The Alachua County Labor Coalition has had a year of growth, pivoting, change, and endurance. Towards the start of the pandemic we were forced to relocate offices downtown after our previous landlord (AMJ) refused to re-sign our lease because he disagreed with our politics around renters rights. We lost valued members such as Terry Fleming, Karen Smith, Jack Price, Julia Reiskind and David Chalmers. And through all of this we have grown our membership base, stacked up important victories, and expanded our scopes of work. This was all made possible by the tireless work of our executive board, coordinator and chairs of our committees. The ACLC current breadth of work is split into 4 committees with each containing a varying number of projects.
Housing Committee
The Safe Affordable Housing Committee has been working on a Renters’ Rights’ ordinance for the past 3 years. In 2019 and in early 2020 the ACLC was finally able to get housing discrimination protections we drafted passed in Alachua County and the City of Gainesville. These provisions protect people from discrimination based on lawful income source (Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, Social Security Disability, veterans benefits, etc.) domestic violence survivors, and perceived immigration status among other protections. We also passed the Renters Bill of Rights ordinance in the City of Gainesville which when it takes effect in 2021 will have minimum energy efficiency and basic safety standards, facilitated by regular inspections for the majority of rental housing in Gainesville. A new process to deal with security deposit theft will also take effect in 2021. We’re now pivoting to the Alachua County Commission to petition for passage of the same ordinance at the county level.
Out of this committee, the ACLC formed the Evictions Resistance Task Force with Gainesville Socialist Alternative. This task force also teamed up with the Evictions Lab to help us track and respond to increasing levels of evictions because of Covid job losses with their historical perspective. Every week the task force meets to discuss the cases that had been filed the previous week. The Letter Writing Team sends a letter to everyone who had an eviction filed on them the previous week. This letter includes legal resources, rent and utility assistance program information as well as some information about our organization. The Canvassing Team follows up the following week with a door knock and a conversation. The number of evictions have fluctuated from a dozen a week to over 60. We expect there to be a deluge of evictions in the coming months as our state and federal governments have failed to pass meaningful pandemic relief.
The ACLC and Gainesville Socialist Alternative have also been surveying different neighborhoods in Alachua County and have begun to move the pieces to start tenant organizing. We will continue surveying more and more neighborhoods in the coming year that have had high eviction rates and hope to create tenant unions and build tenant power. We want to move towards a more proactive organizing model by identifying people who are at risk of facing evictions and building resistance networks that force landlords to negotiate with them. Because of information ACLC has been providing to tenants, many have called us back to say they were able to negotiate with their landlords to stay in their homes.
Workers’ Rights Committee
In 2015 we launched a campaign to have the 10 largest employers pay a living wage by 2020. This aspirational goal has fallen short in a few major employers but we have stacked up some major victories.
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With the persistence of ACLC organizing, the University of Florida went from a minimum wage of $10 an hour in 2016 to $14 an hour in 2020. It’s important to note that this left out OPS and contract workers but it did affect over 500 low wage TEAMS workers. The ACLC has also been involved in organizing new unions and workers’ associations for on campus food provider Aramark, non-unionized TEAMS workers, and the SAFE UF Reopening group.
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The ACLC urged the Alachua County School Board members to add paying a living wage to their strategic goals in 2016. In 2017 their lowest wage workers were making ~$8 an hour and are now at ~$10.50.
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We lobbied the City of Gainesville commissioners through many meetings and wage studies to go from ~$12.50 an hour in 2016 to $15 an hour in 2021. Commissioners also just passed the Contractor Living Wage ordinance modeled after the Alachua County Minimum Wage Ordinance which assures all contractor workers a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour.
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Nationwide Insurance Company paid at least $15 an hour to all workers as of January 2017.
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Due to our efforts the Alachua County Government went from $12/hr in 2016 to $15 by 2022.This includes the most progressive contractor living wage ordinance in the state of Florida.
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Santa Fe College increased wages for full time workers to $12/hr in 2018. Part time and contractors were left out. Much of SFC organizing has been tied to union organizing.
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We were unable to directly affect the other largest employers (Shands Hospital, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Publix Supermarkets, North Florida Regional Medical Center) outside of the recent state constitutional amendment which will increase the minimum wage to $10 an hour in 2021 and $15 an hour by 2026. YEAH!
In total the Alachua County Labor Coalition has helped to put millions of dollars directly into the pockets of working people. We’ve grown our capacity to make future gains and have seeded many worksites for future union activities.
The ACLC is part of the Food Justice League, a coalition of workers, producers, and environmentalists whose mission is to replace the current UF contract with Aramark with one that respects workers, supports sustainable agriculture, and values a vision of a better food system in Gainesville. Like much of our work, organizing has been hampered by the pandemic. We’ve gathered hundreds of petitions, met with officials, gotten supportive resolutions in Alachua County and the City of Gainesville passed, and progressed towards official support at the UF Faculty Senate. In December at a joint Gainesville City and Alachua County meeting both bodies voted to have staff research and bring back proposals consistent with the goals of the Food Justice League. This will be a major avenue for struggle in 2021.
The ACLC has also been working closely with UF Workers for A Safe Reopening. Earlier this year we conducted a survey that went out to all UF staff and faculty about their thoughts on UF reopening. We received over three thousand responses and found that the prevailing feedback from UF’s workforce was fear about UF pushing workers back and UF lack of transparency. We are actively pushing back on the unilateral decisions made by the UF Board of Trustees, as Sheila Payne did this past Friday when she read the testimonies of workers who are scared and feel unsafe about face to face learning at the BoT meeting. Letter writing campaigns and petitions have been in the works and we will continue fighting for the lives of UF workers, students and faculty in conjunction with UFF-UF and GAU until UF decides to put people before profits and move to online learning.
Just Healthcare Committee
Our Just Healthcare Committee is working on expanding healthcare access in Florida. You can find more here. In the past, Chad Hood gave talks to many groups about the need for national single-payer healthcare and his presentation is being made into a video. For now we have prioritized convincing Florida legislators to expand Medicaid as part of the Health Care for Florida campaign. This past spring, JHC submitted and advocated for resolutions in support of Medicaid expansion by the Alachua County and Gainesville City Commissions. Both were signed and will be sent to our leaders in Tallahassee. Looking forward, bills for expansion are being prepared in the state House and the Senate. Together with Health Care for Florida and the League of Women Voters of Florida, we are building teams of constituents and advocates who will meet with our state officials including, Representative Chuck Clemons and Senator Keith Perry. Team members will be asked to call, email, and set virtual meetings with their elected officials. We will host a training session early in 2021 and provide ongoing support including talking points and debrief sessions.
Criminal Justice Committee
Our newest committee is the Criminal Justice Committee. This committee was formed due to demand from the ACLC membership at last year’s strategic planning committee. The ACLC has been instrumental in holding the Gainesville Sun accountable for publishing mugshots of non-convicted people. We’ve also been in coalition with Florida Prison Solidarity in many actions including the COVID-19 Freedom Fund in which we helped raise almost $50,0000 through our ActionNetwork account. This fund allowed many people who had been sitting in jail for lack of ability to pay low cash bond payments to be released. The CJC is now focused on reforming Alachua County Court Services into an institution that helps keep people out of jails/prisons. We’ve published a white paper with recommendations that were well received by the Alachua County Commission and we’re hopeful that all will be adopted in 2021. This Committee is also looking at helping to create participatory defense teams. Please join us in this important work.
Free Grocery Store
Because of the generosity of many Labor Coalition members and others who have donated every month through ACLC Action Network site, we have been able to help provide food and other support for a hundred families in our community through Free Grocery Store.