Carmen Castillo – RI Future

September 2, 2016September 2, 2016

PVD City Council fails to pass 2nd resolution opposing LNG

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Providence City Councillor Seth Yurdin introduced a resolution Thursday evening that would strengthen the City Council’s opposition to National Grid’s proposed Fields Point liquefaction facility. Immediately after introducing his resolution Councillor Sam Zurier rose to co-sponsor, as did councilors David Salvatore, Carmen Castillo, Wilbur Jennings, Jo-Ann Ryan and Terrence Hassett.

Noting that it seemed as if a majority of the council was co-sponsoring the resolution, Yurdin moved that the resolution be voted on immediately. This caused councilors Jo-Ann Ryan and Terrence Hassett to suddenly flip their support. Yurdin’s move for passage failed, and the resolution was passed onto the Ordinances committee.

Reached for comment, Hassett wrote, “I voted no to have an immediate passage on the floor without a Council committee review. I co-sponsored it but a committee review is necessary for a proper vetting and discussion before it is transmitted to the full Council.”

Ryan wrote, “I requested to be a sponsor of the resolution last night. It was sent to ordinance committee by a majority vote. I voted to send it to committee to provide an opportunity for community input at an open public meeting of the council. You can and should attend and voice your concerns. And encourage others to attend and participate in the process.”

There are no ordinance committee hearings on the current schedule. Hassett is the chair of ordinance and Ryan is a member of the committee.

National Grid wants to expand its LNG footprint in the Port of Providence with the new liquefaction plant. Environmental groups such as the RI Sierra Club and the Environmental Justice League of RI oppose the plan. Curiously, Save the Bay, whose offices are not too far from the proposed site, have not come out against it.

Mayor Jorge Elorza and a large group of state level Providence legislators have recently publicly come out in opposition to the project.

The City Council unanimously approved Yurdin’s previous resolution opposing the site in March. That resolution called for public meetings to be scheduled to address environmental and health concerns of the project. “Unfortunately,” said Yurdin, here we are in the Summer and no such meetings have been held… This resolution is stronger than the previous resolution.”

The previous resolution called for studies and review. The new resolution is a call to strong action.

The new resolution says, in part, “That the City shall take all necessary actions to oppose the proposed Fields Point liquefaction facility, including ceasing to act as a cooperating agency with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and shall not grant any tax stabilizations, subsidies, or any other forms of support to the project.”

August 2, 2016August 3, 2016

PVD City Council extends tax break for Valley St. development

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The Providence City Council extended a tax break for the developers of a mixed use project on Valley Street because an anchor tenant relocated to Johnston.

“Do we really need another vacant or foreclosed property in our city,” said Council President Luis Aponte, who voted for the so-called tax stabilization agreement, after the meeting. He said the developers could have attained an administrative TSA for a smaller redevelopment had the council not awarded the tax break and that the city negotiated a good deal for residents by working with the developers.

Councilor Carmen Castillo was the only member of the elected board to vote against the TSA.

“We’re not a bank,” she said. “The neighborhood I represent never gets a tax break. We pay a lot in property taxes too.”

Councilor Sabina Matos said she supported the TSA because the council approved TSAs for downtown businesses so it was only fair that it do so for businesses in her district too. “We set a precedent,” she said. “We can’t give them to some developers and not others.”

Abacus Technology paid $1.8 million annually to rent 100,000 square feet of space in the Rising Sun Mills development on Valley Street but the company has decided to move to Johnston, said the developers.

“There’s no benefit to having Rising Sun Mills go dark,” said BJ Dupre, one of the developers, after the favorable decision from the Council. When asked if that would have happened if they didn’t get the tax break, another of the developers, Mark Van Noppen said it was a “distinct possibility.”

Aponte said the developers plan to reconfigure the commercial space into smaller offices. He said the TSA is void if they don’t pull all the requisite permits in 180 days.

“It’s hard to tell,” Aponte said when asked how much money the city budget would lose by extending the TSA to the Rising Sun Mills project. But, he added, “They are paying more than if they would have got a 5 year extension” as a result of the negotiations with city officials.

