Chicago IWW |
When you Need a Labor Union...
It isn't too hard to notice the problems with today's economy. Wages and working condition are quickly eroding. It is harder and harder to find good jobs. The cost of living continues to rise. Many are unemployed. You may have heard the smug lecture about how you should be glad to even have a job and shouldn't complain about how you are treated at work. Meanwhile, a small class of bosses and owners seem to be pretty well off, while most of us put up with insufficient wages and get treated like dirt. This is so despite the fact that the money businesses generate comes from the workers doing the real work while the boss does little more than order people around and count the money. Simply put, the boss wants to keep as much money as possible from the earnings of the business, but to do so they have to pay you as little as they can get away with. This conflict goes on every day in almost every workplace.
Bosses can do whatever they want when there's no Union. And that means anything. They can cut your pay, they can fire you. There are no limits to their power and control over your working life, because - one on one - nobody is a match for the boss. After all, how can you win an argument with somebody who can fire you?
We Fight for Working People
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "The Wobblies") exists to help you to organize in your workplace and your industry. Building the union at your job requires all kinds of support, from organizational to the legal. But the most power lies in what you and your co-workers are willing to put into organizing. There are some risks, which is why the IWW is committed to providing the following:
Intangible benefits are a sense of pride, self respect for standing up on the job, and a community of people that have similar values as your own, when it comes to working. The IWW fights to give workers control over their wages, working conditions, workplace responsibilities, hiring practices, health care, child care, etc. Unlike some other unions, we don't view these things simply as "benefits," but as a cost that bosses should be obligated to pay. Mutual Aid
Also unlike many unions, the IWW is committed to representing and defending our members regardless of whether or not there is an official union presence on the job. Just because there isn't a contract in place, or our union isnŐt legally recognized doesnŐt mean gains canŐt be made. For example, recently here in Chicago one of our members was fired from his job. The boss significantly underpaid him on his last check, fabricating a variety of reasons for the discrepancy. That week the IWW was able to exert enough pressure on the employer that our member was able to get the correct amount of pay. In Portland, Oregon, a restaurant worker was fired illegally. Even though the IWW wasn't recognized in the workplace we sent in a representative to negotiate a severance package and the withdrawal of the illegal policy. In La Crosse, Wisconsin the IWW held a protest picket in response to the illegal firing of a worker who threatened to file a complaint for not being paid on time and for never receiving pay for labor while training. The picket attracted a lot of interest from the community and gained the current workers an immediate 50-cent raise. These are small gains, but the point is that we represent all our members and we are willing to take on the boss no matter how small the fight. In non-union shops, our goal is to organize all the workers, but this can only be done by building from small victories toward larger ones. We seek to establish the IWW as the official union, using the same methods described above - organizing around grievances, winning back our jobs, preventing firings, and improving conditions in general. We act as a union, even if we have no contract, even if we arenŐt officially recognized by the employer or the NLRB.
The IWW is described as a "rank and file run union". This means that we have eliminated the need of bosses inside our own union. In other words, you will not have well-heeled "business agents" telling you what to do, but rather the experience and advice of all the other workers in the union backing you up.
We have officers in our union, but they are only allowed to carry out what the membership will allow. If a union officer oversteps those bounds, there is a process for recall and replacement, without having to wait for the next election cycle. All union wide policies are decided by voting, and the administration of the international office is run by a General Executive Board and a General Secretary/Treasurer, who are elected every year. Even the union newspaper editor is elected. All officers in your own local industrial union are elected, and not appointed from above.
No one in the union is allowed to negotiate with your boss without your consent, and so all terms of the contract come from all the workers that it will affect. You may even want all negotiations to come from you and your co-workers, which is the best possible situation; this way all of your issues are discussed. With all of this comes a responsibility; as a member, it is important to stay informed of the union as a whole, so that you will have a well-reasoned voice in changing something that you think is wrong.
The IWW has no perfect "party line", because the needs and desires of us as members are always in flux. This means reading the bulletins and showing up to meetings when you can, and staying involved with the union outside your job, as well as inside.
Sometimes members don't have time to do everything, which is why we have a delegate system so that someone can attend a meeting on your behalf while you work, take care of kids, or tend to other pressing obligations.
The only way to improve things is to get organized, and the IWW is here to help. We are a grassroots union, and our strength comes from our members. Strong fighting unions have always been built by an active and militant membership, and we proudly continue that tradition. Whether your job sucks or is "pretty good" (at least today), we in the IWW believe you should join us for the following reasons. We need to start sticking up for our coworkers in our workplaces and in our industries. Ask around on your next shift. How many coworkers have two or three jobs? How many are one paycheck away from an eviction? We have a duty to our co-workers, and those who will follow in our footsteps, to make things better. The only way to do this is to organize together. When we band together around our common experiences and interests, we can improve our jobs and industries. Our labor, not our bosses, is what makes our workplaces tick and we can use our labor power to improve our jobs and our communities.
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