its members in the Senate and Assembly raised concerns, including that its eventual intent was to repeal the student safety provisions they had fought for in the 2024 legislation that mandated comprehensive campus protest restrictions. An earlier version of Elhawary’s bill did include a provision to sunset that 2024 law by 2029. Following strong opposition from Jewish California, an umbrella advocacy organization for Jewish groups statewide, the bill was watered down to leave the time, place and manner policies intact while pushing for greater transparency and conversation around their implementation. “It was very concerning to our caucus to see an effort without a conversation to repeal that (2024) bill,” Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, said on the Assembly floor. “I worry that the intent of this bill is to begin a process that will ultimately result in the repealing of civil rights protections.” Other critics, like Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, chided the bill’s “rushed” process and said it wasn’t well-thought-out. In June, the author decided to “gut-and-amend” a healthcare bill she had authored and the Assembly had already passed, and replace its contents entirely with a new proposed law to address the students concerns in the current legislative session. That process, critics said, made for inadequate discussion on what is a controversial topic. Supporters of the bill urged their colleagues to see AB 2551 at face value as a “data bill” that affords the opportunity to evaluate the consequences of past legislation, and not on the basis of its pre-amendment version. “My daughter sits on a CSU campus. She talked to me about having the feeling of having her voice stifled because of the policies of the university,” said Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Alameda. “As legislators, we have to create the space to examine the implementation and the impact of the policies that move forward, so that we don’t have any student feeling like they are risking being able to continue on with their education because an individual campus may or may not have gotten this right.” The bill now awaits Newsom’s signature. The governor has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto bills passed by lawmakers.
The bill now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. He has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto bills passed by lawmakers.
www.sacbee.comTech workers start to see promise in unions
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/technology/tech-workers-start-to-see-promise-in-unions/article_548f44b5-b5db-49a2-ad33-88170f4ac955.html
By Troy Wolverton | Examiner staff writer 15 hrs ago
Emma Jackson, who works at Google and is …the communications chair for the Alphabet Workers Union: “This is why we need a union — so that we can have solidarity with each other and we have … the infrastructure to support each other.”
Craig Lee/The Examiner
Lucas said he’s been in the Bay Area working in the tech industry for 10 years — primarily at startups, but also at one of the big tech companies. He’s worked as a software engineer and managed small teams. Currently, he works for a 500-person company that makes software for biologists.
So far, so normal in Silicon Valley.
But Lucas’ present ambition is a bit different from many of his tech-industry peers, past and present. He isn’t aiming to found his own unicorn or invent some new, mega-popular product or service.
Instead, he’s working to form a union at his company and trying to help other tech workers who have similar ideas.
Lucas, who asked not to use his real name for fear of putting his job at risk, said he sees the organizing efforts as a way for workers like himself to build power, form a community, have more say over their jobs and working conditions — and counter the influence of billionaire tech CEOs and venture capitalists.
“I want the tech industry to serve the community around me,” Lucas said.
“There’s a lot of folks that feel that way,” he said.
California is one of the most union-friendly states in the nation, and the San Francisco region is one of the most unionized metro areas in the state. Despite that, labor organizers have never made many inroads in the tech industry; exceedingly few tech workers are represented by unions or have even been involved in organizing efforts.
Labor activists such as Lucas say they believe the tide is turning. Support for unions among the American public is at its highest level in about 60 years, according to Gallup. Younger workers, which make up much of the tech industry’s ranks, are particularly pro-union.
Meanwhile, the massive layoffs of recent years, the wholesale moves by companies to push artificial-intelligence tools into the workplace and their products, and a growing sense of precarity and powerlessness have spurred some tech workers to look into organizing in their industry, Lucas and other activists say. So, too, have the increasingly close ties between certain companies and the military.
“Most of the people that we get in touch with find us right now, rather than us finding them,” said Joshua Carroll, one of the leaders of the Bay Area chapter of the Tech Workers Coalition, a grassroots group trying to raise awareness of unions among industry workers and help with organizing efforts.
“People are very happy to find out they’re not alone,” said Carroll, a product manager at Google Cloud.
Union efforts and labor activism in the tech industry date back to at least the mid-1970s, when workers at IBM started organizing themselves. Such activity has ebbed and flowed over the years, typically rising amid economic downturns or uncertainty such as the dot-com bust or the Great Recession, said Ron Hira, a political-science professor at Howard University who focuses on labor issues and policies.
But outside of the digital publishing industry, which has seen a slew of unions, few of those efforts succeeded in forming unions that were able to collectively bargain on behalf of workers.
The IBM effort, for example, existed for decades as a member organization that represented workers and pressured management, but it never sought or formed a bargaining unit that was recognized by the company or the National Labor Relations Board. It shut down in 2016 in the wake of job cuts at the company.
Generally speaking, it’s hard to form a recognized union in this country, labor experts say. Companies often fight organizing efforts and frequently retaliate against organizers. Even without that opposition, it can take years to build enough support to win a majority vote within a discrete group of workers.
As union membership has dwindled in the country— compared with its peak in the middle of the last century — fewer people are growing up in union households or know people who are in unions, Hira said. Labor representatives are rarely on TV, he said.
“If you’re not exposed to them, you’re not even thinking that way,” Hira said.
The tech industry has been particularly tough for the labor movement to crack. Even within antiunion corporate America, the tech industry has fought particularly hard against organizing efforts.
But there are plenty of other reasons for the industry’s dearth of unions, labor experts say. Tech jobs have tended to be high paying, with lots of benefits and stock-based compensation offering a chance for even bigger paydays.