February 3, 2016February 3, 2016

PVD City Council Finance rejects first of four proposed tax giveaways

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The Providence City Council Finance Committee unanimously rejected the proposed extension of the tax stabilization agreement (TSA) for the property at 100 Fountain St last night. The meeting, rescheduled after the unexpected death of former Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci last week was on the same night and time as Governor Gina Raimondo’s State of the State address, so I had to access the recording of the meeting here.

During the brief discussion, Councillor Carmen Castillo noted that granting this TSA at a time when the City is facing an economic shortfall and planning to raise taxes on homeowners seems wrong.

Councillor Kevin Jackson proposed rejecting the TSA, pointing out that the agreement was granted to improve the condition of inactive buildings and not intended to be a lifetime grant.

Finance Chair John J. Igliozzi condemned the extension, saying, “The contract has been fulfilled. It’s become a high income subsidy.”

City Council President Luis Aponte, who is not on the Finance Committee, addressed the room, and said, “It’s the right signal that the [Finance] Committee is sending to the public and to the [City] Council.”

“Most tax treaties that have been approved in Providence have been beneficial to local development and have improved both new businesses and encouraged new housing,” said City Councillor Terrence M. Hassett in a statement, “However, the agreements have a shelf life and eventually expire. Extending them for a longer period, places other taxpayers in the position of paying more and that is coming to an end.”

The proposed TSA would have allowed the property owners to pay only 25 percent of their assessed taxes in the first year, with a 15 percent increase each year thereafter until year five, when the owners would have paid 95 percent of their assessed taxes. The owners stood to save hundreds of thousands of dollars, but as the STEP Coalition (Stop Tax Evasion in Providence) has pointed out, “[t]he construction jobs are long gone and these buildings have been occupied for quite some time.”

Mayor Jorge Elorza supported these tax deals, despite his earlier campaign promises to not give out TSAs “unless Providence could profit from the deal in some way.”

Sam Bell, a member of the STEP coalition who is also the executive director of the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats of America, said, “This was a huge win for Providence taxpayers! It shows that, when we work hard, we can defeat the most powerful corporate interests in the City of Providence.”

The Finance Committee still has to decide on three other, similar TSAs in the near future.

February 1, 2016February 2, 2016

Controversial TSA to be quickly decided on a busy night

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On Thursday night the Providence City Council Finance Committee was prepared to make a decision on a controversial extension of tax stabilization agreement (TSA) for the property at 100 Fountain St. Because of the unexpected death of former Mayor Vincent Cianci, the meeting was rescheduled to this Tuesday night at 6pm, one hour before Governor Raimondo’s State of the State address.

The proposed TSA will allow the property owners to pay only 25 percent of their assessed taxes in the first year, with a 15 percent increase each year thereafter until year five, when the owners will pay 95 percent of their assessed taxes. The owners stand to save hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the STEP Coalition (Stop Tax Evasion in Providence) has pointed out that, “[t]he construction jobs are long gone and these buildings have been occupied for quite some time.”

This is the first of four TSAs that will be voted on by the City Council this year. The four “deals pending before the city right now are even more egregious than usual,” said the RI Progressive Democrats (RIPDA) in a statement. “That’s because the development has already happened. There’s no question of encouraging development–the developers want their special tax deals to continue. This is just giving the city’s limited tax dollars to big developers. Pure and simple,” said the RI Progressive Democrats (RIPDA).

It is expected that the Providence City Council will raise property taxes on homeowners this year as Providence struggles financially. Many wonder why private taxpayers continue to pay ever higher taxes while connected developers get continued tax credits. STEP presented a petition signed by 400 Providence residents opposed to extending these TSAs.

The following City Councillors are on the Finance Committee:

Councilman John J. Igliozzi, Chairman
Councilman Terrence M. Hassestt, Vice-Chairman
Councilman Kevin Jackson
Councilwoman Sabina Matos
Councilwoman Carmen Castillo

November 19, 2015November 19, 2015

City Council committee passes tax break for hotel at choreographed meeting

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Some of the business suits worn in the Providence City Council Finance Committee meeting last night were worth more than a hotel worker’s monthly salary.

