10/14/26 Wednesday, October 14, 7:30 pm AI and the Future of Academic Labor

https://www.shapingsf.org/public-talks/index.html

humanity-is-greater-than-technology_20240108_001452966.jpgPhoto by Chris Carlsson
Wednesday, October 14, 7:30 pm
AI and the Future of Academic …Labor
Public Talk at 518 Valencia

Journalist Kari Lydersen in conversation with Robert Ovetz, author of the forthcoming book AI and the Future of Academic Labor.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are increasingly being integrated into higher education, putting the very mission and work of learning, research and teaching at risk of automation. Higher education unions are only beginning to address the impacts of AI on academic workers. This conversation will explore how academic labor struggles vs AI are connected to broader global struggles against digital labor exploitation along the global AI supply chain, from data workers, to data centers, to the campus.

Moderator Kari Lydersen is a Chicago-based journalist and author, and leads the Medill Investigative Lab-Chicago at Northwestern University’s journalism school. Robert Ovetz is Senior Lecturer in Political Science, teaches Labour Relations in the Master of Public Administration program at San José State University, and author and editor of six books on the global labor movement.

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Shaping San Francisco

Free! All Talks are at 518 Valencia (near 16th Street, one block from 16th Street BART) and begin at 7:30 pm unless otherwise noted.

www.shapingsf.org

Chris Larsen & Techno Fascists Pushing Flock Cameras, Data Centers & Drones: STOP Buying Elections!
https://youtu.be/dxZAU56K45k
A rally was held at the mansion of San Francisco Trump supporter Chris Larsen on 10/10/26.
Techno Fascist Billionaire Chris Larsen is spending …millions of dollars against a tax on billionaires and also for measures to centralize power in San Francisco and allow for more contracting out and corruption in the City under billionaire mayor Daniel Lurie. SF Proposition D would massively increase the number of signatures to get an initiative on the San Francisco ballot helping the billionaires who have unlimited funds for signature gatherers. Proposition E would limit oversight of City contracts allowing more privatization and the ability of Mayor Lurie to give hundreds of millions of dollars to his crony billionaire pals while destroying public services. Lurie with the support of Larsen has shut down public health clinics for youth in the Tenderloin and for seniors in Bernal Heights. Proposition F would allow the mayor unlimited power to eliminate and merge departments that do oversight on health care and the introduction of data centers and flock cameras. It is a further centralization of power similar to what fascist Trump is doing in Washington DC.
Larsen has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to the SF police department for more drones while Lurie is cutting other departments and is spending over $1 billion for the SF police department and more AI tech to spy on the residents and Black and Brown communities.
At the same time, Larsen and the rest of the techno fascists are also pushing for more data centers, flock cameras and drones in the City of San Francisco and nationally. They support Project 2025 which is a program to destroy all regulation and to privatize all public services.
A rally was held at his mansion to expose his role in attempting to buy the election in San Francisco along with other techno fascists in San Francisco and speakers talked about the war profiteering of these billionaires along with the need to criminally prosecute Open AI and Anthropic for illegal criminal activity by their models and agents which have penetrated private and government data banks including the Australia health system.
Speakers also challenged some union leaderships that are helping the billionaires by opposing Prop 40 which taxes billionaires and SEIU Local 87, SEIU USWW and UFCW 5 that are supporting Larsen and Lurie's reactionary and union busting ballot initiatives D, E and F.
Additional Media:
AI, Drones, Flock Cameras, Data Centers, Techno Fascists & The Working Class
https://youtu.be/3J5aIyxIUjk
AI Models, Agents, Bots & Techno Fascists Gone Wild In SF & The World
https://youtu.be/sY_e-_lg-q0
People Over AI Demand People At Open AI Conf! STOP Open AI War Crimes In Gaza & Role In ICE Attacks
https://youtu.be/okNFneQ4avE
AI, Technology, Techno Fascism & The Future Of Labor
https://youtu.be/wvOHDZQYHok
SF SEIU1021 SF City Worker Leaders Protest Concession Contract & Call For NO Vote By Membership
https://youtu.be/neQzn3opV3c
SEIU1021 SF Workers & Clients Rally To Stop Killing Cuts By Mayor Lurie At Mission Geriatric Clinic
https://youtu.be/4SAhyrvGhYc
SF Mayor Lurie & DPH Threaten To Close 3 Healthcare Center Including For Seniors
https://youtu.be/BcNmJTAPeJ0
‘We can shut down the city’: SF Mayor Lurie’s budget cuts spark a showdown with labor
https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/12/can-shut-city-lurie-s-budget-cuts-spark-showdown-labor/
STOP SF Mayor Lurie's Union Busting & Contracting Out Jobs! SEIU1021 Unionists Speak Against Cuts
https://youtu.be/_qA_r_hPBl0
SEIU1021 SF Workers & Clients Rally To Stop Killing Cuts By Mayor Lurie At Mission Geriatric Clinic
https://youtu.be/4SAhyrvGhYc
STOP SF Mayor Lurie's Union Busting & Contracting Out Jobs! SEIU1021 Unionists Speak Against Cuts
https://youtu.be/_qA_r_hPBl0
SEIU 1021 & IFPTE 21 Officials Protest SF Mayor Lurie's Contracting Out & Layoffs Of City Workers
https://youtu.be/HVxNAHBEk94
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net