That factor has addressed some of the key issues that often prompt workers to organize, noted Marcus Courtney, who helped lead a union effort at Microsoft in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
There are also cultural and class considerations. The industry has long been known for its libertarian streak, and many workers see themselves as individuals who succeed or fail based on their own merit rather than as part of a collective. What’s more, engineers — including computer programmers — identify more as managers or professionals than workers, Hira said.
On top of all that, workers are divided from each other in numerous ways, he said. Tech jobs come in many different flavors and are spread across numerous companies and regions, he said. Even within particular companies, workers are often split between contractors and full-time workers.
All that makes tech workers hard to organize, and the result is that they are among the least unionized workforces in the country. Across all occupations, 10% of workers belong to unions — but as of last year, just 3.7% of computer and mathematical professionals were union members, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The tech industry is probably the only industry in the history of the United States that [has] … become an industrial pillar of the nation’s economy that is basically union-free,” Courtney said.
EX // TOP STORIES
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SF home sales stay active despite rising costs, new report finds
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Newly approved pancreatic cancer drug has research ties with UCSF.png
Newly approved pancreatic cancer drug has research ties with UCSF
University took part in clinical trials of medication developed by firm co-founded by one of its professors
Kaiser nurses to hold one-day picket over AI-use concerns.png
Kaiser nurses to hold one-day picket over AI-use concerns
Workers are participating in an informational protest Tuesday at 22 of the health-care giant’s locations across the state — including in San Francisco
That said, things have started to change over the past 10 years.
Workers at project-management software company Glitch formed a union in 2020 that was immediately recognized by the company. The union negotiated a contract the following year — reportedly the first ever in the software industry — but ultimately dissolved following mass layoffs.
Other organizing efforts have had more long-term success. Employees of crowdfunding site Kickstarter voted to create a union in 2020 and successfully bargained for a contract last year. Tech workers at The New York Times formed a union the following year and agreed to a deal with the company in 2024 after a strike.
Perhaps the surprising development of the most recent effort is that there are now unions at two of the major tech companies.
When Microsoft was trying to buy Activision Blizzard in 2022, it pledged to be neutral toward a nascent organizing drive at the video-game producer and publisher. Thousands of workers at Microsoft’s games units have since organized across multiple unions.
Workers at Alphabet launched a union in 2021. Unlike the unions at Microsoft, it hasn’t sought recognition by the company or the NLRB. But the Alphabet Workers Union has signed up members from across the country and has successfully lobbied management on behalf of workers, said Emma Jackson, who works at Alphabet-owned Google and is the communications chair for the labor group.
Google AI Showcase.png
6a8f6dcade241.image.jpg
Workers at Alphabet, Google’s parent company (seen during an event in Mountain View in May 2024), launched a union in 2021. In general, tech workers have been slow to unionize, but organizers say they see an opportunity as artificial intelligence takes over the industry.
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Jackson declined to say how many workers were in the union, but she said it includes both full-time employees and contractors.
As Google has cut staff over the last two years, it has prioritized buyouts — in which employees volunteer to leave in return for severance packages — over layoffs. That came in response to the union, Jackson said.
“While we weren’t across the bargaining table for that, our pressure and our demands helped us win that offer,” she said.
Jackson, who said she has worked at Google for 22 years, had bought into the notion that the company was different. She believed in its initial — and since abandoned — “don’t be evil” motto.
She said she got involved with the union effort in part because she felt like the company had strayed from those values. She was also motivated by seeing how — even after employees tried to hold it to its values — their gains were often short-lived.
After abandoning its Defense Department work in 2018 in response to employee pushback, for example, Google recently signed a new deal to provide AI tools to the Pentagon, Jackson said.
Following a massive walkout by workers in 2018 protesting its handling of sexual-harassment claims, Google ended its policy of requiring arbitration to deal with such incidents. But two of the leaders of the walkout effort alleged the company retaliated against them, a charge it denies.
Workers outside Google’s Mountain View headquarters in November 2018 protest the company’s handling of sexual-misconduct allegations.
Noah Berger/Associated Press
Employees at the time didn’t have a union to back them up, Jackson said. She and her coworkers have learned from this experience, she said.
“This is why we need a union — so that we can have solidarity with each other and we have … the infrastructure to support each other,” she said.
In the Bay Area, there are reports of tech organizing beyond what’s happening at Google and Lucas’ company.
Lucas, who is also active in the Tech Workers Coalition, said he is aware of other early-stage union efforts at other companies. Carroll said some coalition members are working to organize inside some of San Francisco’s big tech companies.
Lucas said those efforts are likely going to be slow and deliberate as organizers talk with employees, find out what they’re upset about and build an organization.
Despite his awareness of the past history of union efforts and his own involvement in the movement, Courtney said he thinks now is a propitious time to be organizing the industry, thanks to artificial intelligence. The rapid adoption of the technology has given rise to widespread concern about how it’s affecting jobs and fears that it could lead to mass unemployment.
At the same time, the AI industry is increasingly reliant on unionized workers to build the data centers that will run and train its models, Courtney said. And industry leaders such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have talked about needing to address the potential for AI-induced job losses.
Such factors are creating an opportunity, stoking tech workers’ appetite for organizing, while potentially making companies more receptive to unions, he said.
“I think there’s an opportunity there,” Courtney said.
