From the Industrial Worker, June 2008

Since the IWW Industrial Union 460 began organizing in foodstuffs warehouses 3 years ago, we’ve organized in ten workplaces with varying degrees of success. One issue at every shop has been the employer’s failure to comply with wage and hour laws.

Many companies have retaliated by firing workers for their union activity. Workers have fought back through strikes, pickets, demonstrations, and selective legal action, among other tactics. We find legal action to be most effective when combined with these other methods, and when viewed as a means and not an end. This is a report on our legal status, but readers should understand that legal action is one of many tools workers are using to win their demands.

About a year and a half after we began utilizing legal action, several favorable rulings have recently come down and several settlements have been reached. Since the rulings have just came down, companies have not yet begun making payments.

By By Alex Kane - The Indypendent, May 2, 2008

Brooklyn, New York—Around 150 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge with Make the Road New York and the Industrial Workers of the World NYC Branch for a May Day immigrant rights demonstration. Flanked by red and black Wobbly flags and signs that read “Opportunity for Immigrant Workers,” the demonstrators chanted slogans like “Si se puede,” and “El pueblo, unido, jamas tera vencido.”

There was a boisterous rally held before the march at Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn, with music, dancing and chanting. One song’s lyrics, roughly translated, said “we will overcome misery” and “we’ll have to break the chains.”

From: Teresa Gutierrez
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:37 AM
Subject: Truck Drivers & May Day

We are excited to report that a truck will be leading the May Day March from Union Square to Foley Square tomorrow.

This is great news to show our solidarity among all workers of all nationalities, documented, undocumented or born in the U.S.

For Immediate Release:
Transportation Workers Coalition for Change

Contact: Billy Randel, 646-645-6284

New Jersey Port Truckers to Strike Over Fuel and Energy Costs

Workers Will Rally Off the New Jersey Turnpike in Large Work Stoppage.

WHAT: Port truckers will stop work for two days to protest rising fuel and energy costs.

For Immediate Release: Brandworkers International

Contact: press (at) brandworkers.org

Press Conference and Rally: Workers Will Ask Judge to Hold Wild Edibles in Contempt of Court Over Retaliatory Firings

Workplace Justice Campaign Has Persuaded Over Twenty of NYC's Most Well-Known Fine Dining Restaurants to Steer Clear of Wild Edibles

COMPELLING VISUALS: Spirited Chanting Workers - Vibrant Signs and Banners

What:

Wild Edibles Continues to Lose Millions of Dollars Over Mistreatment of Workers

New York, NY- Large seafood wholesaler and retailer, Wild Edibles, is seeing its customer base rapidly erode with Sushi Samba, one of the nation's hottest sushi restaurants, cutting off purchases from the company until an employment dispute with workers is fairly resolved. Sushi Samba Park and Sushi Samba 7 join leading New York restaurants like Pastis, Union Square Cafe, La Goulue, and Mermaid Inn that have previously pulled out of Wild Edibles over concern for the treatment of employees there.

"We are very pleased that Sushi Samba has chosen to support the legal rights of workers at Wild Edibles," said Daniel Gross, the founding director of Brandworkers International, a non-profit workers' rights organization providing legal and advocacy assistance to the employees. "Wild Edibles' remaining customers would do well to consider playing a similarly positive role."