The power and pressure being brought to bear, to make sure that The Procaccianti Group (TPG) got their multi-million dollar Tax Stabilization Agreement (TSA) was enough to bend reality, as a five member committee was whittled down to three members and the final vote unanimous in favor of TPG.

City Hall was electric with meetings being conducted behind closed doors. What happened in the Finance Committee room was theater, the real deals were all made out of sight. The Finance Committee meeting seemed meticulously planned so that when it started, it would fall like a string of dominoes in favor of moneyed interests and to the detriment of hotel workers.

At issue was a 13-year TSA for the Fogarty Building site downtown, where TPG wants to build a new nine-story hotel. The building trade unions want the hotel, it will provide a couple years worth of good jobs. The hotel workers want the hotel and the jobs it will provide as well, but they wanted an amendment to the TSA “calling for workers to earn 1 1/2 times the federal poverty rate, or more than $14 an hour.”

Good wages for hotel workers are important. TPG is notorious for paying poorly, and the company requires their workers to do much more than workers at competing downtown hotels. Then there’s the steady stream of injuries to workers in TPG hotels. Unionization efforts at the Renaissance Hotel have dragged on for years and only recently did the hotel win a vote to unionize. Without the amendment, a new hotel full of underpaid, overworked and at-risk workers will be coming on-line even as Renaissance workers finally realize a fair contract.

On one side of the Finance Committee meeting room was Mayor Elorza’s Chief Operating officer, Brett Smiley, RI AFL-CIO leader George Nee, Michael Sabitoni, business manager for the RI Laborers’ District Council, state senator Josh Miller, a pile of lawyers and TPG reps, and prominent members of the Providence business community. Council President Luis Aponte stood nearby and monitored the proceedings.

Hotel workers and Unite Here! organizers, vastly outnumbered and outgunned, sat opposite.

Finance Committee Chair John Igliozzi was the city councilor who once suggested tying TSA’s to better wages way back in June, 2014. When it came time to amend the TSA, however, he was silent. Councilors Kevin Jackson and Sabina Matos were also silent, save to deliver the lines required to vote the TSA to the full City Council for final approval next month.

Missing from the committee meeting was Councilor Terrance Hassett, whose day job is Senior Investigator in the Workers’ Compensation Fraud and Compliance Unit at the Department of Labor and Training. He, like two other members of the finance committee, works for the state. It is well known that Governor Gina Raimondo wants this project to proceed. On background I was told that city council members were afraid of losing their jobs if they interfered with the deal, but nobody wanted to go on record.

(Given this, Providence voters might want to reconsider electing council members with state jobs.)

Hassett was a no show, but Councillor Carmen Castillo, a hotel worker herself, was there. She put her purse and coat down into her chair, then left the room to talk off stage with someone. While she was out of the room the Finance Committee meeting started and attendance was called. She was marked absent.

As the meeting got underway Castillo entered the room, recovered her purse and coat, and left without explanation.

There were three members left of the five member committee, enough for a quorum. As hotel workers looked on, the TSA was passed out of committee without the amendment they had requested. Millions of dollars in tax breaks were given to TPG.

There were smiles and handshakes all around as one half of the room erupted in enthusiastic conversation. Finance chair Igliozzi pounded his gavel for order, there was still the city’s contract with Local 1033 to be decided, so $40,000 worth of fine business suits moved outside and into the hallways, and eventually outside into the street.

The hotel workers gathered in a corner on the third floor so that a translator could explain to some of the Spanish speaking members what had happened.

But they understood.

This was government as business and business as usual.

September 4, 2015September 12, 2015

10 PVD city councilors voted for exclusionary zoning last night

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The Providence City Council voted 10-3 to modify the zoning code to add exclusionary zoning restrictions on student housing on Thursday night. Under the provision, persons defined as “college students” would not be able to live more than three to a house in zones 1 and 1A (map), despite reports in The Projo that many of the homes in question have as many as five bedrooms.