The industry has resisted organizing for decades, but activists see new opportunity.
www.sfexaminer.com‘Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages’
https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/arts-exhibits/article/fashion-painting-sculpture-fall-22375459.php
“Quantum #3” by Dewey Crumpler, from the “Entanglement” series (2026).
“Quantum #3” by Dewey Crumpler, from the …“Entanglement” series (2026).
Francis Baker/Jenkins Johnson Gallery
‘Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages’
Dewey Crumpler is getting his first solo museum show in San Francisco, bringing together five decades of his painting practice with his new kinetic sculptures.
Crumpler, who lives in Oakland and was an instructor at the San Francisco Art Institute, has long explored larger cosmic themes in his work. Curated by Key Jo Lee, who serves as the exhibition will focus on the artist’s “investigations into Black consciousness, commerce, spirituality, African cosmologies, memory, and time.”
It will also present his work in conversations with other art forms including jazz, while examining Crumpler’s place in both the history of Black abstraction and the culture of the Bay Area.
“Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages” opens Sept. 30, at MoAD in conjunction with Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week, the museum’s annual celebration of Black art across the region.
This year, more than 58 arts organizations, galleries and creative hubs are participating, along with more than 70 Black artists and cultural leaders. Participating venues include the San Francisco Public Library, Oakland Museum of California, Jessica Silverman Gallery, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Minnesota Street Project, COL Gallery, and African American Art & Culture Complex.
“Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages”: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday-Sunday; noon-8 p.m. Thursday. Sept. 30-May 30. $7-$15. Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St., S.F. 415-358-7200. www.moadsf.org
Nexus/Black Art Week: Sept. 30-Oct. 4. Various locations throughout the Bay Area. For a full schedule, visit www.nexus-sfbay.com.
— Tony Bravo
Contemporary Art Museum in San Francisco | 685 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94105
www.moadsf.orgLow-income patients at UCLA Health scramble to find new doctors as contract ends
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-09-05/low-income-patients-at-ucla-health-scramble-to-find-new-doctors-as-contract-ends
A sign outside Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Thousands of low-income …patients are losing access to doctors at UCLA Health after a Medi-Cal contract expired June 30. (Los Angeles Times)
LOS ANGELES, CA-SEPGTEMBER 25, 2014: Melody Petersen
By Melody Petersen
Staff Writer
Thousands of low-income patients, some seriously ill, are scrambling to find new doctors as they lose access to UCLA Health physicians after a longtime Medi-Cal contract was not renewed.
Under the contract that expired June 30, UCLA had been providing specialty care to 9,000 medically frail patients from Health Care LA, an association of nonprofit clinics that serve patients covered by Medi-Cal, the state program for the poor.
“Many of these patients have been waiting for months to be seen by UCLA specialty medicine providers and are now being told they cannot receive the care they desperately need,” Health Care LA said in a Thursday news release.
The patients had gone to UCLA for cancer and infectious-disease treatments, high-risk women’s services, major organ transplants and other specialty medicine care, the association said.
A Friday news conference that Health Care LA had scheduled to detail the problems patients faced in getting care was abruptly canceled when the two sides said they had reached a tentative agreement on how to transition the patients to other doctors over the next year.
“To help ensure a smooth transition for patients, both organizations have agreed that established UCLA Health patients, individuals with existing appointments, and patients requiring other agreed-upon services will continue to be cared for at UCLA Health facilities,” Phil Hampton, a university spokesman, said in a statement.
Although some patients will continue to be seen by UCLA doctors, he said, “accepting an unlimited number of new referrals presents challenges given existing capacity constraints and the need to preserve timely access for existing patients.”
Sabra Matovsky, chief executive of Health Care LA, said in an interview on Thursday that UCLA had declined to renegotiate the contract.
“They never even asked us for a raise,” she said, “They just want us out.”
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She said that university officials had pointed to “capacity issues” at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, including in the emergency room and dozens of specialty clinics.
“To solve this by pushing out Medi-Cal patients while you continue to expand and market and take on other patients is not a solution,” Matovsky said.
Hampton said UCLA had offered to extend the contract, but Health Care LA rejected the offer.
The end of the Medi-Cal contract disappointed some UCLA medical professionals who have been urging the public university to provide care to more of L.A. County’s low-income residents.
“It feels like this is profits over patients,” said Dr. Patrick Samones, a fellow at UCLA Health, who trained at the university in family medicine.
“UCLA is one of L.A.’s most important healthcare institutions,” said Samones, who represents members of the Committee of Interns and Residents, which is part of Service Employees International Union. “We feel it has a duty to serve all Californians.”
In recent years, UCLA Health has been expanding fast and now has almost 300 locations throughout Southern California, including in wealthier places such as Montecito, Malibu and Westlake Village.
At the same time, it provides less care to Medi-Cal patients than its sister university health systems: UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco and UC Davis, according to university statistics.
Last year, about 15% of UCLA Health’s net patient service revenue came from Medi-Cal, according to the university health systems’ annual report. The four other UC health systems each received about 22% of that revenue from Medi-Cal.
About 40% of L.A. County residents are insured by Medi-Cal, according to a recent report by the California Health Care Foundation.
Los Angeles , CA – June 04, 2026 : Kaiser Permanente at 4867 Sunset Blvd as a growing group of Kaiser Permanente patients and their lawyers say the plan's mandatory arbitration system for malpractice claims is biased against patients and must be reformed on Thursday, June 4, 2026 in Los Angeles , CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
BUSINESS
Hampton said the net patient service revenue data from the annual report doesn’t capture UCLA’s “extensive contributions to caring for Medi-Cal patients” and isn’t “a fair basis for comparing academic health systems.”