If They Can Criminalize the Minnesota 15, They Can Criminalize All of Us

https://workersresist.substack.com/p/if-they-can-criminalize-the-minnesota

As federal repression expands, the fight to defend indicted activists is becoming a test of working-class solidarity — and our …ability to organize against authoritarianism.
CYNTHIA SARVER AND KIP HEDGES
OCT 09, 2026

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Against a backdrop of rising class struggle internationally — from Spain and France to Northern Ireland — the fight against the criminalization of anti-ICE activism, attacks on democratic rights, and union-busting has gained momentum over the past two weeks.
On October 3, nearly 500 people marched through downtown Minneapolis in support of the Minnesota 15 (MN15), political and union activists indicted by Donald Trump’s Justice Department for their organized opposition to the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota known as Operation Metro Surge. That same day, solidarity events ranging from fundraising dinners to public meetings took place in 28 cities around the world, from New Haven, Connecticut, to Manchester, England.
The Minneapolis march drew broad support from the Minnesota labor movement, including the Minnesota AFL-CIO, Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), Minneapolis Federation of Educators (MFE Local 59), Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE Local 28), Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and eight other union locals.
This growing labor support reflects an understanding of what is at stake: the indictments of the MN15 are not simply an attack on 15 individuals. They are an attack on the ability of workers to organize collectively against government repression.
Why the Government Is Targeting Labor Organizers

Evidence emerging from the MN15 discovery documents reinforces the seriousness of this threat. The documents reveal that federal agents infiltrated the Twin Cities’ resistance and labor movements during Operation Metro Surge, which began in December 2025. Such surveillance may have much deeper historical roots.
On February 15, 2026, four undercover federal agents attended a mass Workers’ Assembly, where workers representing more than 30 union locals participated in democratic debate and decision-making about how to continue the fight against ICE. Other discovery materials suggest an extensive effort to map the organizations, relationships, and networks that sustained resistance to the federal occupation. Taken together, these revelations raise serious questions about the government’s interest in identifying and potentially disrupting centers of working-class organization and power.
Nor is this happening only in Minnesota. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, federal authorities subpoenaed three years of meeting minutes and financial records from the 4,000-member Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) as part of an investigation involving union members who opposed Israel’s war in Gaza. The implications extend far beyond any single investigation. When the government subjects unions and political organizations to sweeping surveillance and demands for internal records, it threatens the relationships of trust and solidarity upon which collective action depends.
In Minnesota, organized labor played an indispensable role in resisting ICE. Union members provided peacekeepers at marches and rallies, helped train legal observers, organized patrols to protect immigrant students and their families, and helped lead the January 23 mass strike, when an estimated 300,000 workers stayed away from their jobs. That collective action demonstrated something the government would prefer workers to forget: when working people organize across workplaces, unions, and communities, they can exercise enormous social and economic power.
Following January 23, union activists continued organizing through the February 15 and April 5 Workers’ Assemblies. These gatherings brought together a militant layer of the local labor movement to debate how to build on the strike, strengthen workplace organization, and sustain the fight against ICE. It is no accident that eight of the MN15 are union members who were directly involved in planning and producing the workers’ assemblies. By indicting these activists, the federal government has placed some of the Twin Cities’ most experienced and committed class-struggle organizers under the threat of lengthy prison sentences, disrupting their ability to organize at precisely the moment their experience is most needed.
A Defense Campaign Gathering Momentum