Zoning laws in Providence must be passed by City Council twice, and either have a veto-proof majority or be signed into law by the mayor. The measure, if passed a second time, would be a challenge to housing affordability and transit-oriented design. The upshot is that the 10-3 vote is very fragile. Just one turnaround would allow Mayor Jorge Elorza to veto the zoning change. I am contacting Mayor Elorza’s chief-of-staff Brett Smiley for comment, but by publication time it is unlikely that I will have word on the mayor’s position. Keep your eyes peeled for updates!

The tempest-in-a-teapot in Ward 5 started around student noise. Councilwoman Jo-Ann Ryan has tried proposing other methods of shunning students, including additional fees on student housing, but decided to settle on this zoning measure, according to reporting done in The Projo.

Changes in density affect transit. Transit viability is affected along an exponential curve, rather than a linear progression, based on density. So small changes in density through exclusionary zoning can have large reverberating effects on transit frequencies, and those changes disproportionately hurt low income people, especially time-poor low income people, like those with multiple jobs or children.

Changes in zoning like this also negatively affect housing affordability, not only for students, but for everyone. You might find yourself saying, “Who cares what happens to college students?” It’s not like someone is being discriminated against on the basis of race, or gender, or sexuality. Being a college student is just a stage in life, and it’s not even a stage in life that everyone goes through.” But the students who are most affected by this type of rule will be disproportionately those students who are riding the razor’s edge of affording school. Upper class students will shrug this off, and perhaps not even notice it, or be annoyed by it for lifestyle reasons.

Students who can find housing will. When students overflow from housing they may have previously been able to occupy, they may outbid others with less money looking for apartments. While sometimes this outbidding process can lead to greater housing development, resolving the imbalance, the zoning ordinance itself stops an increase in zoning density, and actually reduces densities below their existing levels. The price increases here are also not due to people’s increased desire for a neighborhood–which is at least a mixed blessing–but by artificial regulations that will just keep certain people out. The process of using zoning to limit housing is one of the things that has most affected displacement of working class families from homes. It tries to shape our cities into an imagined ideal of single-family homes that never existed except in the imagination of someone like Frank Lloyd Wright. This means that housing will become expensive, but with none of the attendant positives of that process–a kind of “stagflation” of housing policies.

Who are the people who voted for exclusionary zoning?

Councilman Kevin Jackson, Ward 3, Mt. Hope (my councilman)

Mr. Jackson narrowly won his last election against a write-in candidate, Marcus Mitchell, who started a write-in campaign for his seat just before Election Day. The election went to a recount. I have contacted Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Jackson on this issue, but as yet have not heard back, but multiple previous conversations I’ve had with Marcus Mitchell have centered on his involvement with RhodeMap, which opposes exclusionary zoning.

Councilwoman Jo-Ann Ryan, Ward 5, Elmhurst

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Councilwoman Ryan voted for her own bill. She is a new councilor.

Councilman Michael Correia, Ward 6, Manton

Councilman John Iggliozzi, Ward 7, Silver Lake

Councilwoman Carmen Castillo, Ward 9, Elmwood

Council President Luis Aponte, Ward 10, Lower South Providence and Washington Park

The Councilman’s vote for exclusionary zoning shocks me, because he has frequently been a voice for tenant’s rights and an acceptable if not perfect voice for transit-oriented development. This is a misstep for the Council President, and we hope he’ll change his vote.

Councilwoman Mary Kay Harris, Ward 11, Upper South Side

Councilman Bryan Principe, Ward 13, Federal Hill and the West End

I have to report disappointment on this vote by Councilman Principe, as I’ve found him to be a very urbanist-oriented councilman much of the time. I hope that residents in my old neighborhood of the West End will speak out to Councilman Principe, and that he’ll change his vote next week.

Councilman David A. Salvatore, Ward 15, Elmhurst and Wanskuck

Councilwoman Sabina Matos, Ward 16, Olneyville

Many of these councilpersons represent districts that ought to be unified in their opposition to exclusionary zoning for one reason or another.