He added that with the university’s expansion of clinics, “we are providing substantial specialty care to Medi-Cal and Medicare patients” throughout L.A. County.
“Unlike county-owned hospitals, UCLA Health relies almost exclusively on patient care revenue to fund operations, expand access, recruit clinicians and invest in facilities and technology,” he said.
Hampton said UCLA has other contracts to serve Medi-Cal patients, which will continue. The health system also provides more than $270 million in unreimbursed care for low-income patients each year, he said, as well as primary and urgent care for people experiencing homelessness.
In addition, UCLA is spending $500 million to create a new neuropsychiatric hospital in Los Angeles’ Mid-Wilshire neighborhood, he said.
“We continue to fortify our region’s safety net despite growing access demands and challenges,” Hampton said.
In the most recent fiscal year, he said, Medi-Cal patients comprised 26% of 336,600 inpatient days and 34% of 156,000 emergency department visits.
“UCLA Health’s long-standing commitment to serving vulnerable populations in Southern California is well-established,” he said.
Hampton said the net patient service revenue data doesn’t reflect the complexity of care delivered by UCLA and is affected by Medi-Cal reimbursement rates and payment policies, which vary by region and health plan.
“Over time, Medi-Cal reimbursement has not kept pace with the cost of providing care, and UCLA Health has experienced increasing payment denials and delays,” he said.
UCLA specialists had been caring for Health Care LA’s seriously ill patients under the contract since 2009.
“They were the provider that did all the complicated care,” Matovsky said. “UCLA was our go-to.”
Thousands of low-income patients, some desperately ill, are scrambling to find new doctors as they lose access to UCLA Health physicians after an…
www.latimes.comLow-income patients at UCLA Health scramble to find new doctors as contract ends
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-09-05/low-income-patients-at-ucla-health-scramble-to-find-new-doctors-as-contract-ends
A sign outside Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Thousands of low-income …patients are losing access to doctors at UCLA Health after a Medi-Cal contract expired June 30. (Los Angeles Times)
LOS ANGELES, CA-SEPGTEMBER 25, 2014: Melody Petersen
By Melody Petersen
Staff Writer
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred
Thousands of low-income patients, some seriously ill, are scrambling to find new doctors as they lose access to UCLA Health physicians after a longtime Medi-Cal contract was not renewed.
Under the contract that expired June 30, UCLA had been providing specialty care to 9,000 medically frail patients from Health Care LA, an association of nonprofit clinics that serve patients covered by Medi-Cal, the state program for the poor.
“Many of these patients have been waiting for months to be seen by UCLA specialty medicine providers and are now being told they cannot receive the care they desperately need,” Health Care LA said in a Thursday news release.
The patients had gone to UCLA for cancer and infectious-disease treatments, high-risk women’s services, major organ transplants and other specialty medicine care, the association said.
A Friday news conference that Health Care LA had scheduled to detail the problems patients faced in getting care was abruptly canceled when the two sides said they had reached a tentative agreement on how to transition the patients to other doctors over the next year.
“To help ensure a smooth transition for patients, both organizations have agreed that established UCLA Health patients, individuals with existing appointments, and patients requiring other agreed-upon services will continue to be cared for at UCLA Health facilities,” Phil Hampton, a university spokesman, said in a statement.
Although some patients will continue to be seen by UCLA doctors, he said, “accepting an unlimited number of new referrals presents challenges given existing capacity constraints and the need to preserve timely access for existing patients.”
Sabra Matovsky, chief executive of Health Care LA, said in an interview on Thursday that UCLA had declined to renegotiate the contract.
“They never even asked us for a raise,” she said, “They just want us out.”
Kaiser made $9.3 billion last year. Critics say it has strayed from its charitable mission
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She said that university officials had pointed to “capacity issues” at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, including in the emergency room and dozens of specialty clinics.
“To solve this by pushing out Medi-Cal patients while you continue to expand and market and take on other patients is not a solution,” Matovsky said.
Hampton said UCLA had offered to extend the contract, but Health Care LA rejected the offer.
The end of the Medi-Cal contract disappointed some UCLA medical professionals who have been urging the public university to provide care to more of L.A. County’s low-income residents.
“It feels like this is profits over patients,” said Dr. Patrick Samones, a fellow at UCLA Health, who trained at the university in family medicine.
“UCLA is one of L.A.’s most important healthcare institutions,” said Samones, who represents members of the Committee of Interns and Residents, which is part of Service Employees International Union. “We feel it has a duty to serve all Californians.”
In recent years, UCLA Health has been expanding fast and now has almost 300 locations throughout Southern California, including in wealthier places such as Montecito, Malibu and Westlake Village.
At the same time, it provides less care to Medi-Cal patients than its sister university health systems: UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco and UC Davis, according to university statistics.
Last year, about 15% of UCLA Health’s net patient service revenue came from Medi-Cal, according to the university health systems’ annual report. The four other UC health systems each received about 22% of that revenue from Medi-Cal.
About 40% of L.A. County residents are insured by Medi-Cal, according to a recent report by the California Health Care Foundation.
Los Angeles , CA – June 04, 2026 : Kaiser Permanente at 4867 Sunset Blvd as a growing group of Kaiser Permanente patients and their lawyers say the plan's mandatory arbitration system for malpractice claims is biased against patients and must be reformed on Thursday, June 4, 2026 in Los Angeles , CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
BUSINESS
Hampton said the net patient service revenue data from the annual report doesn’t capture UCLA’s “extensive contributions to caring for Medi-Cal patients” and isn’t “a fair basis for comparing academic health systems.”
