On Tuesday, the workers petitioned the college's Senate in hopes of garnering support for a right to bargain collectively and without interference from the school's administration. Students also hosted a rally during Saturday's trustee meeting to draw attention to the workers' demands.

"They are a great support for us," said Benny Avina, catering chef at the college. "We've been struggling. They push you to that point. The unions are one of the last resources you have."

"Pomona College students offer support to workers seeking to unionize" ran in the online version of  the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin late last night and was reposted in the Contra Costa Times:

On Tuesday, the workers petitioned the college's Senate in hopes of garnering support for a right to bargain collectively and without interference from the school's administration. Students also hosted a rally during Saturday's trustee meeting to draw attention to the workers' demands.

"They are a great support for us," said Benny Avina, catering chef at the college. "We've been struggling. They push you to that point. The unions are one of the last resources you have."

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5.38.020 Fortunetelling--Permit required.

A. No person shall conduct, engage in, carry on or practice fortunetelling for gain or pay, or operate a business establishment where the same is conducted, carried on, engaged in or practiced for gain or pay, without first obtaining a permit from the permit and license committee.

9.70.020 Prohibition of tattooing businesses.

No person shall manage, conduct, carry on or participate in, directly or indirectly, the business of tattooing. (94-7)

9.80.010 Curfew restrictions for minors.

It is unlawful for any minor under the age of eighteen years to loiter, idle, wander, stroll, or aimlessly drive or ride about in or upon any public street, avenue, highway, road, curb area, alley, park, playground, or other public ground, public place, or public building, place of amusement or eating place, vacant lot or unsupervised place between the hours of ten p.m. on any day and sunrise of the immediately following day;

18.000.010 INTENT

The City of Claremont possesses a beautiful natural setting and an attractive manmade environment. However, those physical advantages and the economic benefits that flow from them can be threatened by the uncontrolled proliferation of signs within the community. At the same time, carefully designed and regulated signing can contribute to the visual quality of the community, increase economic activity, and provide for a desirable environment.

6.24.020 Definitions.

Section. A. “Apiaries” means a place where bees are kept.

B. “Authorized city representative” shall mean, for the purposes of this chapter, an officer, director, employee, or agent of a licensed private pest control company with whom the City has entered into a contractual agreement for the control and abatement of vectors.

H. “Wild swarms of bees” means any colony of bees which becomes established upon a lot or in anything other than a hive. (04-04)

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I asked Morgan Bennett '13 (featured prominently on the WfJ website) about his experience at Monday's rally:

Walking quietly into Pomona President Oxtoby’s office and turning in upwards of 150 signed petitions essentially demanding that the College sign an agreement for a fair unionization process for the workers without intimidation or interference was one of the proudest moments of my life. ... Seeing how all these incredibly passionate students from the five colleges have joined together to stand literally arm in arm with the Pomona dining hall employees, the subjects of this mind-blowingly inhumane mistreatment, reminded me why we need to continue to fight for equality anywhere and everywhere.

Recognizing the already sizable commitment to this campaign for the ethical treatment of the employees is inspiring but at the same time insufficient at the moment.  Working so hard and risking so much, the Pomona dining hall employees are desperately depending on heavy student support so that they might be able to speak freely of the mistreatment that they experience and the injustices they currently witness but are unable to report.

According to their website, WfJ recently performed a survey of 50 of Pomona College dining hall workers with the following results:

• 89% of workers report having been impeded from taking their breaks.

• 7 workers report having been discriminated against by management based on race, age, or sexual orientation.

• 53% of workers report working “off the clock”.

• 28% of workers report having problems with their work schedules and report having irregular hours.

• 34% of workers report having difficulty in securing a promotion or raise. Many assert that there is no procedure for advancement.

• 40% of workers report to have worked as many as seven days in a single week.

• 82% of workers report having been injured on the job. Those injuries include: torn ACLs, cut fingers, burnt faces, alergic reactions, falling down stairs, broken hips, carpel tunnel syndrome, arthritis, and general pain in arms, legs, feet, hands, backs, and heads.

• The 11 workers who did not report their injuries said they didn’t do so because they were either afraid of the repercussions or werediscouraged by management from reporting their injures.

According to Trevor Hunnicutt of The Student Life, Pomona is unlikely to concede:

[President] Oxtoby said a union would mar the progress the college has made in the last year in responding to workers’ concerns.

“The assumption, often, with a union is that everything that you have now you will keep and you will get more — you will have all of the channels of communication and ways of working with the college which we’ve developed over the years,” he said. “I think that’s not correct. I think it’s a little naive.”

... Oxtoby said he opposed the proposal in part because the yay-or-nay votes of individual employees would be public knowledge with “card check,” an assertion that union supporters and labor experts said was not necessarily true.