Councilmen Yurdin, Zurier and Jennings voted against the measure. Councilmen Narducci and Hassett were not present at Thursday night’s meeting. Councilman Zurier’s hands haven’t exactly been clean. In his own district he has worked to make apartments and other types of multifamily housing less easy to develop.

Please contact your city councilor–and indeed, please contact the entire Providence City Council–and let them know that Providence is not supportive of exclusionary zoning policies. And ask Mayor Elorza to veto any vote next Thursday that isn’t over the veto-proof margin of 10.

Update: According to a by Patrick Anderson, Mayor Elorza’s office will support the zoning change, as proposed.

~~~~

September 4, 2015September 4, 2015

Procaccianti promotes pain in Providence

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Hotel workers gathered outside Providence City Hall Thursday evening to call attention to a new report, “Providence’s Pain Problem,” that details higher rates of injury at The Procaccianti Group Providence hotels Renaissance and Hilton than at other hotels nationally. According to their report,” the incidence rate for work-related injury and illness was 69% higher at the Hilton and 85% higher at the Renaissance Hotel than the national average rate for hotel workers in 2013.”

In addition, “workers at Procaccianti hotels suffered injuries resulting in days away from work at a rate nearly four times the national average. The incidence rate for work-related injuries and illness that resulted in days away from work was 42% higher at the Procaccianti hotels than the Omni and Biltmore hotels.”

Workers at The Procaccianti Group are worked harder than their counterparts at unionized hotels. At the Hilton workers are expected to clean anywhere from 17 to 23 rooms in one shift. The work-load per shift is 15 at the Omni and 14 at the Biltmore, where employees are protected by their union.

“My life has changed completely due to my injury and I am unable to work or even walk without the use of a cane,” said Susana Ramirez, a housekeeper at the Hilton for 13 years, in a statement, “The Procaccianti Group needs to stop hurting us.”

Also speaking at the rally was Providence City Councilor Carmen Castillo, workers’ compensation lawyer Steven Dennis and RI Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (RICOSH) Executive Director Jim Celenza.

After the main section of the rally, workers continued with a candle-lit vigil and passed out copies of the report to people and politicians entering City Hall before the city council meeting.

April 16, 2015August 9, 2016

Providence fights for $15; local march part of national day of action

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On April 15th, Providence became one of over 200 cities to participate in a “National Day of Action to Fight for $15.”

In a two hour march through downtown Providence, nearly 100 workers and activists visited businesses engaged in wage theft, low pay and anti-unionization efforts. The event was organized through Rhode Island Jobs with Justice in collaboration with Restaurant Opportunities Center of RI (ROC-RI), Fuerza Laboral, Carpenters Local 94, SEIU Rhode Island, UNITE HERE Local 217, Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) and IUPAT Local 195 DC 11 Painters.

The groups are “seeking a city ordinance that would require all companies getting tax breaks in Providence to pay workers a living wage of at least $15/hr, provide paid sick days, health benefits, and fair, predictable schedules.” They also want the city to “follow the First Source ordinance by hiring residents of Providence, prioritize hiring people from high poverty neighborhoods, and make sure that people working these jobs have a pathway to a real career by using apprenticeship programs.”

The groups are also asking Mayor Jorge Elorza to live up to the campaign promises he made while still a candidate at a mayoral forum in South Providence, “to set up a community board with the power to approve/disapprove projects, take back money if companies aren’t living up to what they say they’ll do, and negotiate the construction of projects community members identify as needs, such as affordable housing, or fixing up an abandoned lot into a park.”

The Providence Police Department cleared the streets ahead of the marchers, who started their protest outside of Gourmet Heaven on Weybosset St. This is the third time protesters gathered outside the restaurant, which is accused of stealing wages from employees here in Rhode Island in a situation similar to Connecticut where substantial fines have been levied against the company for wage theft. Two workers addressed the crowd, and spoke about the abusive working conditions they say they endured. One worker said he was told, when he demanded his pay, that if he complained the management would have him deported.

