Pacific Steel Casting has been operating in West Berkeley since 1934. Photo: Michael Layefsky Pacific Steel Castings, based in west Berkeley since 1934, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Oakland on Monday. Pacific Steel, one of the largest independent steel casting companies in the U.S., has 410 employees in three separate plants at the […]
Elisabeth Jewel
Posted inBusiness
200 undocumented Pacific Steel workers lose their jobs
In March, workers briefly went out on strike against Pacific Steel This is not going to be a Merry Christmas for many of the workers at Pacific Steel. After a recent crackdown by the Department of Homeland Security, 200 workers who could not provide a valid social security number are being laid off. Those let […]
Posted inBusiness
Negotiations resume in Pacific Steel strike
Police square off against protesters. Photo: Michelle Vitetta The two clashing sides in the Pacific Steel Casting strike returned to the bargaining table on Wednesday, a day after Berkeley police resorted to tough tactics to push back a group of strikers from a warehouse on Fifth Street. On Tuesday, about 100 strikers gathered outside a […]
Posted inBusiness
Workers from Berkeley’s Pacific Steel go on strike
Workers on strike against Pacific Steel. Photo: Frances Dinkelspiel About 470 workers at the Pacific Steel Casting plant went on strike around midnight Monday to protest what they characterized as unfair take-backs by the foundry’s management. After talks broke down between the owners of Pacific Steel and representatives from Local 164B of the Glass, Molders, […]
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Berkeley Patients Group owes $6.4 million in back taxes
Cannabis plants for sale at BPG. Photo: Frances Dinkelspiel. Berkeley Patients Group (BPG), the city’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, owes more than $6.4 million in back taxes and interest, according to the state’s Board of Equalization (BOE). The BOE confirmed their original assessment of taxes at its meeting in Sacramento this week. Berkeleyside revealed the […]
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Berkeley cannabis collectives slapped with huge tax bills
The state Board of Equalization is contending that the Berkeley Patients Group, one of the oldest and largest medical cannabis dispensaries in California, owes $6 million in back taxes, Berkeleyside has learned. The board claims that the dispensary on San Pablo Avenue did not pay taxes on the medical marijuana it sold from July 2004 […]
Posted inBusiness, City, Nosh
New plans unveiled for Safeway store on Shattuck
Safeway as seen from Shattuck Safeway’s new designs for a remodeled store on Shattuck Avenue will make the grocery store an integral part of the lively Gourmet Ghetto. The new plans, which were unveiled July 26, call for outdoor benches and café seating along Shattuck Avenue, as well as the installation of large windows that […]