He added that with the university’s expansion of clinics, “we are providing substantial specialty care to Medi-Cal and Medicare patients” throughout L.A. County.
“Unlike county-owned hospitals, UCLA Health relies almost exclusively on patient care revenue to fund operations, expand access, recruit clinicians and invest in facilities and technology,” he said.
Hampton said UCLA has other contracts to serve Medi-Cal patients, which will continue. The health system also provides more than $270 million in unreimbursed care for low-income patients each year, he said, as well as primary and urgent care for people experiencing homelessness.
In addition, UCLA is spending $500 million to create a new neuropsychiatric hospital in Los Angeles’ Mid-Wilshire neighborhood, he said.
“We continue to fortify our region’s safety net despite growing access demands and challenges,” Hampton said.
In the most recent fiscal year, he said, Medi-Cal patients comprised 26% of 336,600 inpatient days and 34% of 156,000 emergency department visits.
“UCLA Health’s long-standing commitment to serving vulnerable populations in Southern California is well-established,” he said.
Hampton said the net patient service revenue data doesn’t reflect the complexity of care delivered by UCLA and is affected by Medi-Cal reimbursement rates and payment policies, which vary by region and health plan.
“Over time, Medi-Cal reimbursement has not kept pace with the cost of providing care, and UCLA Health has experienced increasing payment denials and delays,” he said.
UCLA specialists had been caring for Health Care LA’s seriously ill patients under the contract since 2009.
“They were the provider that did all the complicated care,” Matovsky said. “UCLA was our go-to.”
Thousands of low-income patients, some desperately ill, are scrambling to find new doctors as they lose access to UCLA Health physicians after an…
www.latimes.comhttps://www.facebook.com/anonymousgroupinc/posts/pfbid034pS9UWrdLbveuE84srTFBk7jBVBMjfF1bsjvARRAhryqdEPNpGA5kZSLQZ7AAux3l
On Labor Day: Union Democracy & Fighting Business Unionism & Concession Contracts: A WorkWeek Panel
September 7, 2026
Join Zoom Meeting
9/7/26 10AM PST/12PM CST/1PM EST
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89482449870?pwd=OUOrtcPoOnoaFmn3WpJAZsoOluRVaa.1
Meeting ID: 894 8244 …9870
Passcode: 045951
The attack on workers in the US is escalating with frontatl attacks on Federal workers right to organize and
flagrant union busting against workers at Amazon, Starbucks and many other bosses. At the same time
unionized workers are facing attack on their democratic rights by a union bureaucracy that behaves like the
Bosses and uses intimidation and coersion to silence workers and in some cases works with the bosses to
target workers who are defending the contract and their union and democratic rights.
Workers in this country need democratic unions to fight back against union busting employers and a government
that wants to eliminate all union and human rights.
This panel will have trade unionists who are fighting against concession bargaining, the introduction of AI and
robotics that threaten jobs and also top down corporate unionism. This will include Teamsters, SEIU members
and other unionists.
Included will be Teamsters, SEIU and members from other unions are are fighting for democracy in their unions.
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us02web.zoom.usOakland school board member denied that the teachers union paid him. It did
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/oakland-schools-board-member-conflict-22418000.php
By Jill Tucker,
Staff Writer
Sep 4, 2026
The Oakland Unified School District Board of Directors, at …their meeting on May 14 at La Escualita Middle School in Oakland. Vancedric Williams, third from the left, could have voted on issues that were in conflict with his role with the state teachers union.
The Oakland Unified School District Board of Directors, at their meeting on May 14 at La Escualita Middle School in Oakland. Vancedric Williams, third from the left, could have voted on issues that were in conflict with his role with the state teachers union.
Nathan Weyland/For the S.F. Chronicle
An Oakland school board member has been on the payroll of the state teachers union for more than a year despite public claims to the contrary, raising renewed questions about the validity of the district’s teacher contract based on violations of California conflict-of-interest laws.
Officials in San Francisco Unified confirmed VanCedric Williams, who is a teacher in the district, has been on paid leave to work full-time as a state director for the California Teachers Association (CTA). While the local district cuts the check for his salary and benefits, the CTA reimburses the city’s school system for all those costs.
That is a common arrangement in public education to allow unionized staff to work in an official capacity for their labor unions.
Williams was on paid release last school year and is expected to continue in that capacity this year and the next two.
Yet despite Williams’s financial ties to the CTA, he declined to recuse himself from any aspect of the $105 million teachers contract, which financially and politically benefited the state labor group.
Williams participated in school board votes, closed-session meetings and public discussions about teacher pay and benefits, including a final vote for the contract on June 24.
Vancedric Williams, Oakland Unified School District board member, may have voted on issues that were in conflict with his role with the state teachers union.
Vancedric Williams, Oakland Unified School District board member, may have voted on issues that were in conflict with his role with the state teachers union.
Nathan Weyland/For the S.F. Chronicle
He did not return requests for comment on his CTA pay.
During that meeting, board member Mike Hutchinson questioned whether Williams’s paid work for the CTA was a conflict of interest.
“I do not take a paycheck from CTA. They do not pay me a salary at all,” Williams said in response. “Let’s just be clear, that’s misinformation, that’s distortion, that’s misleading folks and I’m appalled by this false information.”