When asked if the college would agree to the employees’ request, Oxtoby said. “We’re still discussing it, but I do not expect that we will because we support the basic principle of secret-ballot voting processes.... The card-check process is not that type of process.”

He said he could not envision a way for the process to be “truly anonymous.”

From what I can tell, the student leadership is made up of mostly Pomona and Pitzer students, with wider participation spread out among the 5C's.  I've seen many students on several campuses wearing orange arm bands to show their support.   And the facebook group "Students in Solidarity with Workers for Justice", founded by Julie Juarez PO '12, boasts more than 400 members.

From the WfJ website, a well-written explanation of the what the card-check system (blogger's emphasis supplied):

A card-check is a unionization method that grants workers the power to bargain collectively when over 50% of workers sign union cards. Employers are asked to sign a card-check neutrality agreement in order to assure recognition of the results of the card check, and to guarantee that they will not intimidate workers or employ other union-busting techniques. Workers sign cards on their own time in the privacy of their homes and a neutral third-party agreed upon by both parties verifies whether or not a majority is reached. Without such a card-check neutrality agreement, Pomona would have no obligation to recognize a union, even if 100 percent of their employees submit their written support.

According to a student-talk email sent by Paul Waters-Smith '10, Anthony Chavez, grandson of seminal labor rights activist and United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez, will be speaking alongside Pomona dining hall workers on Saturday, March 6 at 2:30 pm in Marston Quad at Pomona College in support of the workers' demand for a fair unionization process for unionization.  Dolores Huerta may also join the rally later in the day.

90% of Pomona dining hall workers signed a petition calling on Pomona College to sign a non-intimidation/card-check neutrality agreement which they delivered to College President David Oxtoby's office Monday in a procession with well over 100 student supporters.

My own opinion?   I think it's clear that workers benefit from this additional avenue of unionization.  I signed the petition here.

*Apologies to my loyal readers for the tardiness of this post; I had a minor personal emergency and have been off campus since Thursday morning.  All better now.

**Addended 2 pm, March 7, 2010.

The new "Workers for Justice" campaign seems to have sprung up overnight at the Claremont Colleges.  The kickoff event was on March 1, when 100-150 Claremont College students **and over half of the Pomona College dining hall staff** marched into the office of Pomona College President David Oxtoby to present him with signed letters and petitions in support of a fairer unionization process for Pomona College dining hall workers.

I asked Morgan Bennett '13 (featured prominently on the WfJ website) about his experience at Monday's rally:

Walking quietly into Pomona President Oxtoby’s office and turning in upwards of 150 signed petitions essentially demanding that the College sign an agreement for a fair unionization process for the workers without intimidation or interference was one of the proudest moments of my life. ... Seeing how all these incredibly passionate students from the five colleges have joined together to stand literally arm in arm with the Pomona dining hall employees, the subjects of this mind-blowingly inhumane mistreatment, reminded me why we need to continue to fight for equality anywhere and everywhere.

Recognizing the already sizable commitment to this campaign for the ethical treatment of the employees is inspiring but at the same time insufficient at the moment.  Working so hard and risking so much, the Pomona dining hall employees are desperately depending on heavy student support so that they might be able to speak freely of the mistreatment that they experience and the injustices they currently witness but are unable to report.

According to their website, WfJ recently performed a survey of 50 of Pomona College dining hall workers with the following results:

• 89% of workers report having been impeded from taking their breaks.

• 7 workers report having been discriminated against by management based on race, age, or sexual orientation.

• 53% of workers report working “off the clock”.

• 28% of workers report having problems with their work schedules and report having irregular hours.

• 34% of workers report having difficulty in securing a promotion or raise. Many assert that there is no procedure for advancement.

• 40% of workers report to have worked as many as seven days in a single week.

• 82% of workers report having been injured on the job. Those injuries include: torn ACLs, cut fingers, burnt faces, alergic reactions, falling down stairs, broken hips, carpel tunnel syndrome, arthritis, and general pain in arms, legs, feet, hands, backs, and heads.

• The 11 workers who did not report their injuries said they didn’t do so because they were either afraid of the repercussions or werediscouraged by management from reporting their injures.

According to Trevor Hunnicutt of The Student Life, Pomona is unlikely to concede:

[President] Oxtoby said a union would mar the progress the college has made in the last year in responding to workers’ concerns.

“The assumption, often, with a union is that everything that you have now you will keep and you will get more — you will have all of the channels of communication and ways of working with the college which we’ve developed over the years,” he said. “I think that’s not correct. I think it’s a little naive.”

... Oxtoby said he opposed the proposal in part because the yay-or-nay votes of individual employees would be public knowledge with “card check,” an assertion that union supporters and labor experts said was not necessarily true.

