Author Archives : The Left Hook

CSU Denies Salary Increases to Workers and Violates Contracts While Increasing Executive Pay


CSU was the only public employer in California to give no raises to any workers in 2025. Across the CSU system, presidents, executives and administrators continue to receive pay raises. In November 2025, the California Board of Trustees adopted a resolution that paved the way for significant salary increases for top executives of 5 to 20 percent and repealed a…

The Amazon Bargaining Order Is a Rare Bright Spot in a Bleak NLRB Landscape


In a positive development for unions, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled on April 1, 2026 that Amazon unlawfully refused to recognize the Staten Island-based Amazon Labor Union-International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1 (ALU-IBT 1) and ordered it to bargain with the Teamsters. “Four years ago, Amazon workers at JFK8 won an NLRB election. Now they have become the…

The Digital Dragnet Has Expanded in the Workplace and in Immigration Enforcement


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…

2025: A Challenging Year for Immigrants, Workers, and Unions


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…

NEW LAWS IN 2026 THAT PROTECT WORKER AND UNION RIGHTS


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…

A tale of two cities


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…

Advocacy by Tantrum


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…

Tech Bro Can’t Tech


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. …

The Audacity of Sam Liccardo


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…

You say you want a revolution?


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…