The author of this article is not a member of the IWW, and the do not necessarily support our organization or this campaign.

By Ed Ericson Jr. - City Paper OnLine, May 9, 2007

It's day three of the union at Joe's Bike Shop in Mount Washington, and owner Joe Traill steps outside to say that nothing has changed "so far."

Traill wears a worried look and chooses his words carefully so he won't sound too defensive. On May 1 he learned that all 10 of his employees had joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)--the storied Wobblies.

"My guess is the significance of May Day was not lost on them," he says.

The IWW formed in 1905, and while it never numbered more than about 200,000 members, its radical influence is still felt today. Wobblies got the eight-hour day for lumberjacks, put backbone in the dockworkers unions, integrated racially and across gender lines, were imprisoned for sedition, and were lynched. Legendary leftists like Big Bill Haywood, Mother Jones, and Joe Hill were red-card-carrying Wobblies, and the men and women of the rank and file were tough, fearless class warriors fighting mine barons and government repression.

And now all that history is falling on Traill's head.

Josh Keogh, who has worked at Joe's Bike Shop for seven years and says he'd like to work there indefinitely, led the union effort. He is 23 years old and only one credit from graduating with a bachelor's degree in American studies from the University of Maryland. Unlike many students, he is not saddled with student loans in the five or six digits. "There was plenty of money in the family to put me through College Park," he says.

Keogh says he really likes his boss.

"He's really been somewhat of a mentor to me--he hired me when I was like 15 years old," Keogh says. "But this is more about what we think is fair and what we think is just and how we're going to go about getting it."

Keogh says the top wage at the shop is $32,000 a year, with no health benefits. The full-timers with health insurance get $12 an hour, he says, which is about the going rate at bike shops.

Wages aren't the issue so much as information and consistency, Keogh says. "Part of what we're looking for is more transparency in business practices. Obviously nobody here wants Joe to go out of business, [but] we don't really know what he can pay us." He says the union has asked Traill to open his business records in preparation for negotiations. Unlike other unions, the IWW doesn't go in for contracts with no-strike clauses, so the ball is in Traill's court. The business review will come "after summer--after the busy season," Keogh says.

And so things go on as they always have at Joe's, except now there's a bright class distinction between Joe and everyone else who works there. Traill, who bought the shop in 1999, says he doesn't think anyone in his family has any experience with a union--either as a member or as management. He says he "barely" graduated high school.

For now, Traill plans to "wait and see," he says. "I don't know what else to do. This is a new experience for me."

All of the ten employees at the Mt. Washington Bike Shop have joined the Industrial Workers of the World, one of the oldest and most storied unions in our country. The workers have taken these actions in order to secure and improve their jobs in the “best bicycle shop” in Baltimore.

The demands by the union center largely around the lack of employee policy. Before the union there was no system for scheduled raises, sick days, or vacation policy. Decisions were the sole prerogative of the boss. Now a reasonable consensus must be reached regarding these important factors of running a business.

“I feel a sense of empowerment,” says Johnny May, one of the full time employees at Joe’s Bike Shop. “ The union has given me a more active role as a more active role as a worker.”

The Mt. Washington Bike Shop workers have chosen to affiliate with the Industrial Workers of the World because they are an organization that is dedicated to shop floor democracy. “There are no professional organizers telling us what is in our best interest. Every member is an organizer, every member is a leader.” says Josh Keogh, another full time worker.

While a local small business might seem a odd place for a union, full time worker Kris Auer makes it clear that “It is not a direct attack on the owner; it is a step toward securing my future.”

Joe’s will join Red Emma’s, Baltimore’s radical bookstore and coffee shop, as the second IWW shop in baltimore. Both workplaces anticipate this federation of industrial democracies will grow and prosper in the near future.

Rockville, Maryland- Employees at a Starbucks store here announced their membership in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union [www.StarbucksUnion.org] today and served a list of demands on their manager including a living wage, secure work hours, and the reinstatement of union baristas illegally fired for organizing activity.  The action marks the expansion of the SWU to a third state- baristas began joining the union in New York City and the campaign grew to Chicago last August.  Starbucks cafes were completely non-union in the United States before the Industrial Workers of the World initiated its organizing drive in 2004.

"No worker should have to deal with understaffing on one hand and the inability to get enough work hours on the other," said Seth Dietz, one of the Maryland baristas who declared his union membership. "Only an independent voice on the job will win baristas the respect we deserve and that's why the expansion of the organization to Maryland is so gratifying."  

(This event was endorsed by the Baltimore IWW) 

On June 17, 2005 the United Workers Association held a protest against Orioles owner Peter Angelos at Camden Yards. More than 100 United Workers Association members and their supporters threw “peanuts for poverty wages” at a model of Angelos and passed out peanuts to fans arriving for Friday’s game.

“Peter Angelos is a lying cheat, full of broken promises. He’s a cheating billionaire who says one thing and does another when it comes to ending poverty wages at the ballpark,” said James Riddick, a member of the United Workers Association.

Earlier that day members of the United Workers Association went to Angelos’s office on deliver package of peanuts for poverty wages. Security at Angelos’s office refused the shoe and the peanuts for poverty wages. Afterwards Angelos’s top aide, Tom Murudas, made a veiled threat to sue the organization of homeless and other low-wage workers for saying that Angelos “cheats workers.”

The United Workers Association would welcome a lawsuit between a baseball billionaire like Angelos and the homeless workers who clean up after Angelos’s baseball games.

Angelos’s top aide Marudas called Todd Cherkis, an organizer with the United Workers Association, and left a voice mail to imply that a lawsuit may be in the works over signs charging Angelos with cheating workers and paying peanuts for poverty wages. On the voice mail (which is available for reporters to listen to), Marudas said that the United Workers Association is “on legal softground” and that Angelos is “not going to take kindly to it [the signs].”

“We call Angelos a cheat for lying to workers, and he threatens to sue us. If he thinks we’re going to back down, he’s wrong,” said Riddick.

The United Workers Association organizes the low-wage workers of Maryland.
Why is the United Workers Association focusing on Peter Angelos?