The district’s lead counsel, Jenine Lindsay, said Williams’s claim was “germane” to whether there was a conflict of interest and then gave no further guidance.
District administrators also did not respond to requests for comment.
“Everyone knows that’s how paid release works,” Hutchinson said Friday after learning of San Francisco Unified’s confirmation of the pay agreement. “My understanding is for conflict of interest laws that it is on the elected official to recuse themselves.”
Hutchinson said that Williams urged the board during closed session to offer the teachers union the $105 million deal that was ultimately approved by teachers and the board.
Violations of the Political Reform Act by public officials, which include making or influencing decisions in which they have a financial interest, can result in felony criminal prosecution and civil penalties, including a lifetime ban from public office. The Fair Political Practices Commission enforces the law.
Williams, first elected to the Oakland school board in 2021, has also voted over the years on other teachers’ union agreements. His current term expires in 2029.
He was elected as a CTA director in 2022, which required him to take a leave from his teaching position in San Francisco public schools. He is one of 23 directors at the state union, a role that includes overseeing the labor organization’s policies, budget and fiscal health.
While each of the local teachers unions operate independently, their 310,000 members across California pay into the CTA’s coffers, their annual fees based on the statewide average teacher salary.
That means, the legal experts said, Williams sits on two boards that can have competing interests.
The CTA board of directors, for example, was responsible for overseeing the CTA’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, launched in February 2025 to coordinate contract negotiations of 32 school districts, including Oakland.
The goal was to align the local teachers unions to focus on the same issues, including smaller class sizes, opposition to closures and layoffs, and better pay and benefits.
That meant Williams was both supporting the CTA’s effort to ensure coordinated wins for local unions and sitting on the other side of the bargaining table as a school board member with a fiduciary duty to serve the public and well-being of the district.
Oakland teachers achieved most of those goals in their contract.
If there was a conflict of interest in Williams’s case, he could be subject to not only the Political Reform Act, but also common law restrictions on self-dealing as well, which could be enforced through a court challenge and lead to the nullification of any applicable votes.
An Oakland school board member has been on the payroll of the state teachers union for more than a year despite public claims to the contrary, …
www.sfchronicle.comOakland school board member denied that the teachers union paid him. It did
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/oakland-schools-board-member-conflict-22418000.php
By Jill Tucker,
Staff Writer
Sep 4, 2026
The Oakland Unified School District Board of Directors, at …their meeting on May 14 at La Escualita Middle School in Oakland. Vancedric Williams, third from the left, could have voted on issues that were in conflict with his role with the state teachers union.
The Oakland Unified School District Board of Directors, at their meeting on May 14 at La Escualita Middle School in Oakland. Vancedric Williams, third from the left, could have voted on issues that were in conflict with his role with the state teachers union.
Nathan Weyland/For the S.F. Chronicle
An Oakland school board member has been on the payroll of the state teachers union for more than a year despite public claims to the contrary, raising renewed questions about the validity of the district’s teacher contract based on violations of California conflict-of-interest laws.
Officials in San Francisco Unified confirmed VanCedric Williams, who is a teacher in the district, has been on paid leave to work full-time as a state director for the California Teachers Association (CTA). While the local district cuts the check for his salary and benefits, the CTA reimburses the city’s school system for all those costs.
That is a common arrangement in public education to allow unionized staff to work in an official capacity for their labor unions.
Williams was on paid release last school year and is expected to continue in that capacity this year and the next two.
Yet despite Williams’s financial ties to the CTA, he declined to recuse himself from any aspect of the $105 million teachers contract, which financially and politically benefited the state labor group.
Williams participated in school board votes, closed-session meetings and public discussions about teacher pay and benefits, including a final vote for the contract on June 24.
Vancedric Williams, Oakland Unified School District board member, may have voted on issues that were in conflict with his role with the state teachers union.
Vancedric Williams, Oakland Unified School District board member, may have voted on issues that were in conflict with his role with the state teachers union.
Nathan Weyland/For the S.F. Chronicle
He did not return requests for comment on his CTA pay.
During that meeting, board member Mike Hutchinson questioned whether Williams’s paid work for the CTA was a conflict of interest.
“I do not take a paycheck from CTA. They do not pay me a salary at all,” Williams said in response. “Let’s just be clear, that’s misinformation, that’s distortion, that’s misleading folks and I’m appalled by this false information.”
The district’s lead counsel, Jenine Lindsay, said Williams’s claim was “germane” to whether there was a conflict of interest and then gave no further guidance.
District administrators also did not respond to requests for comment.
“Everyone knows that’s how paid release works,” Hutchinson said Friday after learning of San Francisco Unified’s confirmation of the pay agreement. “My understanding is for conflict of interest laws that it is on the elected official to recuse themselves.”
Hutchinson said that Williams urged the board during closed session to offer the teachers union the $105 million deal that was ultimately approved by teachers and the board.
Violations of the Political Reform Act by public officials, which include making or influencing decisions in which they have a financial interest, can result in felony criminal prosecution and civil penalties, including a lifetime ban from public office. The Fair Political Practices Commission enforces the law.
Williams, first elected to the Oakland school board in 2021, has also voted over the years on other teachers’ union agreements. His current term expires in 2029.
He was elected as a CTA director in 2022, which required him to take a leave from his teaching position in San Francisco public schools. He is one of 23 directors at the state union, a role that includes overseeing the labor organization’s policies, budget and fiscal health.
While each of the local teachers unions operate independently, their 310,000 members across California pay into the CTA’s coffers, their annual fees based on the statewide average teacher salary.
