Cesaria Evora, 1941-2011

"Essa canção sempre estará nos nossos corações. Muito obrigado Cesária. Descanse em Paz..."

"Vamos a toda prisa a amar a la gente - que mueren tan rápido. A partir de hoy el mundo ya no es el mismo."

"ATÉ SEMPRE CESÁRIA, africa viva"

"Mindelo pleure la reine Evora,
Ti otu diâ… Ti otu diâ, Césaria !
Femme de l’Afrique, impératrice du Cap-Vert…
La diva aux pieds nus s’est tue, a mis le cap vers
Les cieux, en chantonnant et dansant sa Sodade,
Qui résonne désormais ici-bas de façon maussade…
Le monde pleure la reine Evora,
Au revoir… Au revoir, Césaria !"

"Sodade i'm crying.
From Italy
Im Capeverdien."

"Une étoile qui brillera dans le beau ciel cap verdien ! Césaria, la diva aux pieds nus à la voix si mélancolique va nous manquer !"

Oakland General Strike, November 2, 2011

This is what it looked and felt like when the people shut down the powerful for one day in Oakland, California:



Video by the organizers and participants of War-Times.org.

"Kaiser, get with the program!"

Kaiser CEO George Halvorson made $7.9 million in 2009. Kaiser Permanente has made $5.7 billion in profits in the last 30 months, and yet Halvorson has the audacity to ask healthcare workers to give up their defined benefit pension, retiree health benefits and to accept deep cutbacks that will fundamentally change how Kaiser healthcare workers receive healthcare from their employer.

Kaiser's healthcare takeaway will essentially convert healthcare workers into Kaiser customers who will then be forced into incentivized "cafeteria" plans based on hours worked instead of receiving, as they do now, full coverage as part of their overall compensation.

Chris Rauber and the San Francisco Business Times get it wrong...again

Once again, writer Chris Rauber of the San Francisco Business Times, has simply reprinted a press release and gotten an entire story wrong.

You'd think that after completely mischaracterizing a significant story about how unfair Kaiser rate hikes were impacting California healthcare consumers and in the process making insinuations about the Chronicle's Victoria Colliver (who actually got the story right!), Rauber would think twice about reflexively diving in on the side of established business interests. Apparently not.

In the case of Rauber's nanny-journalism attack on Colliver, it turns out healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente did hike its rates unfairly and is now paying millions back to California consumers. If Rauber had his way, would Colliver's story have even been written, and would hundreds of thousands of Californians have a few extra bucks in their pockets today? It's doubtful.

It's pretty clear that Rauber has a bias against unions and consumers. He has been upfront about his deep suspicions about unions and union activism. In this piece attacking the California Nurses Association, Rauber even went so far as to call the largest nurses' strike in California history not that "big of a deal." Nurses and patients might disagree.

But with today's story attacking yet another healthcare union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, in which Rauber got the facts so wrong he had to print a correction no sooner than he had posted his story, Rauber has indicated not only that he can't be trusted to write about workers' and consumers' interests in an unbiased manner, but that when it comes to working people, Rauber can't be trusted for reporting on basic facts.

As Kaiser workers choose NUHW over SEIU, national media covers union election

A compendium of Los Angeles Times articles about corruption within SEIU

A compendium of Los Angeles Times articles about corruption within SEIU.

Featuring articles on Alejandro Stephens, Annelle Grajeda, Tyrone Freeman, Rickman Jackson, Sharon Frances Moore and James Bryant.

Important information for Kaiser workers considering the choice between SEIU and NUHW.

Make an informed choice.

SEIU versus NUHW: which is better? Kaiser workers decide

Here's a new website for Kaiser workers seeking to make an informed decision about their choice of union in the upcoming election between NUHW and the SEIU-UHW.

It's called Kaisercoworkers.org.

You'll find sections on the Facts, a discussion of what's important to Kaiser workers, and important information about how cast your ballot for NUHW.

SEIU Stewards moving to NUHW

The Santa Rosa Stewards open letter.