April newsletter
In This Issue:
- Upcoming Events
- Worker Justice
- Budget Advocacy
- Education Justice
- Community Events
- Job Opportunities
UPCOMING EVENTS
Students for Economic Justice
Join us on Thursday, May 11th 5:30-8pm for the return of our SEJ Mixer & Fundraiser!
This event, generously hosted by SEJ Advisory Board members Kelly Mayhew and Jim Miller, is something many of us look forward to each year. After a 3-year pandemic-pause, we’re thrilled to bring everyone together again this year.
WORKER JUSTICE
SB 407
CPI plays a leadership role in the statewide coalition, the California Coalition for Worker Power (CCWP). Along with our CCWP partners, we are proud to sponsor SB 497 (Smallwood-Cuevas) to strengthen retaliation protections for workers in California. CCWP’s advocacy on SB497 was recently covered on Univision.
SB 497 would create a rebuttable presumption, which means that when workers report that their employer has retaliated against them, the incident of retaliation is assumed to be true and puts the responsibility on the employer to prove otherwise. Retaliation occurs when an employer punishes a worker for exercising their rights, such as by firing or demoting them. For example, an employer illegally retaliates by cutting a worker’s hours (and pay) in response to the worker complaining to their supervisor or a government agency that they didn’t receive overtime compensation.
SB 497 would also allow whistleblowers who experience retaliation to collect a penalty of up to $10,000 that currently only the state may collect from lawbreaking employers.
SB 497 passed the Senate Labor Committee and is moving on to the Judiciary Committee on April 25th. Follow CCWP to stay in the loop!
Fighting Wage Theft
ICYMI, we’re continuing to work with the county to ensure that workers get the wages they’re owed. In last month’s newsletter, we discussed the importance of establishing a Worker Justice Fund at the county. We’ve set up a webpage where you can learn more about our fight against wage theft and retaliation.
Have you or anyone you know experienced wage theft? Please email us if you’re willing to talk to us about your experience.
BUDGET ADVOCACY
City of San Diego
This year’s first public hearing is Wednesday May 3rd at 6pm and will be one of two hearings that Councilmembers will have to hear from our communities before the May Revise.
On April 14th, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria released his proposed budget. In his budget proposal, the mayor excluded most of the items the Community Budget Alliance (CBA) coalition included in our FY24 People’s Budget. He ignored City Council and broad community support for the CBA’s budget proposals. Despite calls from the community for a fundamental shift to fund programs and services that support youth, fight wage theft, and prevent eviction, Mayor Gloria still delivered a status quo budget proposal. Read the full statement by the CBA.
EDUCATION JUSTICE
We are thrilled to share that San Diego Unified has named the next 10 community schools for the 2023-2024 school year! Congratulations to:
Bell Middle School
Burbank Elementary
Cherokee Point Elementary
Chollas-Mead Elementary
Crawford High School
Fay Elementary
Lafayette Elementary
Lincoln High School
Morse High School
Sherman Elementary
These 10 schools are joining ALBA Community Day School, Hancock Elementary School, Hoover High School, Millennial Tech Middle School, and Mountain View School as part of the movement to transform public schools. Community schools are designed to address systemic barriers to education, such as poverty or housing insecurity, and have emerged as a democratic and collaborative response to structural inequities in the education system. CPI is proud to be a part of leading this work in San Diego!
ICYMI: Last month CPI joined teachers with the San Diego Education Association (SDEA), parents, students, and other members of the San Diego Community Schools Coalition at a rally to demand fair pay, smaller class sizes, more counselors, and more after school programs for our youth. Check out SDEA’s blog post to learn more about what we’re fighting for.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Engage San Diego
CPI is a long-time member of Engage San Diego, an organization focused on increasing voter participation in historically and systemically excluded communities of San Diego.
Following County Supervisor Fletcher’s announcement of his upcoming resignation from the County Board of Supervisors, we have come to learn that there will be a Board of Supervisor’s meeting on Tuesday, May 2nd, to discuss the process for filling the Supervisorial District 4 seat. Engage San Diego will be hosting a community meeting to present information on this process and answer questions. Spanish translation is available if requested.
Progressive Labor Summit
The 6th annual Progressive Labor Summit is right around the corner! Join us on April 29th at the Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter for a one-day event in San Diego bringing together the Labor community with left-of-center activists & leaders to empower all working people by building stronger understanding, knowledge, skills, and partnerships to tackle the broader social challenges we are facing today.
CPI has been a collaborative partner on the planning team for this event. Our Executive Director, Dr. Kyra R. Greene, will be speaking at the afternoon session “We’d All Love to See the Plan: Crafting and Passing Worker Policies for a Union San Diego.”
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
We are currently hiring for the following positions. Click to learn more:
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As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, CPI relies on the generous support of our community to operate. If you would like to support our fight for economic and social justice, please consider becoming a monthly donor or making a one-time donation. Thank you so much!
