It's over 100°F today and we're 9 unions strong turning up the heat on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.
We are the 4th wealthiest county in California, yet we are one of the worst compensated county workforces in the state! We can't hold onto new hires because we're so understaffed and overworked that they get overwhelmed and leave within a couple of weeks. Our workers go to Solano and San Francisco County to get better pay for the same work.
If you're on public assistance of any kind in California, but especially in Contra Costa County, this is about you too. Our clients' cases get discontinued and benefits get delayed through no fault of their own because we literally don't have enough people to stay in compliance. Tour food stamps could be late this month or next month. Your medi-cal could take weeks to get approved while you sit in the hospital. Even the Public Defenders are understaffed and underpaid, so if you're facing incarceration your representation is at risk. Rent, gas, child care, and medical costs are skyrocketing. Most of us are a paycheck or two from losing our homes.
We have confronted the BoS about this, and their response, verbatim, was "it's not a priority." Not "we can't afford it", not "we can't do it". Fairly staffing and compensating the workforce is not a priority. Therefore, our clients and communities are also not a priority.
Our contracts are up in 9 days. If you are in Contra Costa County or the surrounding area, or even if you just want to give the BoS a piece of your mind, you can contact them here and give them a piece of your mind.
Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
Federal Glover, Diane Burgis, Candace Andersen, Karen Mitchoff, and John Gioia
1 (925) 655-2350
1025 Escobar Street
Martinez, California 94553
Emails and other info here:
When we fight, we win! Tell Contra Costa County to staff up!
So a bunch of writers and filmmakers got together and are having an auction to benefit the crew of the productions that shut down right now.
There's some weird shit on there y'all.
You could hang out with Woody Harrelson.
Get a hand knit blanket from Justine Bateman.
Eat corn dogs with this guy. He's that one guy from a stranger things. I feel like it would be fun, actually.
I know a lot of us don't have money, but in case you do and find this fun, now you know.
Also it's kind of a side note, it looks like they held a kind of party last night that included a performance by fishbone and that's pretty fucking cool.
SHERBROOKE - Unhappy with the progress of negotiations, the common front of public sector unions is becoming impatient and threatening to strike.
The union members are particularly outraged by the $30,000 salary raise for elected officials that the Legault government wants to adopt through a bill tabled this week.
On Saturday, a thousand union members demonstrated in front of the Sherbrooke Exhibition Centre, where François Legault's Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) is holding its convention this weekend.
"We are asking for a $100 increase per week for all public sector workers, but they are going to give themselves a $582 increase per week, and they are telling us that $100 is too much," said François Enault, first vice-president of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), in an interview with The Canadian Press during the demonstration. [...]
The obvious answer of course is that Le Retour - The Return is the revolution that is about to happen in Revachol in about two or three months in the future from events of the game. However what I feel like some players are missing is that Le Retour is *not* connected to any ideology in particular and trying to interpret it as second Communist revolution (something I keep seeing way too often) is really missing the the point of what the event represents.
First of all I love the aesthetic of the game I love the mix of France and Soviet Russia scenery. I love what a terrible mess the city of Revachol is, occupied by The Coalition of Nations with their MoralIntern "democracy". But now looking at history what geopolitical unit this all reminds you of really?
The Coalition of Nations is - I would dare to say - quite obvious metaphor for Soviet Union. Which makes Revachol into any country of Eastern Bloc - Estonia or Poland or Czechoslovakia or Romania or so on it does not really matter. The important part is that there is occupied state by foreign power who got to the rule there through questionable means under the claim of bringing the better regime and stability.
And so really in does not so much matter if you are communist or ultraliberal or nationalist or if you are really trying not to think about politics too much because you have one common enemy nonetheless.
And we *see* it through the game, we *see* the bitterness from the rule of The Coalition of Nations from nationalist like René, we see the bitterness in ultraliberal like Joyce it is not an ideology thing, it is not a communist thing. Because your beliefs are not everything and sometimes you have to put your differences aside and unite because of the common goal.
Le Retour is about freeing Revachol. And if you want to be hopeful about the chances you could assume that the year 1951 in the world of Disco Elysium is what is for us the year 1989 (in Baltic Nations it's called Spring Revolution, I could make my whole case on just that.)
Maybe I'm just Eastern European trying to fit narrative too much on my own experience. Or maybe I'm just spelling out something that is clear to almost everyone and overanalysing stuff unnecessarily. But then again I feel like lot of connections that might be really obvious to me thanks to my specific background and historical knowledge might be going over the heads of others as I do not really expect people to have deep knowledge of life under the Soviet regime.
So yesterday I wrote a whole long tl;dr Thing about some serious bullshit the school district I work at was trying to pull that was going to affect my ability to communicate with students, and I had spent a LOT of time contacting other folks about it-- administrators, principals, district folks, basically any contacts that I have developed in my thirteen years of teaching-- and I was not very hopeful because my district is good at some things, but giving a shit about making teachers' jobs harder isn't one of them.
BUT. BUT I WON. THEY'RE GOING TO UNDO THEIR STUPID DECISION. I AM VICTORIOUS.
\o/
And it only took multiple hours of phone calls, emails, two nights of anxiety dreams, and district-level folks bald-face lying to me about things!
Danny Pino has joined Aubrey Plaza, Eva Longoria, Gina Torres, Gloria Calderón Kellet, Justina Machado, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Wilmer Valderrama and many more as a NHMC (National Hispanic Media Coalition) Visionary Alliance Member.
NHMC’s Visionary Alliance consists of leaders in the creative space who support NHMC’s mission throughout the year. Members will also support NHMC’s advocacy to connect, collaborate, and create opportunities for Latine talent in the entertainment industry through the Series Scriptwriters program and the Latinx Stream Showcase.Through traditional and social media, events, advocacy, and more, Alliance members are provided opportunities to emerge themselves in NHMC’s social justice work, engage with supporters to amplify its impact, and pursue NHMC’s mission of ensuring Latine representation is more than just a set of initiatives, but part of the framework of major organizations around the country.
X - X
Danny’s Bio on the website also states: Danny also recently completed the short film, UNIÓN DE REYES (Union of Kings), which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in. and there we have an update on his own short movie. it is completed but we don’t have a release date yet. stay tuned.
There's an auction to support the Motion Picture and Television Fund for healthcare for those striking in Hollywood and there's the usual Zooms and dinners with actors, but some of the biddable items are absolutely unreal in the best way
Coalition talks in Poland complicated by abortion issue
Representatives of Poland’s three opposition parties, which want to form a new government, are discussing a coalition agreement that would include wage increases and compensation for in vitro fertilisation.
The views of Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO, EPP/Greens), the Left (S&D) and the Third Way bloc (Renew/EPP) diverge on many issues, including a solution to the welfare state favoured by the Left, as well as on sensitive worldview issues such as abortion.
The Constitutional Court further restricted abortion rights in 2020. As a result, it was accused of being controlled by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS, ECR) party and sparked mass protests in Polish cities. However, as Gazeta Wyborcza reports, abortion will not be included in the coalition between the three blocs.
As part of the election campaign, the Left and the KO promised to legalise abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy. However, the Third Way wants to return to the 1993 compromise that allowed abortion in three cases: if the pregnancy was the result of rape, if there was serious and permanent damage to the foetus and if the mother’s life was in danger.