Support for the MN15 has been, in the words of defendants and Defense Committee organizers, “overwhelming” in both breadth and depth. And that support continues to grow. Alongside the October 3 demonstrations, recent weeks have seen benefit concerts, fundraising dinners, public meetings, and screenings of the documentary When ICE Melts, which chronicles the Twin Cities resistance and the January 23 mass strike.
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The film drew a sold-out audience of more than 200 in Minneapolis and 130 in Madison, Wisconsin, with smaller screenings from Albuquerque to Berlin. Additional events are planned on both coasts, in Colorado, and across Europe this fall. These events are doing more than raising money for legal defense. They are introducing new audiences to the experience of ordinary Minnesotans who organized to protect their neighbors, resist federal repression, and drive ICE out of their communities. They are also helping people recognize the connections between what happened in Minnesota and the attacks on democratic and labor rights unfolding elsewhere.
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The breadth of this support points toward an important strategic opportunity: the MN15 defense campaign can become a catalyst for building a much wider movement against political repression.
From Defending the MN15 to Defending Our Right to Organize

The defense of the Minnesota 15 is about more than winning justice for those facing prosecution, essential as that is. It is also about defending the right of working people everywhere to organize collectively against authoritarianism. The MN15 defendants are being prosecuted for activities connected to a movement in which thousands of Minnesotans participated: protecting immigrant neighbors, documenting federal operations, organizing protests, and mobilizing workers against ICE.
As more people learn about the case, they will have opportunities to examine the government’s allegations, challenge its narrative, and understand the broader political stakes of the prosecution. That understanding can help inspire defense campaigns in other communities, including those supporting the Michigan 8 and Prairieland defendants, who also face federal prosecution arising from protest activity.
Such campaigns need not be limited to responding after activists have been indicted. They can also help build the relationships, organizations, and public support necessary to defend communities confronting new ICE detention centers, expanding surveillance technologies such as Flock cameras, attacks on immigrant workers, or other forms of government repression. The point is not simply to replicate the Minnesota experience. It is to take its lessons seriously: build relationships before a crisis, establish democratic organizations rooted in workplaces and communities, and develop the capacity to respond collectively when people come under attack.
As the MN15 defense campaign reaches a wider audience, it can help make political repression more costly for those who carry it out. A movement involving hundreds of thousands, potentially millions, of working people could exert enormous political pressure against the prosecution of activists and the criminalization of dissent. That kind of movement could help keep the MN15 and others facing similar charges out of prison. Just as importantly, it could strengthen the willingness and ability of working people to resist the next attack.
Building the Broadest Possible Defense Movement

Achieving this will require defense committees across the country that are broadly inclusive, democratically organized, and capable of reaching well beyond existing activist circles. We need the participation of unions, community organizations, immigrant rights groups, students, civil liberties advocates, religious organizations, and ordinary working people who may never have attended a political demonstration.
We also need to reach people and institutions in the mainstream of American political life. One example is the effort that secured Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal’s support for the Minnesota 15. Blumenthal is a mainstream Democratic politician, and the Democratic Party remains firmly committed to capitalism. That does not make his support unimportant. On the contrary, winning support from elected officials and other influential figures can help bring the case to people who might otherwise never hear about it. It can broaden public scrutiny of the prosecutions and increase the political costs of repression.
The challenge is to build the broadest possible united front without surrendering the political independence of the working-class movement.
A defense campaign does not require everyone to agree about capitalism, electoral politics, or the ultimate direction of social change. It requires agreement that people must be able to organize, protest, defend their neighbors, and exercise their democratic rights without facing politically motivated prosecution. That is a basis for solidarity far broader than the existing socialist left, and we should take every opportunity to build it.
What Is at Stake for Every Worker?