The marchers then walked a short way up the street to Cilantro restaurant, a chain recently fined by the US Labor Department for wage theft to the tune of $100,000. Oddly, a Cilantro worker met the crowd, offering tortilla chips and bottled drinks, which were refused. “We don’t want your crumbs, we want our money,” quipped Michael Araujo of ROC-RI.

The march then continued across the city to the Providence Hilton Hotel, owned by The Procaccianti Group, where hotel workers were already outside picketing. The two groups merged into a protest of well over 150 people. The workers at the Providence Hilton announced a worker-led boycott of the hotel, joining the boycott efforts of workers at the Renaissance Providence Hotel (also owned by Procaccianti Group.) Employees from the Omni Providence Hotel were also on hand to support the boycott effort.

City Councillor Carmen Castillo spoke to the crowd about her experiences working at the Omni Providence Hotel, which was owned by the Procaccianti Group when it was called the Westin. Since the Procaccianti Group sold the hotel, worker conditions have markedly improved. Also speaking to the crowd was hotel worker Santa Brito.

The protest then headed for the Providence City Hall, stopping along the way at the Subway sandwich shop attached to the skating rink. Here Jo-Ann Gesterling, a fast food worker from Wendy’s, spoke to the crowd. Gesterling has led previous at her store and was arrested last year in Hartford CT during a Fight for $15 protest there. Gesterling talked about the importance of raising the minimum wage to $15, and about the effort to improve working conditions at her restaurant.

The final stop of the march was Providence City Hall, where Malchus Mills of DARE called on Mayor Jorge Elorza to honor his campaign commitments and enforce the First Source ordinance, which prioritizes city hiring from Providence communities. Mills also called upon the City Council to demand fair wages and benefits for workers from companies seeking tax stabilizations from the city. Also speaking at the City Hall was Jeffrey Santos, member of Carpenters Local 94.

December 20, 2014August 9, 2016

Gourmet Heaven in Providence accused of wage theft

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Supporters, activists and former employees stormed Gourmet Heaven, an upscale deli on Weybosset Street in downtown Providence Friday. They say employees are owed more than $100,000 in back wages, as is the case at Connecticut delis under the same ownership.

The protesters entered the Providence deli at noon and temporarily stifled the business to the consternation of the manager on duty. “Get out!” she yelled.

“We’ll leave when you pay your workers what they are owed,” replied one of the protesters.

“What you’re doing is illegal,” said another.

Gourmet Heaven is owned by Chung Cho, and he runs two other Gourmet Heaven outlets in New Haven, Connecticut. There was also a Gourmet Heaven on Meeting Street here in Providence, but it recently closed. In New Haven, Cho has been charged with “42 felony and misdemeanors” for wage theft, and was “arrested twice for discrimination and retaliation related to these claims.”

Labor activists here say Rhode Islanders are owed more than $100,000 in minimum wage and overtime pay. Phoebe Gardener, organizer at Fuerza Laboral, a workers’ rights center in Central Falls, has filed claims here in Rhode Island for seven workers.

After about five minutes of protest inside Cho’s downtown deli, the Providence Police Department arrived and the protesters left the store. But they continued to picket and chant outside Gourmet Heaven on the Weybosset Street sidewalk for the next hour, seriously impacting business. Flyers are distributed to passersby explaining the reason for the protest.

This protest was marked by excellent, artful signs and a few fun touches such as a rat mask and Hulk gloves.

In Connecticut, Cho reached an agreement with the Department of Labor to pay $140,000 in back wages to 25 workers, but has so far not made his payments in a timely manner. There are reports that the New Haven stores are in the process of closing.

In November, Mohamed Masaud, manager of Weybosset Street Gourmet Heaven, claimed that there were no such violations going on in Providence.

Gardener and Jesse Strecker of Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, claim to have found ten workers who are owed thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars in back pay. All told, it is asserted that over $100,000 in minimum wage and overtime pay is owed to workers here in Rhode island.

“I worked grueling 84 hour weeks, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day on the night shift, from 7pm to 7am,” said Pedro Us in a written statement, “For all that work, and on the night shift, I was paid only $360 a week, way below minimum wage and with no overtime.”

