January 26, 2018

Orange County

OC Register: Fountain Valley Regional’s Sodexo workers to strike over poverty wages – Jennifer Beuthin

Full-time housekeepers and food-service workers at three highly profitable local hospitals, owned by Tenet Healthcare, are paid so little that they need to collect and recycle aluminum cans to pay for necessities.

 

Voice of OC: OC Supervisors quietly deleted plan to end homelessness from goals

Orange County supervisors this week quietly deleted the central guide for the county commission tasked with reducing homelessness: the Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness, which was the byproduct of years of community input and emphasized expanding the affordable housing supply for homeless people as a “top priority.”

 

The Guardian: California county evicts hundreds from homeless camp – with few beds to offer

Asked how the county would deal with the fact that there would be more evicted residents than shelter beds, a spokeswoman, Jennifer Nentwig, said only that county officials would “monitor” the number of shelter beds available, and that “the county is not dictating where people are able to go”.

 

Labor

Atlantic: Organized labor’s growing class divide

And while labor groups trying to organize low-wage workers in industries like fast food and the on-demand economy have made some gains in recent years, they have not created formal unions.

 

OC Register: California has created 59% of U.S. union jobs since the Great Recession

Organized labor is a challenged concept nationwide, but California has managed to create roughly six out of every 10 of new union jobs in the U.S. since the Great Recession ended.

 

California

OC Register: Tuition hike decision postponed by UC Regents

Student leaders are “ready to push for more funding – be it through organizing or lobbying – to help reverse decades of state disinvestment in public higher education,” UC Berkeley student Varsha Sarveshwar said after the meeting.

 

Sacramento Bee: The details behind 10 big sexual harassment payouts by the state of California

The incidents extend well beyond the dome of the capitol and include correctional administrators, university professors, a Highway Patrol supervisors and the state Treasurer’s Office.

 

Nation

NY Times Opinion: The U.S. can no longer hide from its deep poverty problem

The evidence supports on-the-ground observation in the United States. Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaefer have documented the daily horrors of life for the several million people in the United States who actually do live on $2 a day, in both urban and rural America.

 

Publication Date: January 26, 2018