Jacksonville, FL – Around 40 community members, led by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) came out to Jacksonville City Hall July 27 to rally and demand a People’s Budget before the city council meeting started.

The week before, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry released his proposed 2021-2022 budget, which calls for an increase to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) budget by $29 million, bringing their total share of the budget to around $513 million and accounting for nearly 40% of city spending.

Community members from the Northside Coalition, Southern Women Against Gun Violence and representatives from other organizations all came out to speak at the rally and gave public comment before the city councilors.

“We came out to demand our city officials allocate our taxpayer dollars to ending poverty, not more policing,” said Monique Sampson of the JCAC. “We’ve seen JSO’s budget go up every year while the Black community struggles to get roads repaired and septic tanks removed. We have the democratic right to determine how our money is spent.”

Despite the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s consistent increase in funding the previous years, Jacksonville has not experienced a decrease in crime and had an actual uptick in violent crime along with citizen police complaints last year. The JCAC says the People’s Budget aims to address the social issues that contribute directly to crime and poor public health. It includes proposals for investment in living wage job opportunities, mental health services and strengthened city infrastructure. The People’s Budget also contains legislation that activists are pushing for, including marijuana decriminalization, demanding city contracts go to Black contractors equally, and redirecting sheriff’s office funds to helping grow Black small business.

Organizers also say the People’s Budget aims to strengthen organized labor through redirecting city funds away from policing to public workers and a creation of a large public works program that would hire workers at a living wage. The People’s Budget contains the push for legislation such as a union neutrality ordinance for any vendor doing business with the city, along with calls for raising taxes on the wealthy to fund development in the Urban Core, Northwest and Out East, three historically Black and underdeveloped areas in Jacksonville.

“In the Black Belt and in cities like Jacksonville in the Black Belt, you’ve seen historic underdevelopment,” said Neal Jefferson with the JCAC. “The People’s budget aims to change that.”

After the rally, around 25 community members gave public comment demanding city council persons hear their calls.

#Jacksonville #AfricanAmerican #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #PeoplesBudget #LennyCurry #BlackBelt

Jacksonville, FL – On August 2, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) and the family of Jalen Mays held a vigil to remember his life on the three-month anniversary of his death. At the vigil, the protesters chanted, “Justice for Jalen.”

The family has been calling for accountability and transparency since his death on the morning of May 2, at Orange Park Medical Center. His death occurred a day after being detained after what is believed to be a violent arrest by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officers S.R Maddox and M.J Reddish. Those two officers had previously been placed on administrative leave according to JSO but are now back on active duty.

Just weeks ago controversy emerged as the disciplinary records for one of the officers involved was deleted by the JSO. They call it an administrative error.

According to media reports Mays was possibly hogtied, and required placement in the intensive care unit at Orange Park Medical Center. His family says his body had bruises, welts and other effects consistent with trauma.

The JCAC is supporting Jalen’s family’s demands for an independent autopsy as well as the release of convenience store video footage from the arrest and body camera footage from the officers involved. The family is demanding that more funding in the Jacksonville upcoming budget to be allocated to mental health in the city and not towards additional JSO funding.

“When someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, they should not be responded to by police. It needs to be responded to as a medical issue,” María García of the Jacksonville Community Action Committee said at the vigil.

#Jacksonville #FL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #JalenMays #SRMaddox #MJReddish

The Freedom Road Socialist organization is calling for all strands of the Black liberation movement and broader movement against police crimes to hit the streets on Sept. 5 to demand community control of the police and an end to police killings of African Americans, Chicanos, other oppressed nationalities, and working-class people. The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (the Alliance), in coordination with the National Committee Against Police Crimes, is leading the call to stand up to demand justice for Laquan McDonald, who was brutally shot 16 times execution-style by white Chicago Police Department officer Jason Van Dyke on the night of October 20, 2014. The Alliance and the NCAPC are calling for solidarity actions nationwide in support of the people’s efforts in Chicago to hold killer cop Jason Van Dyke accountable for the murder of Laquan McDonald.The eyes of people around the country are on Chicago for the movement against police crimes. This is the first time in the city’s history, and possibly the history of the nation, that a white police officer has been indicted for first-degree murder for killing an unarmed Black person. From the beginning of Laquan’s murder, starting with the cover-up of the video recording of the murder by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the entire system seemed determined to not allow justice to prevail in this case. Without a movement, there is no guarantee of justice. As of the end of August 2018, at least 679 people in the country have been shot and killed by police, with African American, native peoples, Chicano and other oppressed nationalities over proportionately bearing the brunt of these police killings. The demand for accountability and community control of the police has been put forth by the Alliance and other organizations nationwide. However, this demand for justice and broader democracy has been met by racist politicians and cop unions with a movement of their own which seeks to strengthen the right of cops to escape accountability, and murder with impunity, under the guise of ‘Blue Lives Matter.’Sept. 5 is a pivotal day for the Black liberation movement nationally and the movement against police crimes. It is our chance to make sure a killer cop is held accountable for his crimes and to build the movement to win more victories like this. On Sept. 5, the Chicago Alliance calls for a mass protest outside the courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue to begin at 8:00 a.m. We urge all organizations in Chicago and in the Midwest to unite with the call and join them.For those outside of Chicago and surrounding area, we are calling on you to organize a solidarity demonstration in your own city and town, to protest police crimes and call for real police accountability and community control of the police.