When asked if the college would agree to the employees’ request, Oxtoby said. “We’re still discussing it, but I do not expect that we will because we support the basic principle of secret-ballot voting processes.... The card-check process is not that type of process.”

He said he could not envision a way for the process to be “truly anonymous.”

From what I can tell, the student leadership is made up of mostly Pomona and Pitzer students, with wider participation spread out among the 5C's.  I've seen many students on several campuses wearing orange arm bands to show their support.   And the facebook group "Students in Solidarity with Workers for Justice", founded by Julie Juarez PO '12, boasts more than 400 members.

From the WfJ website, a well-written explanation of the what the card-check system (blogger's emphasis supplied):

A card-check is a unionization method that grants workers the power to bargain collectively when over 50% of workers sign union cards. Employers are asked to sign a card-check neutrality agreement in order to assure recognition of the results of the card check, and to guarantee that they will not intimidate workers or employ other union-busting techniques. Workers sign cards on their own time in the privacy of their homes and a neutral third-party agreed upon by both parties verifies whether or not a majority is reached. Without such a card-check neutrality agreement, Pomona would have no obligation to recognize a union, even if 100 percent of their employees submit their written support.

According to a student-talk email sent by Paul Waters-Smith '10, Anthony Chavez, grandson of seminal labor rights activist and United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez, will be speaking alongside Pomona dining hall workers on Saturday, March 6 at 2:30 pm in Marston Quad at Pomona College in support of the workers' demand for a fair unionization process for unionization.  Dolores Huerta may also join the rally later in the day.

90% of Pomona dining hall workers signed a petition calling on Pomona College to sign a non-intimidation/card-check neutrality agreement which they delivered to College President David Oxtoby's office Monday in a procession with well over 100 student supporters.

My own opinion?   I think it's clear that workers benefit from this additional avenue of unionization.  I signed the petition here.

*Apologies to my loyal readers for the tardiness of this post; I had a minor personal emergency and have been off campus since Thursday morning.  All better now.

**Addended 2 pm, March 7, 2010.

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I thought it was dead, but that was a fakeout! The Orange Peel is now online at http://pzorangepeel.com/wordpress/.

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Embedded below are the past two student speeches, delivered by Springsong Cooper '09 and Ben Kramer '08.

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At 3:34 AM I awoke to my entire apartment shaking violently. My bed creaked and I heard a vase of flowers in my kitchen fall over. I did not mentally process or consciously think of anything, not even "earthquake," but I had an instinct to walk over to my desk and grab my laptop. [I'm not what it says that my first thought was to protect my laptop, but there you go.] Propped up on a stand I feared it would fall over the desk and break, and indeed it was going to do so shortly had I not grabbed it. I stood clutching my laptop. A sliding French style door that separates my living room / desk area from bedroom moved and hit me, so I backed up and leaned against the wall for support. The shaking continued for a bit more time and then stopped and everything was silent and dark. The power had gone out in my building so all white noise and power lights: gone. I heard no screams or sounds or anything. Just total black silence.

...

In the late afternoon, I walked around my neighborhood a bit more. The sky was a gray haze from a supposed chemical fire that had started downtown. Nevertheless, I was amazed at the tranquility of Santiago. Public buses full of people passed by. Cars drove calmly. People chatting on the streets. I ate dinner at my favorite local restaurant and it was full of people. Much of the rubble and glass I had seen earlier had already been picked up. The scene was such a contrast from the images on TV. I know what I saw was a million times better than what the scene is like more north in Santiago, or especially in Concepción and along the coast. Still it's a reminder that it's hard to generalize about a situation in an entire country, let alone in one city.

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Rainbow Destroyer and its embedded blog has been a crashpad for the music of a lot of Pitzer kids since August 2008.  It's home to a lot of the bands you should know: Let's Go Guantanamo, Fitness, Death by Panda, etc. etc.  Click through to all its parter sites/musicians/bands for some pretty cool stuff.  Below is a behind-the-scenes look at a Rainbow Destroyer music video, shot by Jeff Katz '10.

Next, Shmul Howls is the photography of Sam Monkarsh '10 aka SAMUEL WOLF MONKARSH, who makes the world look gritty and cool.

Below are some selections (I avoided ones with Pitzer faces, but if you click through to his blog you'll see people you know).

Way before this blog there were: Rainbow Destroyer and Shmul Howls.

Rainbow Destroyer and its embedded blog has been a crashpad for the music of a lot of Pitzer kids since August 2008.  It's home to a lot of the bands you should know: Let's Go Guantanamo, Fitness, Death by Panda, etc. etc.  Click through to all its parter sites/musicians/bands for some pretty cool stuff.  Below is a behind-the-scenes look at a Rainbow Destroyer music video, shot by Jeff Katz '10.