That means, the legal experts said, Williams sits on two boards that can have competing interests.
The CTA board of directors, for example, was responsible for overseeing the CTA’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, launched in February 2025 to coordinate contract negotiations of 32 school districts, including Oakland.
The goal was to align the local teachers unions to focus on the same issues, including smaller class sizes, opposition to closures and layoffs, and better pay and benefits.
That meant Williams was both supporting the CTA’s effort to ensure coordinated wins for local unions and sitting on the other side of the bargaining table as a school board member with a fiduciary duty to serve the public and well-being of the district.
Oakland teachers achieved most of those goals in their contract.
If there was a conflict of interest in Williams’s case, he could be subject to not only the Political Reform Act, but also common law restrictions on self-dealing as well, which could be enforced through a court challenge and lead to the nullification of any applicable votes.
An Oakland school board member has been on the payroll of the state teachers union for more than a year despite public claims to the contrary, …
www.sfchronicle.comOn Labor Day Weekend Rally At SF Kaiser To Stop AI Chatbots In Hospitals, ICE Out & Single Payer
California labor unions urge Gov. Newsom to sign AI workplace protections
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/california-labor-unions-ai-workplace-protections-artificial-intelligence/
By Da Lin
September 4, 2026 / 6:53 PM PDT / CBS San Francisco
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As …Californians prepare to celebrate Labor Day and the contributions of American workers, labor unions are raising alarms about what they see as a growing threat to the future of human work: artificial intelligence.
Union leaders gathered in downtown San Francisco on Friday to urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign nine bills aimed at regulating the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace.
Labor leaders said the rapid expansion of AI and automation is unprecedented and are warning that without safeguards, workers could face job displacement, increased surveillance and workplace decisions made by algorithms.
For Nicolle Pillion, a longtime healthcare worker, the concerns are already personal.
Pillion works as a teleservice representative for a major hospital, answering calls from patients reporting urgent symptoms and helping schedule appointments. About eight months ago, she said her hospital began using what she described as "emotion recognition software" to monitor her interactions with patients.
"This software repeatedly tells me that I lack emotional empathy during my calls and gives me real-time pop-ups as I'm working, telling me how to change the way that I sound," Pillion said. "When you're focused on a patient, the last thing you need is an AI program judging your voice in real time."
She worried the technology could distract workers from more important responsibilities, including recognizing emergency symptoms from patients.
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"It is frustrating, distracting, and to me, discriminatory," she said.
Union leaders pointed to cases like Pillion's as examples of how they believe AI can harm workers when companies introduce the technology without sufficient safeguards.
"Big tech is rolling out AI in a manner that focuses on automation, displacing workers," said Peter Finn, president of the Teamsters Joint Council 7 and Teamsters California.
The rapid growth of AI has fueled concerns among workers in a wide range of industries that automation could eventually replace human employees and eliminate jobs.
"We feel that this is an existential crisis. And AI, chatbots are out of control. There needs to be a halt to it," said Steve Zeltzer, who held a "Stop AI" rally with a small group of people in front of a San Francisco Kaiser Permanente hospital.
But Michael Bernick, a former chief of California's Employment Development Department and now counsel at the Duane Morris law firm, said workers should focus on adapting to the changing technology.
"The important thing is not to worry about it, as much as get the skills," Bernick said.
Bernick, who has monitored the job market for nearly half a century, said he has never seen a technological transformation advance as quickly as artificial intelligence.
In a relatively short period, AI has gone from a developing technology to a tool being adopted by companies across nearly every industry. Bernick said that speed is contributing to much of the anxiety surrounding its impact on workers.
For now, he said, employment data does not show that AI is significantly affecting overall job creation or job losses.
"The labor force data over the past couple of months shows really no significant impacts overall in California in terms of job creation [or] destruction," Bernick said.
Still, union leaders said they do not want to wait until workers begin losing jobs before regulations are put in place.
Nine AI-related bills are currently awaiting action from Newsom, including proposed protections governing the use of AI in employment decisions.
"We also put on bills that said no AI boss, if you will, no non-humans should be able to fire you or discipline you," said Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO.
For Pillion, the debate is about preserving the role of human workers in professions where personal interaction can have serious consequences.
"We cannot sit around for someone else to fix this," she said. "As healthcare workers, we see what is happening and we know what it is at stake."
Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto legislation on his desk.
As Californians prepare to celebrate Labor Day and the contributions of American workers, labor unions are raising alarms about what they see as a…
www.cbsnews.comGuido Reichstadter SF City Hall Hunger Strike To Get Emergency Order Stopping AI Development Threats
https://youtu.be/YeHIFSYLoyM
Guido Reichstadter is an tech activist who has been taking actions to stop the development of AGI that could
lead to destruction of jobs, lives and humanity… began a hunger strike at San Francisco City Hall and called on
the Board of Supervisors to use their powers to stop AI companies in San Francisco from continuing the
development of technology that threatens humans and society.
This interview was done on 9/4/26
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net
Guido Reichstadter is an tech activist who has been taking actions …
youtu.beGuido Reichstadter SF City Hall Hunger Strike To Get Emergency Order Stopping AI Development Threat
Police commission delays vote on drone rules over privacy and data-sharing concerns
https://sfstandard.com/2026/09/03/police-commission-delays-new-drone-rules-privacy-data-
The department has increasingly relied on drones since they were first deployed in 2024, but where and when they can …be used has yet to be finalized.