All out on September 5th!

Justice for Laquan McDonald and all victims of police terror!Community Control of the Police now!

#Chicago #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Jacksonville #SaltLakeCity #NYC #PoliceCrimes

Jacksonville, FL – Two crucial strike authorization votes are underway at UPS and UPS Freight. On May 16, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) began mailing ballot information to all members at UPS and UPS Freight, who will vote either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to give union negotiators the authority to call a strike.

Teamsters at both companies can cast their ballots either online or over the phone using a secure access code received in the mail, with all votes due by June 3. The IBT will announce the results on June 5.

Denis Taylor, the union’s lead negotiator for the UPS contract and the director of the Teamsters Package Division, called the strike authorization vote earlier this month amid ongoing contract negotiations with both companies. Teamster local unions approved the vote by an overwhelming margin on a conference call with Taylor, paving the way for the union-wide vote taking place now.

The Teamsters-UPS contract is the largest private-sector collective bargaining agreement in the U.S., covering more than 230,000 workers. An additional 12,000 workers are covered under the Teamsters contract with UPS Freight, a trucking division of UPS covering small freight shipping.

Negotiations drift toward more concessions, fewer gains for Teamsters

The strike authorization vote comes as contract negotiations between the Teamsters, UPS and UPS Freight enter their fourth month, with both agreements set to expire on July 31 of this year. A ‘yes’ vote on strike authorization from members does not necessarily mean the union will call a strike, even if the contract expires before reaching a tentative agreement. However, it provides the Teamsters’ negotiators with more leverage at the bargaining table to extract concessions from the employer.

Taylor’s negotiating team entered bargaining with a set of major contract proposals submitted by UPS Teamsters across the country. The union’s proposals would address a range of critical issues facing UPSers – ending forced overtime for package car drivers, raising part-timers’ wages, imposing monetary penalties for management harassment and protecting jobs from automation, among others.

Since that time, though, news from the negotiating table has many UPS Teamsters worried. Taylor’s team has released little information beyond vague updates through the union’s UPS Rising phone app. Leaks from negotiators revealed Taylor backing off from most of the union’s major proposals and entertaining some of the company’s ideas, including the creation of a second-tier of package car drivers. These so-called ‘hybrid drivers,’ reportedly proposed by Taylor himself, would do the same job as full-time package car drivers at a lower rate.

Fighting corporate greed with a credible strike threat

Since the strike authorization vote was announced, UPS Teamster activists sprang into action to turn out a high ‘yes’ vote. The union’s hand at the bargaining table becomes stronger with a credible strike threat capable of shutting down UPS, which processes an estimated 6% of the U.S. gross domestic product and 3% of the world’s GDP in its system every day.

On the other hand, a big ‘yes’ vote also puts greater pressure on Taylor and his negotiating team to bring back a high-quality tentative agreement. It demonstrates that members are willing to fight for a contract that actually addresses their issues – and to push back against any concessions demanded by the company.

UPS’s demand for givebacks and cuts from Teamsters comes at a time when the company’s profits have reached record highs. In 2017, UPS made a profit of $4.9 billion – $1.5 billion more than the year before. Some estimates show the company profiting an additional $1 billion from the tax bill passed by Congress last year.

But for all these profits, the starting wage for part-timers at UPS, who make up around 70% of the workforce, is just $10 per hour.

Richard Blake, a UPS part-timer in Jacksonville, Florida and shop steward for Teamsters Local 512, hit the gates with other Teamsters militants in his local, handed out flyers and talked with coworkers about the need to vote ‘yes’ on strike authorization.

“The response was fantastic,” said Blake. “Part-timers don’t have a lot to lose at $10 per hour and a whole lot to gain in this next contract if we won $15 per hour and $5 per hour bump raises. Literally 100% of the package car drivers we spoke with said they planned to vote yes. They understand it’s about a credible strike threat at this stage, but they’re ready to follow through if UPS stonewalls us.”

Joan-Elaine Miller, a UPS package car driver and member of Teamsters Local 623 out of Philadelphia, sees the vote as a critical opportunity for package car drivers to defend their job standards and pay.

