Portland IDC

This is the news page for our Pittsburgh General Membership Branch. To get an overview about our contact info, news and events, please visit our home page.

Demand Paid Sick Days!

* PAID SICK DAYS NOW! * RALLY AT HOLLADAY PARK * SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 4PM *NE MULTNOMAH & 13TH AVE *

Email: paidsickdaysnow [at] gmail.com

Phone: 971-266-1891

Saturday, October 6, 2012 4pm, at Holladay Park, the Portland Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World and the IWW’s Food & Retail Workers United will hold a rally as part of a campaign to win paid sick days for all workers in Portland, Oregon. This event is sponsored by Laborers 483, American Friends Service Committee, We Are Oregon, Portland Jobs with Justice, Portland Central American Solidarity Committee, Portland Restaurant Workers Association, and the International Socialist Organization.

Featured at the rally will be speakers and musical acts, including Mic Crenshaw, The Crossettes, and I Wobble Wobble, as well as worker testimonies and opportunities to learn more about the campaign and get involved.

The rally officially kicks off our campaign, which is founded on the following mission:

We, the workers of Portland, acting in solidarity across industries, seek to improve the health and well-being of our fellow workers, families and communities. Therefore we demand that all employers within Portland provide all employees -- whether full-time, part-time or temporary -- with paid sick and safe days commensurate with hours worked.

Our Five Point Demand:

1. All of us -- full time, part time and temporary workers -- deserve paid sick and safe days to care for ourselves and our families as members of the community.

2. We call on all employers to provide paid sick and safe days immediately.

3. We need paid sick and safe days to care for our own:

● illness, which includes physical and mental health issues

● injury

● preventative care

● safety when experiencing domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking

● and bereavement for our family members.

We -- as caregivers, parents, and partners -- need paid sick days to care for our:

● spouses & domestic partners

● biological, foster, or adopted children, stepchildren, and children of domestic partners

● and other family members under our care

4. Employers will implement a standard accrual rate of paid sick and safe days for all

employees. The rate must be compassionate to the need of workers to care for both ourselves and our families.

5. Employers will not interfere, discriminate, or retaliate against our request for or use of paid sick and safe days to care for ourselves and loved ones.

We cannot wait until it’s politically convenient for paid sick & safe days. A grassroots campaign led by the workers, families and communities who are most affected by the lack of paid sick days is a necessity to ensure we acquire a policy which meets our needs.

We call upon all workers and community allies interested in learning more and participating in our campaign to attend the rally on October 6 in Holladay Park!

“An illness to one is contagious to all!”

For more information please visit http://paidsickdaysnow.org

"We Are the Working Class" : Call For Art Submissions

Imagery of the working class has long been monopolized by drawings of white, muscle-bound men swinging hammers, but the truth is that the majority of the working class has never been made up of white men. If we seek to create a movemet that captures the whole working class, the imagery that we choose should also reflect the whole of the working class.

 Toward Gender Equality (TGE), a committee of the Portland IWW General Membership Branch is putting a call out for submissions for an art showing entitled, "We Are The Working Class." We hope to put together a collection of photos, posters and drawings that truly grasps the diversity of workers (and the work we do) that the working class is made up of. 

 Origninal Wobbly art would be of preference, but we won't be shy if it's from Wobbly supporters. We hope to have this exhibit up in time for the General Convention, and so are asking for submissions no later than August 20, 2012.

 Email: Turniptheheat@gmail.com

Snail Mail:Portland IWW, C/O TGE, 2249 E Burnside St.Portland, OR 97214

 

IWW shop in Portland needs your help!

By Ryan G

Greetings IWW members,

This is a call for union members to help out an IWW shop in Portland, OR, the Red & Black Cafe.  Last evening, someone threw a brick through one of the cafe windows with a hate message attached.  Our fellow workers at the cafe, which is collectively owned and operated (and an IWW closed shop) need financial assistance in order to get the window replaced as soon as possible.

Please visit the cafe website at http://www.redandblackcafe.com/, where you can make a PayPal donation.  Donations by check can be mailed to the cafe at 400 SE 12th Ave., Portland, OR 97214.

This union shop, which is a long time gathering point for the IWW in Portland, has been subjected to several acts of vandalism this year from unknown individuals.  The cafe is a gathering space for unionists, anti-capitalists, and the radical community at large in the Portland area.  We could use your help!

In solidarity,

Ryan G.

Portland IWW / IWW General Executive Board / Red&Black Cafe worker

I.W.W. Food & Retail Workers Union Founding Convention

October 21, 22 & 23, 2011 : Portland, Oregon - Hosted by the Portland General Membership Branch of the I.W.W. 

The I.W.W. Food and Retail Workers Union is an organization of workers at every link in the supply chain of food and retail products- from processing facilities to warehouses to restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, strip malls, big box stores, and other retail shops. We have come together to fight for fundamental change in our industries. In the short term, we seek to build power with our coworkers to win improved wages, guaranteed hours, healthcare, and other crucial improvements to our working conditions. In the long term, we aim to establish industrial democracy through worker self-management of production for human needs, rather than capitalist

Wobbly Phone Blast for PDX Social Service Workers

Fellow Workers,

Some workers and wobblies in Portland, OR could really use some solidarity in the form of some phone calls.

The Portland branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), workers at Streetlight and Porchlight youth shelters, and workers form Harry's Mother (two Janus non-profit programs) began picketing in front of Janus Youth Program's main office at 707 NE Couch on February 7th. We are doing so because Janus is in contract negotiations with these two different IWW-represented shops, and in both of those contacts, there is an employee review panel which has been in place for a decade which gives workers the right to contest firings and have a no-cost review of those management decisions. Janus is now claiming they will not sign the contacts with those time-honored panels, and is refusing to give workers their pay increases, until workers accept binding arbitration instead of the peer review panel, which would cost the workers and the union potentially thousands of dollars they don't have.

More info and a press release are available at portlandiww.org

Please call this week (2/14-2/19) in the morning between 9am and 11am west coast time.

Call Janus's Main office, request to speak with Dennis Morrow. .

Email the executive director at dmorrow@janusyouth.org

And. their negotiating team which consists of a program director and a lawyer kdonegan@janusyouth.org, andrew@portlandemploymentlaw.com

We are looking to set a tone that is both polite and firm.

Here is a sample script,

Hello,

This is ________________________. I am calling in support of the union workers at Janus Youth. They deserve both the peer review panel and a decent wage. Do not deny the democratic oversight provided by the peer review panel and replace with a process that could cost workers and the program thousands of dollars. As a non-profit, you should use your money to help youth, not fight workers.

PDX Janus Picket Video & Interview - link