Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs-Filner among demonstrators cited in Old Town

SAN DIEGO — Seven demonstrators, including Rep. Bob Filner, were taken into custody by rangers early Friday evening at Old Town State Park during a protest over the loss of union jobs.

Filner, D-San Diego, was one of seven people who staged what they called an act of “civil disobedience” in front of the entrance to Fiesta de Reyes, the revamped concession of shops and restaurants operated by Chula Vista restaurateur Chuck Ross, during its grand reopening.

Each was cited by state park rangers for disturbing the peace, interfering with a lawful business and making unreasonable noise in a state park. They then were released and ejected from the park, park ranger Capt. Richard Dennison said.

The protest rally was held by members and supporters of Local 30 of Unite Here, the hotel workers’ union.

After Ross took over the languishing Old Town concession from New York-based Delaware North, he drew the union’s wrath after he declined to rehire 130 union employees who had worked under the old concessionaire.

Ross has said he plans to run the concession as a non-union shop. He has invited all the laid-off workers to reapply for their jobs, but offered no guarantees to rehire them.

With a private party going on inside the Fiesta de Reyes area to mark its relaunch, about 80 protesters formed two circling picket lines near the entrance to Fiesta de Reyes without blocking it. A few others marched with placards at one of the park entrances.

But the demonstrators, including Filner, already had planned to stage what they called a “civil disobedience literally at the gate of Fiesta de Reyes.”

Locking arms and walking side-by-side, Filner, Local 30 president Brigette Browning, San Diego Human Relations Commission chairman Nicole Murray-Ramirez and four others marched to the closed iron gate and sat down. They led other demonstrators in noisy chants of “No justice, no peace!” in English and Spanish.

They were backed by other protesters beating drums and spinning large wooden noisemakers over their heads. The protesters didn’t get a permit for their demonstration, but state park rangers, including a K-9 team, stood by calmly until the concessionaire made a formal complaint, Dennison said.

At that point, one by one, the seven sitting demonstrators, starting with Filner, were bound with plastic cuffs and detained.

http://www.house.gov/filner/

Greg Gross: (619) 293-1889;