SACRAMENTO — The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is planning a protest in Sacramento early Thursday morning over what the organization says is Cal/OSHA’s five-year delay in amending and clarifying California’s bloodborne pathogens statutes over condom use in adult film production.
AHF is planning the protest in front of the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency at 8 a.m. on Thursday
After the show of force, protesters will convene at the Cal/OSHA Standards Board Meeting held at the State Resources Building Auditorium at 10 a.m.
The AHF said that, after learning that a hearing on an amendment relative to California Code of Regulations Title 8 § 5193 was pushed back and omitted from the agenda, it would decide to mobilize and bring members from the the Bay Area and greater Los Angeles to Sacramento for a workplace safety protest and to testify at the Cal/OSHA Standards Board Meeting.
The AHF said that the protest will include Cameron Bay and Sofia Delgado, both of whom became HIV-positive in August 2013, as well as 50 other advocates in red T-shirts reading, “No More Excuses!”
Four AHF reps — including Adam Cohen, Dale Gluth, Miki Jackson and Ava Aguado — will attempt to state their case to the Cal/OSHA board.
“At this point, we are a bit confused. The Cal/OSHA Standards Board is a board appointed by the governor, yet it doesn’t seem to have any real authority. We’ve dutifully gone every month to the meetings, and — despite the fact that OSHA officials say this needs to be done quickly — we are now five-and-a-half years into the process with nothing to show for it. This is not right,” Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said in a release Wednesday evening.