Pedro Guarcas worked, at both the downtown and Meeting St locations of Gourmet Heaven. Guarcas claims that while on the job, he suffered workplace injuries and physical abuse.

“The managers pressured us to work so fast that I slipped and fell down the stairs twice and hurt my foot badly. This past April, the kitchen supervisor… punched me in the stomach when I was taking out the trash, but when I reported it to the store manager, he didn’t do anything about it.”

Guarcas claims that he worked 72 hour weeks for less than $400 a week, a paltry $5.50 an hour and well under Rhode Island’s minimum wage. Guarcas did not file any complaints because he has “a family to feed and it is hard to find another job.” Now that he no longer works for Gourmet Heaven he is speaking up in the hope of collecting his lost wages and because he wants justice.

Guarcas and another former Gourmet Heaven worker from Rhode Island, as well as a former worker from Connecticut, spoke at the protest. In addition George Nee, president of the RI AFL-CIO, James Riley, Secretary-Treasurer of UFCW Local 328, Providence City Councillor Carmen Castillo and union organizer Marino Cruz, recently dismissed from his job at the Providence Renaissance Hotel for his unionization efforts also spoke briefly to the protesters.

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December 18, 2014December 18, 2014

Hotel workers stage Marino Cruz protest at the Renaissance

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As Mayor Angel Taveras and Mayor-elect Jorge Elorza enjoyed a celebration of “the great city of Providence and what it has to offer” at the the neighboring Veterans Memorial Auditorium with entertainment by Ravi Shavi and The ‘Mericans and catered by hip food trucks last night, more than 50 protesters marched and chanted outside the Providence Renaissance Hotel for hotel worker Marino Cruz.

Marino Cruz was fired by the management of the Providence Renaissance Hotel last week, and in the process, had a minor heart attack. While recovering in the hospital, management had a restraining order delivered to him. Cruz maintains that the reasons management gave for dismissing him are trumped up and that the hotel management really wants him out of the way because of his efforts to unionize the hotel and his outspoken criticism of the racist way in which the hotel treats its employees.

The protesters were not just demanding Cruz’ reinstatement, they were there to demand fair wages, decent working conditions and plain old human decency on the part of The Procaccianti Group, the management company responsible for many hotels in Rhode Island and throughout the world.

Toward the end of the protest, things got heated as the protesters contended the seemingly arbitrary line between public sidewalk and hotel property. Nearly a dozen Providence police officers, with private hotel security hanging back, clashed with protesters in sometimes heated, but ultimately non-violent confrontations.

Providence City Councilperson Carmen Castillo was marching with the protesters. Castillo is a fierce advocate for worker’s rights, having helped to organize a union at the Westin Hotel around 15 years ago. When she attempted to enter the hotel lobby, a police officer physically prevented her entrance by grabbing her arm and threatened with arrest. As can be seen and heard in the video, Castillo was not very pleased by this. In the next video we hear Castillo addressing the protesters.

Andrew Tillet-Saks, an organizer with Unite Here, explains to the assembled protesters the reasons for the rally outside the Renaissance in this video.

Speakers at the protest included Marino Cruz’ daughter, Jennifer, and his wife, Raquel, who also works as a housekeeper at the Renaissance.

Also on hand was Adrienne Jones, who shared the news that the National Labor Review Board (NLRB) found in her favor when it ruled that the Providence Hilton fired her because she was trying to start a union, not for any deficiencies in her work.

Juan Garcia, one of the strongest voices in the immigrant organizing community, spoke about the unfair and racist treatment of Hispanics by The Procaccianti Group. Garcia spoke in Spanish, but I have added the on-the-spot translation provided by Unite Here’s Andrew Tillet-Saks.

The last video features Juice Kelley, with an impassioned message for all workers.

Hell yeah!

There was no other press at this event.

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October 26, 2011January 2, 2012

Carmen Castillo Wins in Ward 9

Carmen Castillo has won the Democratic primary for City Council in Providence’s Ward 9. Castillo now faces Republican Christian Chirino, a Tea Party type libertarian, in the Nov. 29th general election. The winner steps into the seat formerly held by progressive champion, Miguel Luna. Continue reading