The prosecutions of the MN15, Michigan 8, and Prairieland defendants should concern every worker, whether or not they have ever participated in an anti-ICE demonstration. If the government can use sweeping investigations, surveillance, and criminal charges against people organizing to defend immigrants or oppose federal policies, what prevents similar tactics from being used against workers organizing against union-busting, environmentally destructive data centers, climate devastation, or other threats to their communities?
These are not abstract concerns. The Trump administration has already made clear its intention to expand federal immigration enforcement operations into other sanctuary jurisdictions. As recently as September 8, border czar Tom Homan described federal operations in New York as an initial phase of a broader effort targeting such jurisdictions. The machinery of repression is being expanded even as communities are organizing to resist it.
And the consequences of failing to defend those already targeted extend beyond the defendants themselves. Every prosecution sends a message to workers considering whether to organize, join a protest, protect an immigrant neighbor, or take collective action: This could happen to you. If people see that those who took risks before them were left isolated, the next person may decide the risks are simply too great.
But when communities and unions mobilize to defend those under attack, they send a different message: You will not have to face repression alone. This is why defense work is not separate from the struggle to build a stronger movement. It is part of that struggle. The ability to organize depends not only on formal legal rights but on the confidence that comes from knowing others will stand with us when those rights are threatened. That confidence is built through solidarity in practice.
An Injury to One Is an Injury to All

The Minnesota resistance showed what can happen when working people move beyond isolated acts of protest and begin exercising their collective power. The January 23 mass strike demonstrated that organized workers, acting together with their communities, can disrupt business as usual and force a political response.
Now the defense of the Minnesota 15 presents another opportunity to build the organizations, relationships, and solidarity that made that action possible. We cannot afford to wait until the next wave of repression reaches our own workplaces and neighborhoods. The old labor slogan has rarely been more relevant: An injury to one is an injury to all.
Support the Minnesota 15. Organize a benefit or public meeting. Book a screening of When ICE Melts for your union, community organization, or local group. And begin building a defense committee in your own city or town.
The immediate task is to keep these activists out of prison. The larger task is to build a workers’ movement strong enough to defend all of us

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2fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com

https://lincolnchronicle.org/samaritan-clinicians-voting-whether-to-form-union/

120 Samaritan Health primary care providers voting whether to form union to bargain over working conditions • Lincoln Chronicle

120 Samaritan Health primary care providers voting whether to form union to bargain over working conditions

lincolnchronicle.org

…https://oaklandside.org/2026/10/09/ousd-college-career-parcel-tax-funding/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_The_Oaklandside&fbclid=IwY2xjawU2W-JleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mAXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR6u6WwZ1zABhPVSkiGz–D2gqv3aL_owGcFnqCZ0f_B9VlcWIRuf6M0MlD5jA_aem_C1GaqM_1cN4yWO-Q2YIjUw

OUSD and an oversight committee are dueling over how funding for college and career programs was spent

OUSD used $3.5 million in parcel tax reserves to trim its deficit, and says this was a legal, long-planned move. A citizens oversight commission says…

oaklandside.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/111683108850412/permalink/29272142559044413/

