Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)
July 11, 2008
Contact:Arturo P. Garcia
Phone –(213)241-0906

Long Beach Mass Action, July 10 Displays Community Unity

Long Beach - More than 600 people turned out in a two-hour march-rally last July 10 proving that the community is “the heart of Long Beach”

The march led by the Long Beach Coalition for Better Jobs and Healthy Communities started with a picket at the Hilton Hotel at around 5:00 PM . Then the coalition marched to the Long Beach light house near the Aquarium of the Pacific where they held an hour long rally.

Led by Hilton Hotel workers who are organizing themselves, Filipinos, Latinos, African- American hotel workers demanded hotel administration neutrality over their efforts to organize themselves.

Filipino worker Herman Carreon said in an interview: “ enough is enough, I have worked for seven years in Hilton but I only got three cents a year raise. Our wages are pegged at eight dollars and the hotel kept on cutting hours every time they like.

The worst, they give us more hours every time there are a lot of tourist but never paid overtime. I have asthma and a lot of work hours makes me sick And then we have no health insurance.

While at the same time hotel owners celebrity daughters-Paris Hilton and her sister goes on luxurious living and flaunting it while we workers suffers.”

Giant effigies and banners calling for the community unity like “ TAYO ANG PUSO NG LONG BEACH” MAKIBAKA HUWAG MATAKOT, SI SE PUEDE were prominently displayed .

Scores of Filipino workers from different hotels, students and youths from Cal State University and World War II veterans from the Justice for Filipino American (JFAV) joined the march.

The only time Long Beach is alive with activism is when the ILWU, the biggest union of port workers in the west coast which controls the ports of Long Beach march on May Day every year. The march for jobs is truly a rare display of multi national unity in Long Beach. Long Beach is 1/3 Filipino. Long Beach and Los Angeles area has a population of more than 300,000 Filipinos in the LA county.

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