Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Nearly two weeks after window washer Pedro Perez fell from an 11 story building onto a car in the Financial District, family members say he's making a slow but steady recovery. Even slower, however, has been the response from the union to which Perez belongs, which didn't reach out to help him until, oddly enough, broadcast television cameras were present.

It was Friday, November 21 at around 10:03 when the 58-year-old San Leandro man fell from the Sterling Bank & Trust building at California and Montgomery Streets while on the window washing job. He landed on a passing Toyota Camry, crushing in the roof but, astoundingly, leaving the car's driver uninjured.

Financial District passers-by rushed to his aid, and he was taken to San Francisco General Hospital's Intensive Care Unit, where he remains to this day.

Perez's daughter spoke with ABC7, telling them that her dad was a 15-year veteran of the window washing business, making his 11-story fall even more surprising to her.

She also says that in the confusion following his fall, a co-worker actually called his family and told them Perez was dead. It wasn't until a call from SF General over an hour later that they learned that he was still alive, suffering from a shattered pelvis, a broken arm, and and internal bleeding.

Amazingly, his daughter says, he suffered "no major head injury," and his back and legs were unbroken even after the fall. He's now breathing on his own, and is trying to speak, his daughter says.

However, his road to recovery is still a long one, and he was working to support a wife and three daughters. That's what has made the silence from his union, SEIU United Service Workers West, all the more frustrating, his family says. According to them, they haven't heard been able to get a response from his union, which says on its website that it exists to "provide live support and assistance to SEIU USWW members via the telephone, and to help build a stronger union by providing members with the tools and information needed to win at their worksite."

In what has to be a coincidence, however, the union finally called Perez's family back on Wednesday to offer their assistance...just as ABC7's cameras were there to capture the moment. Odd, that.

Previously: Window Washer Survives 11-Story Fall FiDi Fall Onto Moving Car

We don't have Chris Daly to kick around anymore (again). The bombastic former city supervisor whom everybody loved to hate has severed his ties with San Francisco's most-visible union, the purple-shirted army of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, for whom he had been working for the past three years.

Daly, the former Supe legendary for, among other things, proudly dropping F-bombs at public meetings, suggesting that Gavin Newsom used cocaine, and referencing classic video games at key moments — had been serving as SEIU 1021's political director until abruptly resigning Friday. What gives? The normally-loquacious Fairfield resident is mostly mum.

The longtime friend-of-Daly SF Bay Guardian noted yesterday that Daly parted ways with the union at the same time as it endorsed Proposition L, which has backing from Republicans as well as tech maven Sean Parker. The measure would steer city transit funding towards motorists and make it tougher for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to stick parking meters wherever it damn pleases.

That's poison to progressives, which Daly still most certainly is. In a Facebook comment today addressed to Guardian editor Steve Jones, Daly dismissed the notion that his exit was hastened by a "pro-car" stance by the union— many of whose members do drive, and like war, driving "is hell" in San Francisco, new political director Alysabeth Alexander said — but still didn't say exactly why he left the union after three years as its political director.

He might not know himself. "What's next?" Daly posted, on his own Facebook post.

The loudmouthed advocate for the poor's other post-political gig was even shorter lived. After exiting City Hall following the ascension of Mayor Ed Lee, Daly tried his hand at the bar industry, operating Buck Tavern across the street from Zuni Cafe in Lee's much-touted Mid-Market area. San Francisco's "political watering hole" poured drinks for just shy of two years before closing in 2012.

Daly for hire, y'all.

Update: With his newly-found freedom, Daly found the time to answer some questions for SFist (as posed by Eve Batey). Here we go!

SFist: If you didn't leave SEIU over Prop L issues (as you told Steve Jones) what was the reason behind your departure?

Daly: Even though I disagree with the decision 1021 made on Proposition L, it had no bearing on my departure. In fact, internal discussions about me leaving my post as Political Director started about 6 months ago -- long before Prop L was even a glimmer in Sean Parker's eye.

I am quite proud of the work we were able to do during my time at 1021, from helping to pass the millionaires tax, to standing up to an anti-union barrage at BART, to launching a region-wide campaign to raise the minimum wage. Despite this upside, the organization had increasing expectations of me on the management side, and frankly, I didn't really want to be a manager.

What is next? I know you asked that on your FB post, but you seem like a guy who's always got his next step mapped out. What is it?

