Programs & Achievements

Living Wage:

The Living Wage Coalition of Sonoma County (LWC) is a project of NEWS, and was organized to introduce ordinances to most cities and counties in the region and to build community-labor alliances. The City of Petaluma (2006) recently passed the third living wage ordinance in the Sonoma County. The City of Sebastopol (2003) and the City of Sonoma (2004) have also implemented ordinances. The ordinances can be downloaded and other information about the LWC is available at http://www.livingwagesonoma.org.

Affordable Housing:

+Collaborated with environmentalists and housing advocates to lobby for new affordable housing policy such as "jobs-housing linkage fees," inclusionary zoning, and a housing trust with a dedicated source of public financing. As a result, the City of Petaluma (2003), Sebastopol (2004), the County of Sonoma (2005), the City of Cotati and the City of Rohnert Park (2006) have implemented jobs-housing linkage fees.

+Published "Affordable Housing for All: Solutions to Sonoma County's Affordable Housing Crisis" which analyzes the housing crisis in Sonoma County and provides new policy to address the crisis (March 2003).

+Published "Mendocino County At the Crossroads: The Crisis of Affordable Housing" which analyzes the housing crisis in Mendocino County and provides new policy to address the crisis (September 2003).
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Accountable Development:

+NEWS was one of the founding organizers of the Sonoma County Accountable Development Coalition (ADC) in 2005, after a daylong training led by representatives from the Partnerships for Working Families (PWF) to educate the public and lobby elected officials to support the responsible use of public subsidies to create good jobs with benefits. The ADC includes organizations such as Sonoma County Conservation Action, Greenbelt Alliance, North Bay Labor Council, Sonoma-Mendocino-Lake Building and Construction Trades Council, the Living Wage Coalition (LWC), the Housing Advocacy Group, and the Progressive Student Movement. The living wage and 'card-check/neutrality' provisions negotiated for the hotel workers at the Petaluma Sheraton by the LWC and North Bay Labor Council in 2000 was the first public subsidy and accountable development agreement in Sonoma County prior to the formation of the ADC.

In 2006 the ADC successfully lobbied the SMART (Sonoma Marin Area Rapid Transit) board for comprehensive 'community benefits' for a commuter train station in downtown Santa Rosa at Railroad Square. The community benefits package includes construction by local union labor with apprentices, incorporation of green building materials, substantial on-site affordable housing, and a living wage of $11.50 an hour with benefits for employees of SMART and SMART contractors. The SMART board incorporated these provisions into the RFP for the Santa Rosa Station sent to developers in January 2006. The ADC is now negotiating a Community Benefits Agreement with Creative Housing Associates of Los Angeles, the developer chosen by the SMART board to design and construct the Santa Rosa train station.

+Published "The Limits of Prosperity: Growth, Inequality, and Poverty in the North Bay," which examines income-inequality and working poverty in the North Bay and outlines a comprehensive policy agenda including living wage and accountable development (March 2005).
All reports can be downloaded here.

Support For Worker Organizing:

+NEWS and the LWC have supported union organizing campaigns by low-wage and immigrant workers in nursing homes, health care, construction, municipal services, waste disposal, and other industries. Sonoma nursing-home workers at the Sonoma Valley Health Care Center (2003) and Santa Rosa parking-lot attendants (2003) successfully unionized with our support. NEWS and the LWC successfully lobbied the Petaluma City Council in 2005 to stand firm against the anti-union tactics of city garbage contractor Empire Waste Management that attempted to break a union organizing campaign by garbage haulers seeking to affiliate with Operating Engineers Local 3. The Council awarded the lucrative city garbage contract to Greenwaste, a contractor willing to remain neutral and to respect the right of workers to organize. The LWC is also lobbying Community Action Partnership of Sonoma board members to increase wages and benefits for Headstart childcare workers represented by SEIU Local 707.

+Organized the Sonoma County Clergy and Laity for Economic Justice (CLUE) to educate and mobilize the faith community on economic justice issues. In Petaluma, priests and members of St. Vincent's parish played an important role in our living wage campaign and supported the hotel workers at the Petaluma Sheraton. In Santa Rosa, CLUE is actively building support for health care workers at Memorial Hospital seeking to affiliate with SEIU UHW West. Clergy affiliated with CLUE served on the Fair Election Commission, which investigated the unfair labor practices of hospital management and released a report to the community. CLUE is an affiliate of a newly formed statewide interfaith organization, California CLUE.

Popular Education:

+Organized numerous educational events and forums on the living wage, accountable development, affordable housing, and support for low wage worker organizing. In 2005 200 people attended a forum at Santa Rosa Junior College to release the NEWS report "The Limits of Prosperity."

+Organized and sponsored the annual North Bay Labor and Social Action School at Sonoma State University in collaboration with the North Bay Labor Council and other labor, environmental, religious, Latino, and community organizations.

+Developing a workers education and leadership development program (WELD) for workers and residents impacted by living wage ordinances or involved with union organizing.