Linchpin #2 (Canada)

The history of the working class is a history of remarkable innovation and constant renewal. Whenever the bosses think they have buried forever the threat of workers' revolt, workers find, time and again, the means to fight back. Today, the recent blooming of resistance among workers in the low-wage service-sector is one important sign of a renewed struggle against the bosses and their system, writes Lucian.

For decades companies in the service - sector, whether they be giants such as Wal-Mart or smaller locally-owned businesses, have been able to hyper-exploit workers imposing low-wages, irregular schedules, temporary work, unsafe working conditions, harassment and discrimination while racking in super-profits.

The South Street Workers Union asks for your support to stop the deportation of Omar Lezama de la Rosa

September 19, 2005

Dear friends:

Omar Lezama de la Rosa, a friend to many restaurant workers on South Street, is facing deportation after being wrongly arrested in July. Below is a resolution from the Philadelphia Bar Association explaining the facts of his case.

We are organizing to show the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement office that our brother Omar has strong support. The Immigration office has discretion in which cases it chooses to pursue, so we are trying to stop the proceedings against Omar before they get to court.

Omar has a year-and-a-half-old son and wants to keep living in Philadelphia with his family and friends.

Please sign our petition. If you are in a position to collect more signatures, please call the IWW union office at 215-222-2432. 

Yours in solidarity, Nakiya Heigler and Steve Renzi for the South Street Workers Union

PHILADELPHIA BAR ASSOCIATION RESOLUTION OPPOSING ATTEMPTS TO DEPORT OMAR LEZAMA de la ROSA

By Jon Bekken - Industrial Worker, April 2005.

The IWW-affiliated South Street Workers Union is organizing retail and food service workers along Philadelphia's South Street corridor, implementing a model of solidarity unionism focused on helping workers create their own shop floor and district-wide organizations to confront low wages, poor working conditions, and the lack of workplace rights.

Since the union began organizing in August 2003, the South Street Workers Union has organized health, tax and workers' rights clinics; social events; a district-wide grievance committee that has helped workers claim unpaid wages and develop strategies to improve working conditions; and organized a campaign against proposed mass transit fare increases and service cutbacks.