Next, Shmul Howls is the photography of Sam Monkarsh '10 aka SAMUEL WOLF MONKARSH, who makes the world look gritty and cool.

Below are some selections (I avoided ones with Pitzer faces, but if you click through to his blog you'll see people you know).

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President Trombley,

Many of my readers and Pitzer students on all sides of the recent constitutional debate have commented on the lack of candy in the upstairs bowl in Broad Center. Are there currently plans to replenish the candy or is this an effect of the recession?

Thank you,

Amy Jasper
Pitzer College 2010

President Trombley responded at 7:47 pm:

Dear Amy,

No worries. I ran to the market and bought candy, topped off the fish tank, and spruced up the lobby. All are welcome to visit the president's office.

All Best,

Laura Trombley

I have not yet been to Broad Center to verify President Trombley's claims but I am delighted at the response.

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Dear Pitzer Community,

It is my pleasure to share with you that Sol Estin ’10 has been named a Best Delegate at the 2010 Harvard National Model United Nations and Alex Friedlander Moore ’10 has been named to the Teach for America Corps.

Sol was named a Best Delegate for his representation of Costa Rica in the United Nations Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean Committee. He is a political studies major and his advisor, Tom Ilgen, is also Pitzer’s Model United Nations team’s faculty advisor.

Alex is a psychology major whose advisor is Mita Banerjee. After training in the summer, Alex will be assigned to an elementary school in the Mississippi Delta in the fall. Teach for America assignments are awarded to outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teaching for two years in urban and rural public schools.

Please join me in congratulating Sol and Alex.

Sincerely,

Laura Skandera Trombley
President

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Bryce Coefield '11 and Skylar Boorman PO '10 pump up the Mraz:

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This is Katie Ferrara '10 at the recent "Talent Night" in the Grove House, with Kellen Wohl ’13 on piano, Sophie Beiers ’13 on violin, and Alycia Lang ’13 with accompanying vocals.  Thanks, commenter Brian!

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www.pzorangepeel.com now points to this:

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But Shivaratri was the most intense time and atmosphere there that I have experienced. Throngs of people, music, smoke, games, fires, pujas, bajaans, chillums, ganja, prasad and excitement from every corner of everywhere. Shivaratri lacked the whole commercial-consumer-goat-sacrificing-new-appliance-buying atmosphere that Dasain had. It was refreshing. I think it is by far the most fun and lively holiday I have experienced yet.

As Sadhus come to stay there beginning a week before the actual night of Shiva, I also began my daily visits to Pashupati a week early. I talked with Sadhus (sometimes called Babas) from all over Nepal and India. We sang songs in bajaans, did puja, and ate prasad in honor of Shiva. The Sadhus that spend time in the Himalayas had incredible stories and oral maps of sacred lakes and temples to share with me. Many gave me advice on sleeping, eating, and my lifestyle in general. One even told me Yoga shuru garnu parchha, that I needed to start doing Yoga because he could see my body aging too quickly.

From her blog's inaugural post:

By in it, I mean life in Kathmandu:

Constant nonstop traffic. People, cars, buses, microbuses, taxis, tuk tuks, rikshaws, motorcyles, scooters, bicycles, dogs and cows moving in masses together through both big and tiny streets. Paved streets, unpaved streets, trash, burning trash, holes.

Cows blocking traffic. Cows walking in traffic and obeying traffic signs. Cows sitting in trash, eating trash. The saddest looking dogs. Happy dogs. Hungry dogs. Temples and stupas every few blocks filled with people doing puja (Hindu worship). Wearing face masks to avoid inhaling exhaust fumes from the polluted air. Buddhist prayer flags. Women in beautiful saris and brightly colored kurta surhwals.

Young girls in shorts and tank tops. Old women out of the 8th century squinting their eyes as they make their way through traffic. Lepers laying on the sidewalk, begging for money. Little kids on the sidewalk, begging for money. Women from India walking around in tourist infested Thamel holding babies, asking you to buy them milk for their child just so that they can immediately return the milk for rupees. Hard stares from some of the most beautiful faces I have ever seen.

Haggling with taxi drivers. Haggling with street vendors. Haggling with store owners. Haggling. Watching awkward tourists walk around in expensive gear and speaking loudly to Nepalis in english, as if speaking louder will make themselves better understood. Watching those Nepalis understand those tourists perfectly, and then speaking back to them in perfect english in an even voice. The occasional monkey crawling on a building, tree, or stoplight.

The occasional monkey stealing Momos (Tibetan dumplings) right off my plate. Little Tibetan kids playing soccer in between the monks circling Boudhanath. Sadhus (Hindu holy men) posing for pictures in Pashupatinath. Bodies burning at the funeral pyres at Pashupati, and then the remains pushed into the Bagmati river.

All content shamelessly stolen from Roxy's blog.

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