Community

Coalition Demands Port of Oakland Agree to Living Wage Warehouse Jobs

Published

10 years ago

September 2, 2016

A coalition of local organizations is pushing for the Port of Oakland to create living wage jobs for Oakland residents at a logistics center the port is getting ready to build.

More than six weeks of intense negotiations between the community coalition and the port have focused on the first warehouse in the project, which could produce up to 120 jobs. The warehouse, proposed to be built by CenterPoint Properties, would provide logistics space for transferring and loading cargo and distribution services on a 27-acre plot of the 185-acre Oakland Army Base parcel that belongs to the port.

More is at stake, however, than the local hiring agreement for jobs at this first warehouse. This agreement is likely to become the model for local hiring at other warehouses and companies that will be built on the port property, according to organizers.

CenterPoint is a private Chicago-based company, but it is owned by CalPERS, a state agency that manages public employee pensions, including those of many local residents who are SEIU members.

Members of the coalition held a public meeting last Thursday evening at Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church in West Oakland to report to the community on the progress of negotiations.

“As a community coalition, we are holding the port to their promise to do the same or better” than the jobs agreement signed by the city for its portion of the army base development, said Jahmese Myres, campaign director for the Revive! Oakland Coalition, which includes labor, community and faith-based groups.

What is being discussed, she said, is 50 percent local hire and 25 percent for disadvantaged workers in the port’s “local impact area,” and cities Oakland, Emeryville, Alameda and San Leandro.

“The port is hoping to strike a deal by Sept. 22, but there are still a lot of outstanding hot issues. We need to ramp up our organizing and our pressure on CenterPoint… to get a better deal than we did with the city,” said Myres.

“The port and CenterPoint need to understand that this is an issue that is not going to go away with them running out the clock,” she said.

Also speaking at the meeting was Margaret Gordon of OaklandWorks and West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project.

She explained that the “roots of the planned project” can be traced back to developer Phil Tagami and then Mayor Jerry Brown.

When the U.S. Army closed the Oakland Army Base in 1999, the land was divided between the port and the City of Oakland. Tagami won the contract to develop the city’s side of the property.

“All of this is public money –the roads, electrical lines, the sewers,” she said. “The developer has not had any private money doing anything – it’s free infrastructure. Now they are talking about building a (private) warehouse.

“The recycling companies, truck parking, warehouses – there are all jobs.”

Carroll Fife of OaklandWorks, who chaired the meeting, underscored the importance of winning a good jobs agreement.

“We have an opportunity to set a precedent on how jobs are distributed to Oakland residents,” she said. “There is an ethnic cleansing that is happening in the city right now, and we have to say we aren’t having it.”

Fred Pecker, secretary treasurer of warehouse union ILWU Local 6, said that many companies staff their warehouses with temp workers.

“You have a workforce that is always in the shadow, (workers) that do not assert their rights (because) if they do, they disappear,” he said. “We want stable jobs in the community and stable (work) standards.”

Kitty Kelly Epstein said that “local hire” agreements so far have not meant that Black people are getting hired. “This is our public money, and Black people are not getting jobs on city-funded projects.”

She said reported data show that African Americans are only getting 5 percent of construction jobs on city projects. The port and its developers need to produce demographic statistics on their projects, too, she said.

The coalition of organizations is holding a protest Thursday, Sept. 8 at noon to demand that the port sign a jobs and community benefit agreement with the community. The protest will be held at the meeting of the Port Commission, 530 Water St. in Oakland.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

1 week ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke