San Francisco Bay Area GMB

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

Wobbly Cat!

Posted Sat, 08/05/2006 - 8:20pm by x357537

Hey everyone

IWW General Assembly is coming up.  After two days of debating and a rally at the Shattuck Cinema, you can get a little bay area sun and exercise at the WobblyCat!  This is going to be a great IWW themed bike race for local bike messengers and Wobblies coming from around the country.  
 
The way it works is like this.  We will all be meeting at a designated spot in San Francisco, where you will get a manifest listing all the stops you need to make around the city.  (Out of towners won't have to make as many stops as locals, don't worry).  We'll be visiting places like Dashiell Hammett's house (the Pinkertons tried to pay him $5000 to kill

Victory! - IWW Helps Landmark Cinemas Corporation Discover Cash

Posted Sat, 08/05/2006 - 1:16pm by x345292

Workers at Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley and all Landmark Cinema employees nation wide are about to receive a pay increse. At Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley the starting wage goes up to $8 per hour from $7.25.  That's if the workers choose to accept it. Landmark attorney Tom Pavone sent a letter announcing the pay raises to the IWW along with spread sheet data showing the increase for each worker.

The IWW-Shattuckunion considers this to be a clear demonstration of union power and will continue to press the company for gains in benefits and improvments in working conditions.  The IWW in the Bay Area along with union workers at Kendall Square cinema in Cambridge Mass., are the first two Landmark Cinemas to go union.  There are approximately 60 Landmark theaters in total. 

IWW Vows Global Action In Defense of Starbucks Organizer Daniel Gross

Posted Thu, 08/03/2006 - 1:38am by x344543

Whereas Industrial Workers of the World member and Starbucks barista Daniel Gross took part in a protest to defend the job of a fellow worker in the spirit of mutual aid and solidarity; and

Whereas Starbucks is currently engaging in a sham investigation of Fellow Worker Gross because of his participation in said protest and engagement in concerted activity; and

Whereas Starbucks will decide whether or not to fire FW Gross at the conclusion of the "investigation"; and

Whereas the IWW Starbucks Workers Union has made important improvements in wages and working conditions at the world's largest coffee chain through direct action on and at the job and involving workers throughout the community in the process; and

Whereas Starbucks continues to wage a relentless anti-union campaign to break the IWW presence at the company; and

Whereas despite the disgraceful union-busting from Starbucks including the retaliatory terminations of IWW members Joe Agins Jr., Charles Fostrom, and Evan Winterscheidt, the Wobbly campaign continues to grow; and

Whereas the IWW refuses to be silenced or intimidated by Starbucks, and has always stood by its motto: "An Injury to One is An Injury to All";

Now, therefore, be it RESOLVED,

That the General Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World will, in the event that Starbucks terminates FW Gross, encourage international labor organizations and supporters to publicly condemn Starbucks' behavior and be prepared to take further action until such time that he is reinstated.

Demand that Landmark Cinema Respect the IWW's Demands!

Posted Mon, 07/24/2006 - 12:26am by x344543

We deserve it! Why? It's a sector of industry often overlooked as insignificant, but millions of people work hard within it. As more and more people are forced to work in service jobs the working poor are becoming increasingly poorer. It is time to come together and take what we deserve.

  • The Landmark Cinema workers with lWW are attempting to negotiate a contract with Landmark to gain reasonable and appropriate working conditions.
  • lWW will provide the most efficient structure for carrying on our daily struggle for better conditions and better pay.
  • The working class deserves fair treatment including access to medical/vision/dental healthcare and reasonable compensation, you know, a living wage. No long term employee should be denied raises after years of service.
  • No employee working on Christmas day should be paid less than time and a half.
  • No job should be considered too trivial for a full time employee to have access to healthcare.

Our sister theater, The Kendell in Boston, has been negotiating for nine months and has made limited progress towards a fair contract. The Landmark Shattuck Cinema workers voted overwhelmingly for the Union on June 16th 2006. We demand a fair contract now!

Protest Banning Of KPFA Labor Collective Programming

Posted Fri, 07/21/2006 - 2:51am by x344543

Disclaimer - This is neither an official campaign of the Bay Area IWW General Membership Branch, nor is it a campaign of the IWW as awhole.  This appeal is published in solidarity with the volunteers of the KPFA Labor Collective:

On March 8, 2006, the KPFA Program Council and the management of KFPA banned any further labor programming proposals from the KPFA Labor Collective for one year. This is even longer than the anti-labor Taft-Hartley which prevents strikes and lock-outs for 90 days.

The KFPA Labor Collective has produced labor programming for many years on Labor Day, May Day, MLK day and on Workers Memorial Day.

The Program Council instituted this ban without allowing the KFPA Labor Collective the opportunity to refute false charges against us.

At the same time more than 60% of the programming on KFPA is by music programmers while many of the working class issues that people face every day are kept off the air.

The KFPA Labor Collective has members from many unions including SEIU 616, NALC 214, IBT Local 70, SEIU UHW, IUOE 39, SEIU 1000. It has also received support from the San Francisco Labor Council, the Contra Costa Labor Council and many other trade unionists for a regular weekly one hour program.

Unfortunately, the KPFA management and some of the staff are not
interested in more community programming at KFPA. Some programmers have had their time slots for 20 and 30 years and they have many hours every week while labor and other community programmers are prevented from having regular programming.

The latest statement from Acting Manager Lemlem Rijio again supports the illegal banning by the Program Council and states that managment supports it despite the fact that there have been no hearings on the reason for the banning and no transparency on this flagrant act of censorship and intimidation. This will not stand.

KFPA is an important community resource for all the people of the bay area. It has the potential of reaching 6 to 7 million people in our
region and it is critical that it provide regular labor programming.

The banning for "disruption" and taking too much "time" to review labor programming proposals from the KPFA Labor Collective is unacceptable and an attack on labor free speech rights. It was also outside the rights of the Program Council and has been challenged by many members of the Local Station Board

We call for supporters of more labor programming to attend the
upcoming KPFA Local Station Board meeting on Saturday August 19, 2006 at 11:00 AM at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley1111 Addison/San Pablo near University Ave in Berkeley

We also call on all supporters of more labor programming on KFPA to
send letters.
Please go to the http://www.kpfa.org and email:
KPFA Local Station Board
Acting KPFA Manager Lemlem Rijio at 1929 MLK Bld Berkeley, CA
Pacifica Executive Director Greg Guma greg [at] pacifica.org
Please send a copy to http://www.kpfalaborcollective.org

Ms. Rijio's letter:

KPFA Acting Manager Lemlem Rijio
To: KPFA Local Station Board
From: Interim General Manager, Lemlem Rijio
Date: July 16, 2006

Administration

Program Council---The station management agrees with members of the LSB that the KPFA program council does not have any authority in personnel matters. However, the council¹s decision to ask a group of producers to hold-off submitting proposals for a year based on its own working relationship (or lack of) with the group of producers seems well within the authority of the program council.

I have asked our HR consultant to investigate whether there are any
personnel matters that require resolution. I expect a follow up report
from him in a few weeks.