Tag: Solidarity

Burgerville Workers Union Serves Up Resistance and Hamburgers

  Story by Pete Shaw Over 100 members and supporters of the Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU) came out on Wednesday January 25 to stand for worker justice at the Convention Center Burgerville on NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. The BVWU’s most recent action occurred nearly a week after fellow worker and union leader Jordan…

How to Shine During Bleak Times

  Story by Pete Shaw These are bleak times in the United States, although an honest reckoning shows that for many people, particularly those who are not heterosexual Christian men bearing white skin, these are perhaps more accurately times ranging between the usual and bleaker. After Monday’s electoral college balloting officially paved the way for…

Giving Thanks

Story and photos by Pete Shaw So here we are, not long after an election that saw the man who will become President of the United States spending over a year hurling invective against just about everyone not a white, straight, Christian male, that has now clearly encouraged blatant and aggressive bigoted actions. Clearly, we…

An Important Lesson

Story by Pete Shaw After last week’s election, the Portland Occupier published a column I wrote about how regardless of who won the election, the same work of organizing for a more just world faced us. Had Hillary Clinton won, she at most would likely have made slightly tepid changes, but I doubt those changes…

Where Do We Go From Here?

Story by Pete Shaw Judging from Facebook on the morning after the recent elections, it seems there are two very important things that need taking. One is that the proposed wisdom that we were watching the destruction of the Republican Party turned out to be false. Instead, it is the Democrats who have imploded, or…

A Memory of Justin Buri

Story and photos by Pete Shaw Thursday, November 3, late Justin Buri, the former executive director of the Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT), an organization that fights for renters and their rights, died on Tuesday, November 1. He was 36. I will not pretend that I knew him, but I did have the pleasure of…

Burgerville Workers Union Rallies In Support of Fired Union Member

Story and photos by Pete Shaw The Walla Walla onion rings–so good that they named them twice–have arrived at Burgerville. Inside its stores, signs advertise the food while emphasizing the community values Burgerville espouses to distinguish itself from the larger fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King. One placard shows a farmer kneeling…

City Postpones Sweep of Springwater Corridor

Story and photos by Pete Shaw Resistance mounted by houseless residents of the Springwater Corridor and their allies has resulted in Mayor Charlie Hales delaying sweeping away people without housing who live along the trail. Two weeks ago Hales announced that camping would no longer be allowed along Portland’s portion of the 21 mile long…