Emeryville Becomes a National Model for Social Justice

Los Angeles Looks to Emeryville

for Inspiration

News Analysis
Ten years ago, two opposing forces in Emeryville began gearing up for an epic battle that would culminate in a November election, testing the voter's will for social justice.  That election battle, Measure C, also known as the 'living wage for Emeryville hotel workers', resulted in the first industry specific minimum wage law in California history.  And it's been hugely influential as municipalities across the West Coast and the Nation start looking to Emeryville's lead.
After two unsuccessful lawsuits were brought challenging the new law, Measure C has moved on, as it was designed to, providing Emeryville hotel housekeepers with significant wage increases and other benefits while also serving as impetuous for similar such laws protecting hotel workers in other cities such as Long Beach in 2012 and Los Angeles in 2014.  Seattle and nearby Sea Tac Washington used the Long Beach and Los Angeles law as a model for their respective city-wide minimum wage laws recently passed.

EBASE's
Jennifer Lin
"Emeryville has
been very
influential."

Measure C comports Emeryville's values but it also has shown the Nation as a whole how cities can serve as loci for their community's values.
"Other cities are looking at what happened in Emeryville, with increased worker wages that ripple to the rest of the economy" said Jennifer Lin, Deputy Director at East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), a local community organization working for economic justice issues for working families, "Emeryville's been very influential" she added.  EBASE's efforts and the efforts of UNITE HERE-Local 2850 in 2005 were essential to getting Measure C before Emeryville voters.
Ms Lin noted that Emeryville, despite its small size, shines as an inspiration to other, larger cities, "Living wages for hotel workers caught on with other cities...they took the Emeryville model and scaled it up" she said.

This is What Democracy Looks Like
Post Measure C Victory: Woodfin fight 
The battle at the ballot box was only the first; one
law breaking hotel sought to subvert Emeryville
voter's will.  Near daily protests were conducted
 at the Woodfin Suites Hotel.

An easy win at the ballot box for Measure C belied the opposition's tenacity and apocalyptic rhetoric.  The fight for the Measure was fierce and battle lines were drawn, with nine out of ten elected officials in Emeryville warning of a massive economic calamity if the Measure were to pass.  Residents weren't impressed with that argument and Measure C won with 54% of the vote despite a mountain of cash thrown at it from the NO side to see it defeated.  Living wages are very popular with Emeryville residents we've found out.

The NO on Measure C side called itself the "Committee to Keep Tax Dollars in Emeryville" (as in; hotels will flee Emeryville if this passes) raised and spent $115,000, a huge amount for an Emeryville election ($110 for each NO vote as it turned out).  The funding came almost entirely from the hotels and the Chamber of Commerce, who put up everything they had against the ordinance.  Residents were told the sky would fall if Measure C passed; the Emeryville hospitality industry would be wiped out, sending the town's finances into a tailspin they said.  'It's not for a lack of caring, everyone wants higher pay for the working poor but we have to be realistic', the voters were told.
In fact the opposite has occurred over the proceeding ten years; all the hotels from 2005 (except Woodfin was bought out by Hyatt) are still here and a new hotel has even been approved.  The number of Emeryville hotels has gone from four to five since Measure C passed.

John Gooding
He consolidated the
Power Elite in town.
Hotels will leave
Emeryville en masse
if Measure C is passed,
all will be lost!

As the people voted YES on the living wage ordinance, virtually the entire Emeryville Power Elite rallied against it.
Emeryville political power broker and business lobbyist John Gooding took a leadership role in attempting to defeat Measure C.  Mr Gooding joined with the Chamber of Commerce and convinced the entire Emeryville City Council (save Ruth Atkin) to sign their names to the NO side as well as the entire Planning Commission and the entire School Board.

2005 was also a City Council election year and candidates Dick Kassis (incumbent) and his slate mate, Ed Treuting  both conspicuously ran on an anti-Measure C platform while challenger John Fricke endorsed Measure C as part of his platform.  Some election watchers claim that support for a living wage is what gave Mr Fricke the edge he needed to decisively win his election bid as he did.
The debate was heated and Councilwoman Nora Davis went as far as calling Emeryville residents that spoke out in favor of Measure C "dupes for EBASE", a charge she may have wished to take back after the 54% of Emeryville residents said YES to living wages for our town.

Emeryville's Influence:
Less this...

Measure C delivered the goods: In the first five years there were $1.168 million in wage increases for the workers according to a study conducted by EBASE.  Many workers were able to survive on their own and support their families without government assistance after the Measure C passage while the hotels were found to have their costs increase less than 2%.  Many workers got pay increases of up to $5 per hour, translating into an extra $5000 per year to help families make ends meet. Over 100 workers were helped in the new law's first year alone.

...more this.

It's ironic that the politicians at Emeryville City Hall and at the Emery Unified School District, the same bodies that railed against Measure C in 2005 have long boasted about how Emeryville is becoming a national model.  It is clear they are correct, but not in the way they think.  Emeryville's influence is not being felt in terms of schools as community centers as a result of the construction of the Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life as these people would have you believe but rather in labor relations, social justice and the rise of minimum wage law.

As the 10 year anniversary approaches, Emeryville residents would be excused if they felt a little civic pride in the prescience of our very influential landmark minimum wage ordinance: Measure C.
We rock (editorial).

Living Wages for Hotel Workers Started in Emeryville

Now it's Taking Off Everywhere

Here's a source of real Emeryville civic pride: After retaliatory firing of workers, 

the workers successfully forced the Woodfin Suites Hotel to pay their back wages as 

mandated by Measure C.  After the Emeryville Power Elite including the City Council, 

lost their battle against Measure C at the ballot box, City Hall implemented the 

new law, forcing the Woodfin fight.
Wage increases for the working poor among us is the will of the people of Emeryville.

They Said It

Dick Kassis Said It-

"If We Raise Taxes On The Oaks Club, They'll Go Out Of Business"

Politics in Emeryville have produced quite a lot of hyperbole over the years. At the Tattler, we occasionally post quotable quotes from Emeryville personalities since where we've been can sometimes inform where we're going.


Former city councilman Dick Kassis predicted the Oaks Club card room would go out of business. In light of the recent FBI raid Wednesday, perhaps they will.  However Mr Kassis' predictive skills aren't as impressive as they seem: his pronouncement of the Oaks Club's demise was 14 years ago.

Dick

The year 1997 was an election year in Emeryville. Aside from Kassis' candidacy for a fifth, four-year term was an initiative asking voters to lift the tax rate on card room profits from what they were: the lowest in the Bay Area, to parity with the regional average.
Mr. Kassis strongly urged voters to reject the tax hike on gambling, claiming "If we raise taxes on the Oaks Club, they'll go out of business".  What Mr. Kassis neglected to inform voters was that at the same time he was once again receiving the maximum campaign donations from the Oaks Club allowable under law.


Emeryville voters ended up re-electing Mr. Kassis but rejecting his advice about card room tax rates. Voters correctly gambled that Kassis' warnings of bankruptcy and the Oaks' closure was just hot air.  Some 14 years later it appears that Emeryville voters were right and Mr. Kassis was simply a paid agent for an allegedly crooked den of loan sharks and extortionists that didn't want to pay their fair share.  


No apology has subsequently been offered by Mr. Kassis for spreading disinformation to the public during an election campaign while ostensibly on the Oaks Club's payroll via generous campaign contributions. But it seems, if you've been in office since Disco was king, there's no need to explain; perhaps he has been waiting these subsequent 14 years to be proved prescient about the Oaks Club going under.