“A yes strike authorization vote sends a strong message to both the IBT and UPS that we, as package car drivers, realize top-rate, full-time jobs are too important to not protect.” She continued, “It’s pretty much the only leverage that puts full-timers and part-timers on an equal basis. A yes vote across the board lets the company know we’re prepared, if necessary, to withhold the labor that produced all those profits.”

Teamsters expected to vote overwhelmingly ‘yes’ for strike authorization

“I expect the outcome of the vote to be an overwhelming ‘yes,’” said Lawrence Cruz, a full-time combo worker at UPS and shop steward for Teamsters Local 396 out of Long Beach, California. In an interview with Fight Back!, Cruz said, “The strike authorization vote will play an important role in negotiations with UPS. It demonstrates unity and the willingness to go on strike if needed.”

Cruz is not alone. Teamster leaders across the country expect a strong ‘yes’ vote for strike authorization.

In a statement released through their official Facebook page, Teamsters Local 89, the largest UPS Teamsters local, said they “fully expects this strike authorization to pass. The only question is how much it passes by. The higher the number, the stronger our hand becomes at the negotiating table.”

But Teamsters leaders and fighters like those in Local 89 are still working to drive turnout higher through parking lot meetings and distributing information to members at work. According to Stephen Piercey, the Communications Director for Teamsters Local 89, “If the company believes that members aren't willing to go the distance, they aren't going to be serious about negotiating a fair contract.”

Local 89 is home to Fred Zuckerman, the leader of the national Teamsters United movement. Under Zuckerman’s leadership as president, Local 89 led the charge in voting down the concessionary 2013 UPS contract, which IBT officials eventually forced through after failing to win the members’ approval. In 2016, Zuckerman ran against current IBT president Jim Hoffa Jr. and nearly unseated the 77-year-old leader on a platform of mobilizing the members to fight for better contracts, organizing in core industries like freight and logistics, and using a credible strike threat to do it.

Building strike readiness

The historic UPS strike of 1997 was the last time the Teamsters shut down the package giant. The nearly three week strike resulted in massive gains for workers and the creation of full-time combo jobs – the “22.3 positions,” known by the article governing them in the contract. Since that time, though, wages for part-timers have remained basically stagnant and conditions in general have worsened

In 2018, there’s no appetite for another concessionary contract among Teamsters. UPS Teamsters voted against the concessionary 2013 tentative agreement in record numbers – and the problems faced by Teamsters and the company’s profits have only grown since that time, like the 70-hour work week demanded of package car drivers during last year’s peak season. While a strike at UPS and UPS Freight is a long way off, it’s by no means impossible.

The IBT has a strike fund totaling more than $152 million – an enormous amount owing to the low number of strikes the Teamsters and most international unions have called in the last three decades. During strikes, the fund can pay benefits out to members who walk the picket line to offset expenses.

But strikes are won through strong organization of the rank-and-file members, militant picket lines, and solidarity among workers – not giant strike funds alone. All of this takes preparation, which the IBT has neglected.

Many Teamster activists at UPS are stepping in to fill that void, believing that strike readiness is essential to making the threat credible.

Lawrence Cruz, who was a strike captain in the 1997 UPS strike in California, offered some advice for newer UPS Teamsters, “Be patient. We were all concerned and afraid in 1997. It's critical that we stay united, and inform our newer Teamsters about participating in a picket line. I can't overemphasize to prepare for a strike, save your money.”

While strikes reached a low point in the last few years, 2018 has seen worker militancy and the strike weapon come back with a vengeance. Richard Blake from Jacksonville sees a connection between the wave of teachers’ strikes, which began in West Virginia in February, and the fight for a better contract at UPS.

“Successful teacher strikes around the country show that standing tough can get us better contracts,” said Blake. “From West Virginia to Arizona, teachers used the biggest weapon in every workers’ arsenal – the strike – and won better pay. With so many part-timers scraping by in part-time poverty, we should take a page out of their playbook. If there was ever a time to mobilize the members for a credible strike threat at UPS, it’s right now.”

#JacksonvilleFL #Jacksonville #PeoplesStruggles #Teamsters #UPS #Florida #Strikes

Over 1000 mourners gathered today, May 23, for the memorial service for D'AngeloStallworth. Stallworth was a father of three and part-time supervisor at UPS with 11 years at the company. Pastor Craig Campbell, a UPS driver, led the service at the Paxon Revival Center.

D'Angelo was shot and killed by two Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officers on May 12 as the officers were serving an eviction notice to a neighbor. After getting into a confrontation with Stallworth, the officers fired a total of six shots as he fled down the stairs. The police immediately came out with a story full of inconsistencies, so the family ordered an independent autopsy of the body. The recently released autopsy shows that the bullets that entered his body, including the fatal shot, came from above and behind. This indicates that not only was D'Angelo unarmed when killed, but he was shot in the back.

