We’re happy to announce that the Washington Hospital Healthcare Foundation and the Ohlone College Athletics Department have re-located golf tournaments originally scheduled to be held at Castlewood. Thanks to both organizations for doing the right thing!
* * * *
Meanwhile, other tournament organizers have crossed our picket lines to hold events at Castlewood – with some questionable results.
On Thursday, June 24th, the Oakland A’s Community Fund chose to go ahead with their golf tournament at Castlewood – even after a community call-in urging them to relocate it. When we arrived for our regular picket at the Castlewood clubhouse, the A’s staff looked horrified. They told us that they had cancelled the portion of their tournament that is normally held on the Valley course, specifically to avoid the pickets – because Club managers had promised them that workers were not allowed to picket on Club property.
Unfortunately for the A’s, this was pure fiction. Castlewood General Manager Jerry Olson even filed a court declaration complaining about the workers’ frequent pickets on Club property:
“No golf course of any type, whether public or private or the highest to the poorest quality, would tolerate bullhorns, drum playing and chanting of slogans anywhere on the golf course premises . . . By its very nature, such activity improperly and impermissibly disrupts how the game of golf is played. Nonetheless, that is precisely what the Union was doing in this flagpole and in repeated other demonstrations at the Club while on the Club’s own private property.”
This was part of an application for a Temporary Restraining Order to keep picketers of Club property – which was officially denied on May 5th.
With no legal means for silencing the locked-out workers, Club managers resorted to offering them a free lunch if they agreed to go picket at the Valley course instead!
* * * *
Four days later, the ValleyCare Charitable Foundation also held a tournament at Castlewood. One of the tournament participants, apparently irate about the pickets, hit three golf balls directly into the group of worker picketers. One worker was hit in the head through his picket sign (thankfully, he was not injured.)
Golfers of the East Bay, don’t resort to violence! Just play somewhere else! (And call Castlewood management to let them know why.)
~Sarah
Locked-out workers picket Castlewood during the Oakland A's tournament.