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THE

HISTORY OF

The History of Oakland Works



In 2009 Mayor Ron Dellums, after extensive dialogue with business and
community leaders, including the West Oakland Community Advisory
Group (WOCAG), concluded that the best use for the decommissioned
Oakland Army base would be providing logistics for Oaklands busy
Port.

A Request for Qualifications and a Request for Proposals process was
undertaken, and the developer chosen to pursue this project was CCG in
partnership with ProLogis Inc.

In 2010 Kitty Kelly Epstein, PhD, a member of Mayor Dellums staff was
sent to a meeting on community benefits to be written into contracts
with the developer. She was surprised to discover that no organization
explicitly representing West Oakland, the African-American community,
or other communities of color was present in these important meetings.
It had been widely acknowledged that West Oakland had suffered the
most negative impacts from Port activity.

Mayor Dellums said that the community had a right to be independently
represented and called a meeting of many participants. The
OaklandWORKS Alliance was born in order to provide this independent
representation. The initial members of the OaklandWORKS alliance
included the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP);
BWOPA (Black Women Organized for Political Action); the Oakland
Black Caucus; PUEBLO; Leadership Excellence; John George Democratic
Club; Oakland Natives Give Back; Oakland Parents Together; the ILWU
Local 10, and representatives of WOCAG.


The OaklandWORKS Alliance has accomplished many things:


1. Proposed and campaigning for strong local hire provisions.
2. Supporting and campaigning for the rights of local businesses to
remain at the Port or on the Base itself. This includes support for
truck and other maritime support so that street parking and other
operations should cease in West Oakland proper.

3. Supporting California Waste Solutions as Oaklands local and


preferred waste management company
4. Supporting other campaigns including those created by PUEBLO
and other organizations
5. Holding several information meetings for the community and City
staff.
6. Demanding and winning creation of the Jobs Resource Center, a
dedicated worker assessment and placement center in West
Oakland
7. Winning two dedicated seats on the new Oakland Commission
8. Meeting with unions and contractors to identify the systemic
barriers to employment in the construction industry
9. Holding the first jobs round table in West Oakland to bring the
community and city administration together to discuss the racial
and social barriers to putting West Oakland residents to work.


While all of these efforts have been useful, the community agreements
on Local Hire reached between the developer, the trades, and the
community organizations represented by OaklandWORKS have been
undermined by abuse of process.

Therefore much work remains to be done on the Army Base and other
emerging projects in order for Oaklanders to obtain their fair share of
the work and the benefits accruing from these multi-billion dollar
projects.

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