CFI :: Region 1 Strike Bulletin #1

Ours is a righteous cause—and fortunately many other people are starting to see it that way. From politicians, to brother union members, and even to scabs, we have received unexpected and welcome support. As we enter day five of our strike, we stand strong and united.

Rally Illustrates Support

On Friday, about 150 interpreters from all the courthouses in Los Angeles County and Santa Barbara met in front of the Criminal Courts Building for a rally and march to Stanley Mosk Plaza by the Civil Court House. They began to arrive early, with some interpreters already hoisting picket signs and chanting by 7 in the morning. By 11 we were a raucous, boisterous crowd, banging drums, singing songs and handing out flyers to all passers-by explaining our struggle. By 11:45, with an appropriate police escort, CFI President Silvia Barden led us up Temple to Stanley Mosk Plaza, where we made sure our message was heard by the courts and the Administration. State Board of Equalization and former Assembly member Judy Chu addressed the group, assuring us that we have the backing of many in Sacramento because they know we are fighting for fairness and equal treatment. The General Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) John Travino, was also present to lend his much appreciated support. Also there were representatives from the Engineer and Architects Association as well as from various CWA Locals. Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley, who flew all the way from Washington D.C. for our rally, made perhaps the most moving presentation of all, reminding our members that we give voice to the voiceless and that the courts cannot administer justice if people cannot speak or understand—that is, if we interpreters are not there doing our job,

An Epiphany of Light

That afternoon, in a stirring show of solidarity, one of the interpreters hired by the Administration to break our strike had a change of heart. A Spanish interpreter, told us he had worked the previous two days but on Friday, he decided he could no longer stay with the dark side and refused to cross our picket line. "I realized I'm one of you, and I asked myself, what am I doing going in to work?" he said. After this epiphany, he grabbed a picket sign and walked the line with the rest of the strikers until the end of the day.

What We're Hearing

It's apparent that the courts are hurting more every day that the strike goes on. We have received information from court clerks that the administration was taken by complete surprise when we began our strike on Wednesday, and that there were only a couple of certified interpreters—scabs, unfortunately—to handle the entire Criminal Courts Building. That day court administrators were running around madly from courtroom to courtroom, doing legal triage.

Meantime, the cases have been piling up. According to our sources -- some confirmed and some uncomfirmed -- in Chatsworth, all traffic tickets requiring an interpreter were dismissed on Friday. In Santa Clarita, misdemeanors were reduced to infractions in order to process interpreter cases more quickly, while in San Fernando, custodies in on misdemeanors were cited out to avoid court proceedings requiring an interpreter. Likewise, in Metro, we were also told that dozens of misdemeanor custodies are being released every day on O.R. due to a lack of interpreters, and that the Community Services office there has seen its work load drop to nil practically, since no one is being sentenced.

It seems that the courts may be resorting to all kinds of moves of dubious legality to deal with our absence. Judges are asking members of the audience to interpret for continuances. In some cases, defendants instead are being handed out a form in their native language—they have them in Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, even Arabic—telling them their case has been put over. At the Criminal Courts Building, a judge tried to read this advisement in Spanish but the quick thinking defense attorney voir dire'd the judge, who, acknowledging his ignorance of the language of Cervantes, promptly stopped his halting recitation. Other judges are using bilingual bailiffs and court personnel to fill our function. We have spoken to the unions that represent these court employees; they have pledged to us that they will remind these bilinguals to stick to their job description and not replace interpreters. We have even received a report—as yet unconfirmed—that a judge in CCB had a juror act as an interpreter for the very same case the juror was sitting on!

On Thursday Court Spokesman Alain Parachini boasted that the administration would swear in 90 'provisionals' this week to meet the crunch, but that, like a lot of other things Mr. Parachini has stated, is far from reality. Judge Ito swore in seven provisionals on Wednesday, and since then Judge Espinoza at the CCB has been recruiting bilingual courthouse clerks. Some of them, knowing they don't have the required language skills, have refused to be dragooned into interpreting—and some who have agreed have regretted it. According to reports, some provisionals have had to be told how to say 'no contest' in Spanish, and others how to translate 'The case is being put over.' One attorney told us that "in 20 years I've never objected on the record but [this provisional's] interpretation was so deficient that I was forced to." Unfortunately, the despicable farce of attorneys pleading 977a while their client is standing next to them—as happened in the case of Edgar Rodriguez, #7CAA10548 at Div. 40 on 9/05—still goes on. That was the same court where a defense attorney reportedly recruited a custody in lock-up to interpret for another custody client. We will investigate all such reports and, if they are accurate, will report especially egregious incidents to the State Bar for possible action.

PDs to Stick with Lawyering

Citing the same case law we sent them, the PD's office issued a memo on Friday advising counsel that under no circumstances are they to interpret on the record, even for something as simple as a continuance.

Meanwhile, other support for our strike is increasing. The Teamsters, for instance, are getting the word out that union drivers, including those driving the trash trucks, should not cross our picket lines. Reports from picket lines late today indicate that they have been successful as more and more drivers are refusing to cross our lines.

We are getting pledges of support from other unions almost hourly.

We are not giving up. We are in the right, and we will prevail. It's that simple. The courts are counting on us to back down, to begin to trickle in to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. They don't seem to understand yet that we're in for the long haul. Our cause is just, and we will stand together until we get the dignity and justice that we deserve.

Stay strong! Show them who's right! Keep fighting!

(Editor's Notes: Production glitches made it impossible to put this first edition out in a more interesting format.

We're working on that problem and should have it corrected by our update Tuesday evening.

Since this is our first official update, there was a lot to cover so it ran long. We expect future editions to be much shorter.

The reason we named our little publication Say What??? will be evident when we fix those production glitches.)