The service included a praise dance as well as a beautiful solo singing performance by Latoya Watts. Pastor Campbell then opened up the microphone for reflections from those who knew him best. Friends and family shared stories of D'Angelo as a man who loved his children and always had a smile on his face. Several remarked on the huge attendance as a testament to the kind of person D'Angelo was. Many of the speakers ended their reflections by stating that “justice will be served.” Dozens and dozens of mourners wore #Justice4Dee T-shirts to mark their commitment to bringing the officers who killed D'Angelo to justice.

Many fellow UPSers attended the ceremony to show their support. Coworkers used the week beforehand to go to the massive Jacksonville UPS warehouse where D'Angelo worked to inform people of the memorial service. A supervisor set up a board at the warehouse entrance while hourly employees handed out fliers at the gates.

After the service, attendees drove to Jacksonville Memory Gardens to put D’Angelo Stallworth’s body to rest. Fight Back! will continue to cover further actions and events regarding this case.

#Jacksonville #JacksonvilleFL #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesStruggles #Florida #BlackLivesMatter #DangeloStallworth #Justice4Dee #Jax

Jacksonville, FL – On February 12, the prosecution and defense attorneys in the trial of Michael Dunn made closing arguments. Dunn is the racist vigilante who shot and killed 17 year old African American youth Jordan Davis. The jury began deliberations at 5:02 p.m. and met for several hours before agreeing to reconvene on February 13.

Before the jury ended deliberations for the night, they asked to review a key piece of evidence for the defense: surveillance videotape from the Gate gas station. This is where Dunn fired at least eight shots at a Dodge Durango, killing Davis and wounding three other young passengers. The SUV then drove to get away before Dunn could fire again. The defense alleges that Dunn opened fire on the SUV after he was threatened with a gun. There is no evidence that Davis or the other passengers had a weapon.

Over 20 protesters gathered outside of the Duval County Courthouse starting at 10:00 a.m. demanding 'Justice for Jordan Davis'. Carrying signs that read, “Will this be another Trayvon?” and “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” the protesters drew a large crowd of people passing by the courthouse. Members from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, and several labor unions in Jacksonville attended the event. Marching around the courthouse, the crowd chanted, “Turn up your music for Jordan Davis,” a reference to the loud music coming from Davis' vehicle that Dunn complained about before shooting him.

Everyone outside the courthouse voiced strong concerns for State Attorney Angela Corey's handling of the trial.

According to protesters, Corey deliberately downplayed Dunn's long history of racism and his violently anti-Black views expressed in letters he wrote to friends and family from jail. Rather than additional charges for hate crimes, Corey's office limited it to first-degree murder charges against Dunn. Corey never entered Dunn’s racist letters and rants into evidence for the jury. Many people assembled outside the courthouse fear that Corey's deliberate negligence in the case weakens the prosecution and opens opportunities for the defense to make bogus arguments to the jury.

Dunn's fiancé, who was in the car with him when he killed Davis, testified that Dunn never mentioned seeing a gun the entire day after the shooting took place. Instead, the couple drove to a bed and breakfast suite in St. Augustine and casually ordered a pizza, just hours after killing Davis and injuring the other passengers. Evidence brought out in the trial shows that Dunn did not mention seeing a gun until police questioned him more than a day after the shooting. This strongly suggests that he lied about the entire story to protect himself.

Dunn wrote letters to family members from prison exposing the racist attitudes that led to Davis' murder. In one letter, he said of African Americans, “The more time I am exposed to these people, the more prejudiced against them I become.” Other letters from Dunn included an open call for genocide, in which he said to his girlfriend, “This may sound a bit radical, but if more people would arm themselves and kill these f—-ing idiots when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior.” None of this was introduced by Corey's prosecution team into evidence or presented to the jury.

Legal analysts and leaders from Jacksonville's activist community believe the jury will reach a verdict on Thursday, February 13. The trial looks like a horrifying case of deja vu for those outraged at the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman is the racist vigilante who murdered Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Protesters say Corey mishandled and botched the prosecution of Zimmerman, including withholding key pieces of evidence from that trial.

Others draw contrast with Corey's prosecution of Marissa Alexander, the 33-year-old African American mother given 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot above her head to fend off her abusive husband. Corey personally prosecuted Alexander's case and pursued the highest possible sentence. The jury deliberated Alexander's case for only 12 minutes before handing down a guilty verdict. An appeals court granted Alexander a re-trial late last year, which is currently scheduled for the summer 2014.

Activists are planning marches, protests, and civil disobedience in the event of a not guilty verdict or a hung jury. People in Jacksonville interested in demanding justice for Jordan Davis are encouraged to come to the courthouse on February 13 at around 10:00 a.m.

#Jacksonville #JacksonvilleFL #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #JordanDavis #Antiracism #MichaelDunn #JusticeForJorda #Jacksoville #DunnTrial #AngelaCorey