I don't know. Seriously. I've been up to my elbows in alligators for at least 15 consecutive years. It's nice to have a bit of a reprieve.

Do you see yourself spending more time in SF?

I actually was in San Francisco quite a bit during my last job, with about 1/3 of 1021's membership working in SF. And there were some worthwhile campaigns during this time. We pushed the City to adopt a more aggressive business tax, led the effort to adopt a higher minimum wage, and took on the increasing bravado of the tech sector by challenging the Twitter tax break and suing to stop the Google Bus.

So, the answer to your question depends on what ends up being next for me. Hopefully in the meantime, I get to spend more time in SF socially.

Will you politically haunt Supe Chiu, as you once promised?

I really have nothing against David Chiu personally. Politics is a bit of a different story. David Chiu thought he could increasingly sell progressives out on a myriad of issues while maintaining the progressive banner for himself. I have made sure that he hasn't been able to do that. In his run for Mayor, John Avalos carried the progressive mantle and finished in second place. David Chiu finished in 4th place, with only 14.5% of the ranked choice votes. Now David Chiu thinks that he can walk a similar line into the State Assembly. On the surface, most of what Chiu says sounds good, but he doesn't really stand for anything meaningful. San Franciscans increasingly get it. So David Campos, the clear progressive in the race, should go on to victory in the progressive district. If Chiu, backed by hundreds of thousands of tech dollars fails to find a path to victory, he will won't just be any loser -- he'll be a two-time loser.

Read all SFist coverage of Chris Daly here.

If you spot Darth Vader and other Star Wars characters outside Moscone Center this morning, they're going to be too busy protesting Google to pose for pictures.

At 10 a.m. today, a coalition of labor, housing, and community activists say that they'll be reminding the tech giant that it's not living up to its "Don't Be Evil" corporate credo at Google's I/O Developer's Conference, which begins today at San Francisco's Moscone Center. The protest comes the morning after a separate group of protesters, going by the name Occupy Google, staged a demonstration at Google's Mountain View headquarters that led to ten arrests, according to Valleywag and the group's Twitter account.

Today's protest is led by the Service Employees International Union, United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW), which says that they are calling on Google to work with its security workers on a new contract. Alfredo Fletes, one of the protest organizers and a representative for SEIU-USWW, says that Google is "messing with security officers' lives" by giving them part-time hours without benefits and that with limited hours in multiple locations—making workers trek from Mountain View to San Francisco—their $17 an hour pay isn't cutting it.

“The workers are just fed up with scraping by and they’re coming together to demand a security contract that will support worker’s rights to collectively bargain,” Fletes says. “We’re asking them to step up and support good jobs.” Fletes says that Google’s track record of illegal surveillance is also an issue for its security workers.

Fletes adds that Google's representatives have not said whether or not they support a union and the workers, who are employed by Security Industry Specialists, have not yet filed for recognition with the company.

According to a statement sent this morning, Supervisor John Avalos, Tim Paulson of the San Francisco Labor Council, and members of Eviction Free San Francisco, Jobs with Justice, San Francisco Rising, and Senior and Disability Action will also be participating in the demonstration.

When contacted by SFist, a Google spokesperson responded with this written statement:

"Thousands of Googlers call the Bay Area home, and we want to be good neighbors. Since 2011 we've given more than $70 million to local projects and employees have volunteered thousands of hours in the community. We’re excited to be expanding that work in 2014 with the recent Bay Area Impact Challenge winners--several of them have even joined us at I/O! As for the protesters, may the force be with them."

One might wonder if Google's jokey mood soured when, as reported by The Huffington Post, one protestor hopped on stage to interrupt a presentation on new features fro Android to hold up a banner reading "DEVELOP A CONSCIENCE: STOP JACK HALPRIN FROM EVICTING SF TEACHERS," a reference to a Google staffer who is presently seeking to evict tenants from a building he recently purchased at 812 Guerrero.

According to Mission Local, which is liveblogging the action, the protester was Claudia Tirado, one of the tenants Halprin is attempting to evict. In an interesting turn, Tirado told Mission Local that after she was pulled from the stage, Rachel Whetstone, Google’s senior VP of communications, told Tirado "that she’d talk to Halprin directly about the issues at 812 Guerrero."

Though today's action is unrelated to last night’s Occupy Google action, at which a group held a banner that read "Protect Net Neutrality," those activists tweeted support for this morning's I/O Conference demonstration.

Below, check out video from the Occupy Google protest.

