Coalition Demands Port of

Oakland Agree to Living

Wage Warehouse Jobs
A coalition of local organizations is pushing for the Port of
Oakland to create living wage jobs for Oakland residents at a
logistics center the port is getting ready to build.

More than six weeks of intense negotiations between the

community coalition and the port have focused on the first
warehouse in the project, which could produce up to 120
jobs. The warehouse, proposed to be built by CenterPoint
Properties, would provide logistics space for transferring and
loading cargo and distribution services on a 27-acre plot of
the 185-acre Oakland Army Base parcel that belongs to the
port.

More is at stake, however, than the local hiring agreement

for jobs at this first warehouse. This agreement is likely to
become the model for local hiring at other warehouses and
companies that will be built on the port property, according
to organizers.

CenterPoint is a private Chicago-based company, but it is

owned by CalPERS, a state agency that manages public
employee pensions, including those of many local residents
who are SEIU members.

Members of the coalition held a public meeting last Thursday

evening at Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church in West
Oakland to report to the community on the progress of
negotiations.

As a community coalition, we are holding the port to their

promise to do the same or better than the jobs agreement
signed by the city for its portion of the army base
development, said Jahmese Myres, campaign director for the
Revive! Oakland Coalition, which includes labor, community
and faith-based groups.

What is being discussed, she said, is 50 percent local hire

and 25 percent for disadvantaged workers in the ports local
impact area, and cities Oakland, Emeryville, Alameda and
San Leandro.

The port is hoping to strike a deal by Sept. 22, but there are
still a lot of outstanding hot issues. We need to ramp up our
organizing and our pressure on CenterPoint to get a better
deal than we did with the city, said Myres.

The port and CenterPoint need to understand that this is an

issue that is not going to go away with them running out the
clock, she said.

Also speaking at the meeting was Margaret Gordon of

OaklandWorks and West Oakland Environmental Indicators
Project.

She explained that the roots of the planned project can be

traced back to developer Phil Tagami and then Mayor Jerry
Brown.

When the U.S. Army closed the Oakland Army Base in 1999,
the land was divided between the port and the City of
Oakland. Tagami won the contract to develop the citys side
of the property.

All of this is public money the roads, electrical lines, the

sewers, she said. The developer has not had any private
money doing anything its free infrastructure. Now they are
talking about building a (private) warehouse.

The recycling companies, truck parking, warehouses there

are all jobs.
Carroll Fife of OaklandWorks, who chaired the meeting,
underscored the importance of winning a good jobs
agreement.

We have an opportunity to set a precedent on how jobs are

distributed to Oakland residents, she said. There is an
ethnic cleansing that is happening in the city right now, and
we have to say we arent having it.

Fred Pecker, secretary treasurer of warehouse union ILWU

Local 6, said that many companies staff their warehouses
with temp workers.

You have a workforce that is always in the shadow,

(workers) that do not assert their rights (because) if they do,
they disappear, he said. We want stable jobs in the
community and stable (work) standards.

Kitty Kelly Epstein said that local hire agreements so far

have not meant that Black people are getting hired. This is
our public money, and Black people are not getting jobs on
city-funded projects.

She said reported data show that African Americans are only
getting 5 percent of construction jobs on city projects. The
port and its developers need to produce demographic
statistics on their projects, too, she said.

The coalition of organizations is holding a protest Thursday,

Sept. 8 at noon to demand that the port sign a jobs and
community benefit agreement with the community. The
protest will be held at the meeting of the Port Commission,
530 Water St. in Oakland.