Author Archives : The Left Hook

Employers are utilizing biometric data collection methods, such as facial recognition technology, as tools for workplace surveillance and immigration enforcement including tracking noncitizen and citizen workers in the workplace. Workplace surveillance has grown in office spaces, with MIT reporting that 80% of companies monitor remote and hybrid employees. A report from the National Employment Law Project highlights the threat to…

It has been a challenging year for immigrants, working people, and unions. ICE agents are detaining and/or kidnapping primarily nonwhite people, warehousing them in detention centers under brutal conditions, and even deporting them to third countries. Meanwhile the administration has deployed plain-clothes federal agents to arrest people who are at work or who show up for check-ins, court hearings, and…

Governor Newsom has signed a number of bills that go into effect in the new year and that protect worker and union rights. South Bay Senator Wahab and Assemblymembers Kalra, Lee,and Berman have authored significant workers’ rights legislation. RIGHT OF RIDESHARE DRIVERS TO UNIONIZE AB 1340 (Berman); (Wicks) grants rideshare drivers the right to organize, bargain collectively,and unionize for mutual…

After a contentious and bitterly close election, one in which homelessness dominated voters’ minds, a new mayor came to power promising to deliver immediate results where previous administrations had fallen short. The newly-elected mayor launched a program aimed at moving people out of encampments and emergency shelters, with the goal of providing temporary housing to 4,000 previously unhoused residents within…

With all the critical issues facing the city of San Jose – thousands of unhoused residents living in abject poverty, a lack of affordable housing, rising violent crime rates, ever-growing inequality – Mayor Matt Mahan took to Twitter last weekend and blasted the federal government for its slow response.  Finally, for the first time in his tenure, Mayor Mahan showed…

During his run for mayor in 2022, Matt Mahan played down his political inexperience by hyping up his business background – specifically his founding of two social media companies. He promised voters he would leverage his experience within the technology industry to implement new tools to enhance community engagement, streamline city operations, and provide better service to businesses and residents. …

Following an 8-year mayoral tenure defined more by his crises than successes, Sam Liccardo appears ready to try his luck running for the U.S. House of Representatives.  Recently, an opinion poll began circulating testing former San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo‘s viability in a hypothetical race against incumbent congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, who has represented San Jose in Congress for nearly 30…

Last week at San Jose City Hall, the mayor and city council held a pair of special meetings to make appointments to two vacant council seats. Political observers throughout the city rightly saw the appointments as the first big tests of Mayor Mahan‘s administration – would he be able to cobble together the necessary votes to appoint much needed allies…

In a last-ditch effort to reverse a previous City Council decision, Mayor Matt Mahan and his chief of staff, Jim Reed, rolled out the results of a poll showing overwhelming voter support for holding special elections to fill two vacant Council seats. Who funded this last-minute poll? Solutions for Silicon Valley, a political advocacy group founded by none other than…

Today, the San Jose City Council voted against Mayor Liccardo’s request to travel later this week to Qatar. The item was pulled from consent by Councilmember Dev Davis. It’s unclear if he was planning to travel with staff or family. Qatar embraces discriminatory policies that are anti-worker, anti-gay, and misogynistic. In addition to the women on the city council, Mahan…