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

As our collective Bay Area Rapid Transit nightmare continues, the BART unions have offered a "Rider First" plan Friday evening, outlining how they would like to get the trains rolling in just five short hours.

The seven-point plan which you can read here [pdf warning] actually has little to do with aside from actually giving them a working transit system. "We both need to do right by the riders, commuters, the businesses, the workers, and others who've been impacted by the trains not running," the SEIU Local 1021 release reads. The unions promise to get the trains running by 10 p.m., provided BART management accepts a few points:

• First, we commit to what we already agreed to on pensions where we met you 100 percent.
• Second, we commit to what we already agreed to on health care where we met you 100 percent, and re-commit to changing retiree medical eligibility from five years to fifteen years.
• Third, we commit to what we already agreed to as an economic framework (which includes wages).
• Fourth, the District would agree to accept the unions’ compromise language on past practice.
• Fifth, we re-commit to all of the tentative agreements we have already achieved on a variety of work rules.
• Sixth, in order to resolve all of the outstanding supplemental issues on workplace rules that blocked us both from being able to reach an agreement, we would submit to and accept the results of a final and binding interest arbitration.
• Seventh, we would return to existing language on all outstanding General Proposals

BART, for their part, is expected to weigh in on the latest offer at 6:30 p.m. Stay tuned, local transit riders.

According to CBS5's Doug Sovern, however, BART is expected to reject that offer.

Update, 7:30 p.m. As expected BART has rejected the offer.

The Lusty Lady Theater, San Francisco and the world's only strip club cooperatively owned and operated by the women entertainers themselves, stands in danger of coming apart at the seams. As Uptown Almanac reports, the Lusty Lady's head Madam and all but one member of the club's worker cooperative board have quit. Without much direction or employees, the club (which just recently celebrated 15 years of being part of the SEIU) is now in a tight spot moving forward.

As soon-to-be-former dancer Sandy Bottoms writes on her blog [NSFW] about the current climate within the co-op:

Over the past few weeks a giant schism has formed within the cooperative regarding the future of our historic and beloved business, which is resulting in a wave of workers, including myself, walking away. I want it to be known that the Lusties leaving the Lady are NOT walking away from it's [sic] rich memory of camaraderie and perseverance during cooperization or landmark status of being the only unionized sex work business' within the United States, but simply from a disintegrating system and hostile working environment within a failing business model.

For what it's worth, the Lusty Lady is not closing immediately, but that appears to be a real threat if the co-op doesn't work out their current issues and find enough entertainers to keep the peep show running. According to Uptown Almanac the club needs an infusion of cash, some new marketing efforts and a lot of new talent (among other things). So far, no one has stepped forward to pass the hat and start any fundraising efforts for the club, but supporters are encouraged to reach out to the remaining club owners via their Facebook page. In the meantime, this behind the glass piece from SFAppeal is definitely worth re-visiting for a captivating look at life as an entertainer at the Lusty Lady.

We should also note this isn't the first time the Lusty Lady has been struck with internal disputes and infighting. Back in 2006, a dancer and member of the theater's co-op board was dismissed after she posted an email from a male employee detailing customer complaints about a BBW night to a message board in the club's dressing room. That ordeal prompted workers to question whether the union was useful in light of the club's co-op situation.

[Lusty Lady on Facebook]
[UptownAlmanac]

Justin Beck is live at City Hall covering today's SEIU occupation. So far there are an estimated hundred or so protesters inside, one brandishing a bullhorn to shout and chant stuff. Supervisors Eric Mar and David Campos have shouted into the bullhorn. Others might too. Cops are at the scene and reportedly "concerned about the noise level." It's all very exciting. (Not season finale of RuPaul's Drag Race exciting, but thrilling nevertheless.) Anyway, we'll keep an eye on the scene. If you'd like to watch it live, visit Justin Beck's UStream or view it below.

The next installment of his long-running Muni investigation airs tonight at 6pm on ABC-7, and it sounds like it's going to be awesome: after spending months pouring through Muni's complaint records (while simultaneously fighting off the drivers' union), Dan's I-Team has the goods on Muni's most complained-about drivers.

We've known for some time now that there's just a small group of repeat-offender drivers who account for tons of complaints. So this brings up some pretty obvious questions -- like, why hasn't Muni fired them, what's WRONG with these people, does Muni even care about passenger complaints, why is Muni so fucking terrifying, and so forth. We can't wait to see it all hit the fan this evening.