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1400233665564380

UPS: STOP Torturing UPS Drivers With Infrared Flock Cameras
https://youtu.be/Y08SnkLsuuk
UPS drivers are being tortured by being subjected to inward facing infrared Flock cameras for up to 60 hours a week in their cabs. UPS IBT 190 driver Eric Johnson reports on the recent NIOSH report …that UPS should take action to protect the drivers who have had cataracts, tumors and other serious health
conditions as a result of being in front of these camera.
He reports as well that UPS has refused NIOSH from doing a survey of trucks at UPS terminals so that there can be further research by NIOSH about the dangers and how to protect the drivers.
UPS management according to Johnson is aware that drivers are having serious problems with their eyes but refuse to take any action.
He also reports that the national IBT leadership including IBT president has beenfully informed about the dangers of these cameras and the serious injuries thatthey are causing to the eyes of IBT UPS drivers.
The cameras are also being use as tools to spy not only on the workers but on everywhere the trucks go which could be a violation of state privacy protection laws.
Johnson urges drivers both union and non-union to complete a survey about how they are being effected by these cameras.
This interview was done on 10/7/26.
Additional Media:
AI Torture, Fighting Back, IBT & Using AI To Fight The Bosses
https://youtu.be/AWKK9yGUVYc
Bullying, Union Democracy & The Fight For Membership Control: Lessons Of Vegas IBT631 Steward Resolution
https://youtu.be/0j20R6eyjg8
CA Teamsters, AI, Union Democracy & Workers Power
https://youtu.be/ShXk-cRxVGg
Cameras At UPS, AI & Infrared Torture With IBT 190 UPS Driver Eric Johnson
https://youtu.be/xkQuUrN4g2E
Teamsters Demand Stop The Torture! Infrared Cameras Out Of Our Cabs NOW!
Teamsters Speak Out On AI In Cal
https://youtu.be/vD3Igqb-Ru8
Teamsters In Southern California Speak Out On AI,The Class Struggle
https://youtu.be/Ld55pZVykKQ
IBT Pres Sean O'Brien Tells Members He Stopped AI & Robots At UPS
https://youtu.be/yBa_2gDRz0Q
UPS Installs On-Truck Surveillance Cameras
https://www.tdu.org/ups_installs_surveillance_cameras
IBT Pres SOB Using AI
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5638970-teamsters-substack-newsletter/
Teamsters, AI, Health & Safety & Union Democracy With IBT 396 Steward Hannibal Agular
https://youtu.be/WN3D4TB1mgM
"Out Of Control" Truckers, AI Robotics, IR Cameras, UPS, & Teamsters With Eric Johnson IBT 190
https://youtu.be/QcsHR2YjZKo
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TwinRiversCommunity/permalink/28955079040790972/

https://www.facebook.com/KING5News/posts/pfbid024cf8SVUFvz8PnAYuytpc7f9X1eAwGmiTXWMLYH3MNYgDCMrvK3acmn4J8kRZA263l

https://edsource.org/news-updates#city-college-of-san-francisco-chancellor-placed-on-leave

California education news: What’s the latest?

The latest education news updates from EdSource.

edsource.org

Russia lab worker’s death raises plague questions: Here’s what we know
https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/russia-plague-lab-worker-faq-22463403.php
By Aidin Vaziri,
Staff Writer
Oct 5, 2026

This photo released in 2019 by the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research …Institute of Siberia and Far East shows the institute workers in a lab.
This photo released in 2019 by the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East shows the institute workers in a lab.
Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East

Reports that a laboratory worker at a Russian anti-plague research institute died after developing a severe respiratory illness have drawn global attention, reviving fears of a potential laboratory accident years after the COVID-19 pandemic heightened scrutiny of research involving dangerous pathogens.
Russian officials have not confirmed that plague caused the 28-year-old researcher’s death and dispute reports that she was infected while handling the bacteria.
But the World Health Organization is seeking more information, nearly 200 people have reportedly been placed under medical observation, and U.S. officials say they are closely monitoring the situation.

Here’s what we know.
What happened?
A 28-year-old laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia became seriously ill after developing severe pneumonia and died last week.
Russian health agency Rospotrebnadzor said she died from “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” meaning the exact cause has not been determined. The agency said testing has not found microorganisms connected to her work and maintains the region’s public health situation remains stable.
Did she die from plague?
That remains unclear.

