Video Summary
Last Week Recap
Know Your Rights Event
We held our Know Your Rights event, where we shared our KYR material and went through a demonstration of what to do if ICE comes to your home. Follow up written here.
Teamsters Local 439 Strike
We joined the Teamsters Local 439 strike, standing with landfill workers who recently unionized and are now trying to get their first contract with Republic Services.
Tenant Union Workshop
We held our second Tenant Union Workshop. Updates to that campaign are outlined below.
Focus This Week
- Tenant Union: We are connected with tenants across several buildings. We need to help figure out how best we can help/advise them and try to form broader Tenant Associations at buildings where it seems viable.
- Know Your Rights: There are still some materials that we need to create. We also need to decide as an organization how much to work with Valley Watch Network and how to develop infrastructure around or through them.
- Unionization Efforts: We have started to develop our own union education material, but if we want to actually intervene in workplaces, we need to make a lot more progress.
Upcoming Events
- July 20th 10AM-12PM | New Member Orientation (Calendar)
- July 21 6PM-8PM | Working Meeting: WCU Article (Calendar)
- July 24th 6PM-8PM | Working Meeting: Developing Unionizing Materials (Calendar)
- July 26th 10AM-12PM | Organizing Conversations Workshop + BBQ (Calendar)
- July 28th 6PM-8PM | Reading Group Meeting (Calendar)
- August 7th 6PM-8PM | General Meeting (Calendar)
- August 8th 6PM-8PM | New Member Orientation (Calendar)
- August 16th 10AM-12PM | Organizing Conversations Workshop + BBQ (Calendar)
Tenant Union Events
- July 31st 6PM-8PM | Canvassing Buildings (Calendar)
- August 16th 10AM-12PM | Tenant Union Workshop (Calendar)
Campaigns, Side Quests, and Committee Action Items
Tenant Union
Update on Campaign Strategy:
With us now speaking and organizing tenants directly at their buildings, we have to shift strategies a bit. I summarized the new strategy here.
Map of buildings:
We now have a map of all 5-20 unit buildings, but you can download the data and look through the Land Use Code List for further analysis. Instructions here.
Tenant Association Subcategory:
There is a new Tenant Associations subcategory. We will track our work with each TA in these threads.
Action Items:
- Go through the Tenant Association threads and start investigating how tenants can respond to their complaints. We should know what the legal limitations are before we advise them of further action.
- July 31st 6PM-8PM | Canvassing Buildings (Calendar)
Know Your Rights
Goal:
Produce Know Your Rights materials that are easy to read/access; develop train-the-trainer type materials so others can use our work.
We finished writing (in English and Spanish) KYR materials for if ICE comes to your home, approaches you in public, at your work, and what documents to keep on you. You can see the final draft here.
Action Items:
- Please fill out this rallly poll so we can set dates to work on the topics below.
- We still need to work on some more KYR materials. Please see here for details.
- We need to decide as an organization whether or not we want to work with Valley Watch Network. If not, then we need to figure out how do recruitment, enrollment, and training on our own. Please reply in this thread with your thoughts.
Community Assembly hosted by Working Class Unity
Goal:
At the last General Meeting, we voted to host monthly forums where working class people can share their ideas, concerns, coordinate, and learn from each other. Continue the discussion about these meetings here.
Action Items:
- Vote on your availability so we can host our first Community Assembly in August (Estimated time: 2 minutes; Deadline: July 20th)
- Draft community guidelines for speaking at the event (Work in this Google Doc; Deadline: End of July)
- Decide whether we want to live stream this event and if so, how to address concerns about being on camera (Discuss in thread; Deadline: End of July)
WCU Article: Why Liberals Lose
Goal:
Write quarterly articles that allow WCU to offer a unique perspective or contribute meaningfully to local/left discourse (details here).
We voted to approve an outline structure for the article at the last General Meeting. The discussion and link to the current draft is linked here.
Action Items:
- July 21 6PM-8PM | Working Meeting: WCU Article (Calendar)
- Aim for a more complete version by the 24th for review and edits before the next General Meeting.
- Final read-through at the August 7th General Meeting before voting to post online.
Reading Group
@Englishpete08 is asking for feedback on what members want to read for the upcoming Reading Group. The main options are “Death of the Liberal Class” by Chris Hedges and “How Nonviolence Protects the State” by Peter Gelderloos; other recommendations welcome. Review notes or leave a recommendation here.
Action Items:
- Look through Pete’s recommendations here and reply if interested.
- July 28th 6PM-8PM | Reading Group Meeting (Calendar)
Organizing Conversation Trainings
Goal:
Teach how to turn personal frustrations into collective action through structured but empathetic conversation.
Review latest draft and discussion here.
Action Items:
- July 24th 6PM-8PM | Working Meeting: Developing Unionizing Materials (Calendar)
Unionizing Workplace Materials
Goal:
Develop resources for workers aiming to organize their workplaces.
Work in progress on union explainer materials; see docs here.
Action Items:
- Add useful material here.
- Suggest edits on the union explainer document.
- July 24th 6PM-8PM | Working Meeting: Developing Unionizing Materials (Calendar)
Union of Unions Outreach
Goal:
Create a database of local unions and establish connections for mutual support.
Some have been contacted (see list here), but no response yet.
Action Items:
- Continue updating union database following these directions.
Demand Republic Services Negotiate a Fair Contract
We just voted to approve this side quest. One of the workers at the Teamsters 439 Strike suggested calling Republic Services to urge fair contract negotiations.
More details in the thread.
Action Items:
- Work on the language for the petition in this Google Doc.