About 25 people gathered on the sidewalk in front of Modern Times Bookstore on Valencia Street Monday night, but they weren’t there for Randy Shaw’s presentation on his new book. Instead, with pickets and megaphones in hand, they were there to protest alleged violation of union and labor contracts by Shaw against former employees.
“When are you going to honor your contract?” asked LaborFest organizer Steve Zeltzer through the megaphone, right before Shaw left the Valencia Street bookstore, ten minutes before his talk was to begin.
Shaw was originally asked to present his book, Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century, a look at the United Farm Workers and their success in organizing a broad labor coalition, as part of LaborFest. This was before they heard from Nate Holmes, a former program receptionist at the Tenderloin Housing Center, who alleged he had been fired in breach of his SEIU 1021 contract.
According to those at the protest, Shaw said there is no issue with SEIU. As of the time of writing, Shaw had not responded to requests for comment.
“If he thinks there’s no issue, he’s been smoking too much,” said Zeltzer through his megaphone, as another picketer lifted his fist and shouted “no more poverty pimps!”
Shaw is executive director and founder of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which provides housing assistance and support to low-income residents, and also the founder and editor-in-chief of the progressive online news daily BeyondChron.
Upon hearing of and investigating the dispute, LaborFest cancelled the book presentation and informed Shaw and Modern Times, an abrupt move that caused some confusion about whether it was actually cancelled or not, according to Ruth Mahaney, who works at the store.
Shaw, whose talk had attracted only one or two people, offered to leave once he saw the demonstration. He exited the bookstore ten minutes before the talk was to begin.
The trouble started, Holmes said, when a new housing director was brought into the clinic, a move he said overlooked “people of color” within the clinic who were also applying for the new position.
“I never had problems” before this, said Holmes who is African American, “there is nothing in my files.”
“As a matter of fact it helped me stay clean and sober.”
Soon after, he was placed on administrative leave to investigate claims that he was creating a hostile work environment. He was then transferred to the SRO Collaborative, and in November 2008 he was fired from the clinic, a move that his union representative, Sarah Sherburn-Zimmer, says violated his union contract.
“Why would you want to fire a guy that’s liked throughout” the clinic’s 16 properties, asked Larry Haynes, a friend and former coworker who collected more than a thousand signatures to protest Holmes’s firing.
Despite the protest and confusion, Mahaney said there were no hard feelings against the LaborFest organizers, who hold several events annually at the cooperatively-owned bookstore.
“We’re pleased to have them here always.”
