Filipino hotel workers, among Long Beach’s poorest (tags)
Filipino couple Rogelio and Wilhemina de Vera, both 72 years old, who live in the “Cambodian projects” on Cherry Street, belong to the approximately 90,000 or almost 20 percent, of Long Beach residents who live under the federal poverty line. Half a million Filipinos make Long Beach or LA County—which ranks sixth in the nation for concentration of poverty—their home. “I am living paycheck to paycheck which is very hard because I still support some of my relatives back home,” Rogelio, a service van driver at a five-star Long Beach hotel, told Philippine News. “So I really appreciate that some organizations are helping me and my family
Long Beach Mass Action, July 10 Displays Community Unity (tags)
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.