Russian authorities have not confirmed plague as the cause of death.
Local officials and Russian media have reported that the researcher may have been exposed after an accident involving plague bacteria in a laboratory.
Russian health officials dispute those reports, saying laboratory testing is continuing and no evidence has linked her illness to her work.
Why are authorities responding so aggressively?
Because they don’t yet know exactly what caused the illness.
Authorities have quarantined hospitals and laboratories, isolated people who may have had contact with the researcher and increased disease surveillance while testing continues.
Officials say those being monitored have not developed symptoms consistent with plague.
The World Health Organization, which is seeking more information from Russia, says the risk to the general public currently appears to be low.
What is pneumonic plague?
Pneumonic plague is the rarest — and most dangerous — form of plague.
Unlike the better-known bubonic plague, which usually spreads through flea bites, pneumonic plague infects the lungs and can spread from person to person through respiratory droplets.
Without prompt treatment, it can be fatal, but modern antibiotics are highly effective when started early.
No plague vaccine is currently available in the U.S., and while new vaccines are in development, they are not expected to be available anytime soon, according to the CDC. The WHO does not recommend routine vaccination.
Is plague still around?
Yes.
Although many people associate plague with the Black Death of the Middle Ages, the disease has never disappeared. The World Health Organization estimates there are hundreds to a few thousand human cases worldwide each year.
In the United States, plague remains endemic among wild rodents in parts of the West, including California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Oregon. Human infections are rare.
How do people usually catch plague?
Most cases occur after someone is bitten by an infected flea or handles an infected animal.
Pneumonic plague is different because it can also spread through respiratory droplets from someone who is already infected, making rapid diagnosis and isolation especially important.
What are the symptoms?
Pneumonic plague usually develops quickly and can include:
Fever
Chills
Weakness
Chest pain
Shortness of breath
A cough, sometimes producing bloody mucus
Anyone with these symptoms after a known exposure should seek immediate medical care because early treatment dramatically improves survival.
Is there a risk to people in the United States?
At this point, public health officials say no.
The State Department says it is monitoring the situation alongside the CDC and other agencies, stressing that many key facts remain unconfirmed. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the reports are “not cause for alarm” but warrant close attention.
WHO has likewise said the available information suggests the risk to the general public is low.
What happens next?
The biggest unanswered question is what caused the researcher’s illness.
Until laboratory testing is complete, health officials caution against assuming she died from plague or that there has been a laboratory leak or outbreak.
Those findings will determine whether this was an isolated medical case or something requiring a broader public health response.
Oct 5, 2026
Photo of Aidin Vaziri
Aidin Vaziri
STAFF WRITER
Aidin Vaziri is a staff writer and pop music critic at the San Francisco Chronicle. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, National Geographic and MTV.

Russia lab worker’s death raises plague questions: Here’s what we know

Russian authorities say a laboratory employee died from pneumonia of unknown origin, while international health officials seek more information.

www.sfchronicle.com

Why nurses are feeling called to action against White House policies
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/public-health/nurses-take-on-the-mantle-of-activism-fighting-back-trump/article_586f9eab-e022-4c5b-85c1-7c9f8e7dc272.html
By Natalia Gurevich | Examiner staff writer 5 hrs ago

…California Nurses Association.jpeg
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Hundreds of nurses rally outside the ICE building at 630 Sansome St. on Sept. 30 in a protest against current federal immigration-enforcement policies.
Natalia Gurevich/SF Examiner

Some hearings still take place at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office at 630 Sansome St. (seen in October 2025), but most now take place in Concord.

Nurses across the United States over the past year have been voicing their opposition to federal immigration policies, most recently drawing hundreds to a demonstration in San Francisco.

National Nurses United/California Nurses Association, which represents more than 100,000 nurses across the state, has been organizing to protest against activities conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Its efforts have included a week of action in January after the killing of Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti, advocating for the release of one of their own from ICE custody in August, and protesting the ramp-up of ICE operations in Maine in January.

“We will never forget any of the victims of ICE or the other federal agencies kidnapping and killing our neighbors, our patients, our coworkers, our friends and our families,” said Michelle Gutierrez Vo, a registered nurse and a president of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, at the demonstration in front of an ICE building on Sansome Street last week.

“We are at a fork in the road right now,” she said. “There are two very clear futures before us — one where ICE offices like this are the most important buildings in town, and one where our hospitals are the most important buildings in town. That is the future we are fighting for — one where our facilities get the funding we need to take care of our patients.”

