9/9 West Coast Day Laborer March & Rally

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, September 5, 2002

PRESS CONTACTS: Renee Saucedo (415) 553-3404 or Elly Kuegler (415) 553-3406 or between 8AM-2PM on 9/9 only: (415) 235-0162


West Coast Day Laborers Join San Francisco Day Laborers for Historic March and Rally—Monday, September 9, 11:00AM

On Monday, September 9, over one hundred day laborers will hold a march and rally in response to Mayor Willie Brown’s continued campaign of intimidation towards the San Francisco workers. The laborers’ demands are two-fold: they will be calling on the Mayor to cease his plans to remove SF Day Labor Program funding from La Raza Centro Legal and they will be demanding an end to police harassment of workers on Cesar Chavez Street.

Members of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), day laborers from Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Oakland, and other West Coast cities, who will be gathering in Marin from September 6-9 for a regional day laborer conference, will demonstrate their solidarity by joining local workers in the march.

“This march will be historic because Mayor Brown, and San Francisco, will for the first time see that day laborer organizing in this city is part of something larger, a national network of immigrant workers,” says Pablo Alvarado, Coordinator of the NDLON. “Mayor Brown will have to contend with all of us if he thinks he can squelch day laborer organizing in San Francisco.”

In June 2002, following peaceful day laborer demonstrations at City Hall, Mayor Brown placed the SF Day Labor Program up for bid, attempting to strip the immigrant workers of their First Amendment rights.

The march will begin at 11:00AM, on the corner of Cesar Chavez St. and Hampshire St., proceed north on Mission St., and will end at San Francisco City Hall for a noon rally and workers’ picnic.