Chinatown Community & Workers Hold Lunar New Year Rally Against New Project by Lawbreaking Employer
Balaji Enterprises, owner/operator of the Holiday Inn Express Oakland Airport, violated the Oakland minimum wage ordinance, manipulated time-card records, and withheld evidence from City investigators, according to a new report from the City of Oakland.
Meanwhile, the City is poised to give Balaji Enterprises a permit to build a new Hampton Inn on a valuable downtown Oakland parcel – with no public process or community input. On Thursday, Chinatown high school students and hotel workers will hold a Lunar New Year rally at the site of the proposed hotel, calling on the City to deny the permit and ensure transparency and community involvement in planning for the site.
“The City of Oakland is on the verge of making a back-room deal with a hotel company that breaks the law and exploits workers – according to the City’s own report. We should have a voice in deciding what gets built in our community, so we can make sure this project benefits our families and our future.” said Joshua Fisher Lee, Executive Director of AYPAL, a Chinatown-based community organization comprised of students from Asian Pacific Islander immigrant and refugee families living in Oakland.
The City’s report details several violations of Oakland’s minimum wage ordinance affecting 37 workers. Investigators found that Balaji rounded off time-clock records to avoid paying workers for all hours worked; imposed unreasonable rules to prevent workers from using sick leave; reduced workers’ hours, blaming the passage of the minimum wage ordinance; and withheld a notebook tracking employee work hours from investigators.
Chinatown worker and community groups expressed dismay the report’s findings – and at the possibility of the same employer opening a new hotel in their neighborhood.
At Thursday’s rally, youth groups will adorn the fenced-off lot with Lunar New Year decorations and play interactive games to celebrate the Chinatown community and create a positive vision for a project on the site that would benefit youth and low-wage workers.
Participants will include youth leaders from AYPAL; Marriott and Marriott Courtyard Hotel workers and members of UNITE HERE Local 2850; and community allies from East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), Asian Pacific Environmental Network, and Asians 4 Black Lives.
“I’ve watched classmates and even members of my family get pushed out of Oakland – because of rising rents and cost of living, my cousins who also grew up here had to move out of state. Youth in our community are dealing with a lot of problems, like gang violence. This land is empty – we have the chance to create something that would create safe spaces for youth to learn and have access to more opportunities, instead of a hotel that treats its workers poorly,†said Jason Le, a junior at Oakland High School and AYPAL youth leader.
BACKGROUND: For several months, the Oakland Planning Department has been considering approving Balaji Enterprises new Hampton Inn in downtown Oakland with no public hearing process. The decision on whether or not to approve the hotel is delegated solely to Planning Director Rachel Flynn, who came under criticism last fall for asserting that there is no affordable housing crisis in Oakland. Balaji already operates two local hotels, the Hampton Inn Alameda and Holiday Inn Express, where workers have reported low pay, no health benefits, shorting of workers’ pay, and humiliation from managers. The site of the new hotel is only blocks away from the Marriott Courtyard and Marriott Hotels, where union workers worry that the opening of a poverty-wage hotel nearby will make it difficult to maintain the standards and benefits they have fought to win and maintain over the years. Community activists believe the project will exacerbate the East Bay’s crises of inequality and displacement, and that workers at the new hotel will not be able to afford to live in Oakland. Last November, hundreds of hotel workers and community members marched from the lot of the proposed hotel into City Hall, where former workers of the Hampton Inn owners have testified to City Council about not being allowed lunch breaks, earning poverty wages with no benefits, and being fired for getting hurt on the job. The community protest of the proposed Hampton Inn comes on the heels of broad community opposition to the proposed development of market-rate housing at the nearby East 12th Street parcel.
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