A DJI Mavic 3 drone hovers mid-air with blurred city buildings in the background and a small San Francisco Police badge in the corner.
Civil liberty groups fear SFPD’s proposed rules are too vague and could lead to a constant dragnet of citizens. | Source: Courtesy SFPD
A man with a full beard, receding hairline, and an earring wears a buttoned-up navy blue shirt and looks thoughtfully to his left.
By Jonah Owen Lamb
Senior Reporter
Published Sep. 3, 2026at5:25pm
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The San Francisco Police Commission declined to vote(opens in new tab) on new rules governing the use of drones Wednesday amid public pressure and claims by civil liberties groups that the regulations wouldn’t protect constitutional rights.
The proposed rules are the first comprehensive guidelines for the San Francisco Police Department pertaining to the use of drones, which started deploying the devices two years ago. The rules would govern when they can be used, what information can be shared with other agencies, and what kind of data can be retained and for how long.
The central dispute is over how broadly police should be allowed to deploy drones. Proposition E, approved by voters in 2024, authorized drone use in vehicle pursuits and active criminal investigations. However, the proposed policy would allow SFPD to be use drones in “any situation in which a member may be deployed.”
Commissioner Kevin Benedicto, who requested the vote delay, said policymakers in San Francisco and around the country have been grappling with similar questions about surveillance.
“I think it is critically important that the Police Commission acknowledges and addresses these serious concerns,” he told The Standard. “We must strike the right balance between adopting effective new technologies to improve public safety and ensuring privacy and safeguards are in place.”
Drone use by the SFPD has increased from dozens of deployments a month in 2024 to more than 600(opens in new tab) in the first two months of 2026.
A man in a checkered shirt is speaking while seated behind a desk with a nameplate reading “Kevin Benedicto, Commissioner.”
Commissioner Kevin Benedicto said the draft rules need to be more specific to ensure there is no abuse. | Benjamin Fanjoy for The Standard | Source: Benjamin Fanjoy for The Standard
SFPD is considering broader rules for drone surveillance amid controversies over its history of sharing surveillance data with outside agencies. Last year, outside agencies searched SFPD Flock Safety license plate reader data nearly 2 million times, including for cases related to federal immigration enforcement. Earlier this summer, it was discovered that the SFPD’s live drone data was available for anyone to see online, according to Wired(opens in new tab).
Civil liberties protections are already a part of the current rules. According to the SFPD(opens in new tab)website, when drones are “being flown, operators will take steps to ensure the camera is focused on the areas necessary to the mission and to minimize the inadvertent collection of data about uninvolved persons or places.”
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SFPD
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ICE agent’s gun found in SFO bathroom
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Cops say shelter staffers harbored a gunman; the nonprofit says they defused a standoff
Under the proposed policy, the department would protect the rights of people not under investigation, such as those captured in video outside of the focus of police activity.
The proposal also governs what kind of data can be retained and for how long. Any footage captured by drones in public not linked to an investigation could be retained for 30 days; however, it’s unclear if the rule would ban the sharing of such footage. Footage taken as part of an investigation can be retained for two years and shared with outside agencies.
Civil liberties and legal groups say the rules would allow far too much discretion and open the door to abuse.
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sfstandard.comOn CRD Dan Kovalik Discusses Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba; Nurses Confront Palantir; Teamsters Challenge Racism
https://capitalismraceanddemocracy.org/2026/09/01/dan-kovalik-discusses-venezuela-colombia-and-cuba-nurses-confront-palantir-teamsters-challenge-racism/
By Capitalism, Race & …Democracy – September 1, 20265
Labor and human rights lawyer and author Dan Kovalik speaks to Pacifica’s Thomas O’Rourke about elections, lawsuits, and future revolutionary prospects for Colombia, Venezuela, and Cuba in part one of an exclusive interview for Capitalism, Race, and Democracy.
***
Last week, the National Nurses Union held rallies and protests across the country against Palantir, a surveillance technology company. Nurses say Palantir is profiting from mass ICE arrests and the terrorization of immigrants, as well as from the U.S.-Israeli war and genocide in West Asia. They also accuse the company of targeting hospital workers and patients. Nurses and their leaders spoke out at a rally in Palo Alto, California, where Palantir was formerly headquartered.
Nurses Have Had Enough Of Palantir! NNU CNA Nurses In Palo Alto Demand That Palantir Be Terminated
“Purge Palantir” NNU-CNA Demands Stop Destroying Healthcare, Funding ICE & Supporting Wars&Genocide
NNU Organizing National Day Of Action Against Fascist Palantir In Healthcare, ICE & Gaza US Wars
***
Richard Hooker Jr., Secretary Treasurer of Philadelphia Teamsters Local 623, led a slate called Fearless in a failed campaign to unseat International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien at the union’s Las Vegas convention in June. Hooker at a event during the recent Teamsters National Black Caucus convention in New Orleans about the attack on Black representation, redistricting, resegregation, and slavery.
Philadelphia IBT 623 Sec. Treas. Richard Hooker Jr. On UPS, IBT & IBT 2026 Election
***
We thank all of Pacifica’s sister stations and affiliates who contribute to the production of this show. Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Steve Zeltzer, Ann Garrison, Polina Vasiliev, and Thomas O’Rourke.
You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD.
Thanks for listening.
Music:
Victor Jara, “A Cuba”
Chicago, “It Better End Soon”
Labor and human rights lawyer and author Dan Kovalik speaks to Pacifica’s Thomas O’Rourke about elections, lawsuits, and future…
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