The hundreds of nurses rallying outside the ICE building was just the latest protest against the current federal immigration-enforcement policies — and their momentum shows little sign of slowing.

The organization has condemned Palantir, a software company founded in Palo Alto, for its collaboration with the federal government. News reports have alleged the company developed and operates a program called ELITE that ICE uses for data mapping and analytics to identify which neighborhoods to target and raid.

The company declined to comment when contacted by The Examiner.

A lawsuit filed last year by a coalition of state attorneys general, including California’s Rob Bonta, found that ICE inappropriately shared Medicaid data it wasn’t supposed to have with Palantir.

More recently, a lawsuit alleges that the Department of Homeland Security used Palantir technology to create a database that tracks and stores information about ICE observers, according to a partially unsealed court filing.

The nurses union alleges that the company’s artificial-intelligence technology is also increasingly being used in hospitals for automated scheduling and staffing decisions, threatening staffing levels in an already strained workforce.

Late last month, in a statement on X, the Department of Homeland Security announced plans for a new “surge” in the country’s so-called “sanctuary cities,” which are known as such because they limit the extent to which their local law-enforcement agencies can assist federal immigration officials.

These SF events will help you heat up the start of October
This week, The City will welcome actor Barry Bostwick, throw a Fleet Week block party, and honor former Warriors coach Don Nelson

New musical honors SF’s former nexus of Black culture.png6ac555344c7fd.image.jpg
New musical honors SF’s former nexus of Black culture
The Fillmore district is the subject of "Every Saturday Night (A Harlem of the West Musical)"

City departments to address wildfire risk in Glen Canyon.png6abeb124c6e4b.image.jpg
City departments to address wildfire risk in Glen Canyon
Local leaders will work with the state to address the vegetation management of aging eucalyptus groves in the popular park

The majority of the federal budget cuts enacted by U.S. House Resolution 1 — aka the One Big Beautiful Bill — are set to take effect after the midterms. They include major changes to Medicaid that could leave millions of Californians at risk of losing coverage — and hospitals at risk of closing.

That includes Alameda Hospital in the Bay Area, a facility the nurses union called attention to during a demonstration earlier this year.

“While our patients and neighbors are living in fear of deportation and detention, our hospitals are facing huge cuts and our patients are facing mounting health care costs because of H.R. 1,” said Jamie Brown, a nurse and president of the union, in a statement to The Examiner on Monday.

“Nurses aren’t just saying no to Palantir, but we’re calling for our public resources to go toward the benefit of working people, not billionaires and their corporations,” Brown said.

Beyond the larger implications, nurses say they have become increasingly frustrated with the way ICE activity is hampering their ability to provide patient care, and that they’re worried patients might stop going to hospitals out of fear.

Marissa Lee, a member of the board of directors at the National Nurses Organizing Committee who attended last week’s demonstration, told The Examiner that hospitals are supposed to be a safe space for people to seek medical help.

“It's irrelevant to nurses where you come from,” Lee said. “We're going to take care of you.”

Before Jan. 20, 2025, hospitals, schools and places of worship — collectively designated “sensitive locations” — were areas that people could feel safe from arrest or detention because they were protected from immigration-enforcement actions.

President Donald Trump reversed that policy via executive order on the first day of his second term. While agents are still not supposed to enter areas where there’s a reasonable expectation of privacy — such as examination rooms — without judicial warrants, there have been reports of ICE agents disregarding those parameters, such as an incident in Minnesota in which they reportedly handcuffed a patient to a bed.

Lee said that at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital in Kissimmee, Fla., where she works, that hasn’t happened yet.

“They have come,” she said of ICE. “But they didn't get in.”

Nurses taking on the mantle of activism amid Trump

Last week’s demonstration in SF is just one of many.

www.sfexaminer.com

There used to be UPTE Health and Safety committees which the UPTE members would be a part of in the Systemwide Stewards councils reporting back from each local health and safety committee and local executive committee.
After new leadership changed the UPTE constitution which made Locals into …Chapters with loss of each locals Executive Committees, these systemwide Health & Safety Committees disappeared, as did the Peace & Socisl Justice Committee.