May Day Greetings from the IWW

Posted Tue, 04/30/2013 - 6:35pm by IWW.org Editor

Fellow Workers and Friends: the IWW bids the workers of the world everywhere a happy May Day, International Workers Day!

There are likely May Day events happening in your community or a community near you!

We cannot (yet) hope to keep track of or list them all, but we're doing the best we can.

One good central resource is our Facebook Page, where we have attempted to share any May Day events organized or endorsed by various IWW branches, and--failing that--events in which IWW members are actively participating.

Industrial Worker - Issue #1755, May 2013

Posted Mon, 04/29/2013 - 5:50pm by IWW.org Editor

Headlines:

  • IWW Liquor Store Workers Fired For Union Activity
  • Sisters’ Camelot Workers Continue Strike
  • Star Tickets Workers Face Retaliation

Features:

Download a Free PDF of this issue.

Happy May Day, Fellow Workers!

Sisters' Camelot Refuses NLRB Settlement, Hires Lawyer to "Avoid Union Incursion"

Posted Thu, 04/25/2013 - 11:58pm by x359437

This Wednesday morning Sisters’ Camelot, a non-profit mobile food shelf engaged in a two-month-lo...ng strike of its canvass workers, rejected a settlement offer from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), opting instead to fight the union in court. In order to do so, they have hired a right-wing, professional “union-avoidance” attorney, John C. Hauge from FordHarrison, a nation-wide anti-labor law firm, shocking the striking canvassers of the progressive organization. Concerned that Hauge is seeking to set precedent against independent contractors’ rights, the canvassers are seeking support from other unions and organizations.

National labor relations board finds firing illegal, offers settlement!

Posted Wed, 04/24/2013 - 6:53pm by x344543

MINNEAPOLIS-- After an investigation into the incident, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has decided that IWW Sisters Camelot Canvass Union (SCCU) member ShugE Mississippi was illegally fired by Sisters' Camelot. The NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) is a government agency in charge of investigating charges of federal labor law violations, enforcing such laws, and following through with related penalties. After making this decision, the NLRB offered the Sisters' Camelot managing collective one last chance to accept a settlement agreement before setting a court-date to seek a court order.

The settlement offered by the NLRB includes the immediate rehiring of ShugE Mississippi, paying back wages, and posting a public apology at Sisters’ Camelot. The managing collective has until Tuesday, April 23 to accept this offer. If this settlement offer is not accepted, the NLRB will set a court date and seek a binding order from a judge. If this case is brought before a judge it will significantly increase the legal expenditure for Sisters’ Camelot, as it would be responsible for associated attorney’s fees. Further, Sisters’ Camelot would be obligated to pay even more back wages as more time passes-- a likely possibility as judges typically respect decisions made by the NLRB.

In the interest of giving the Sisters' Camelot managing collective space to think through this decision, the SCCU asks individuals who were planning a nonviolent sit-in demonstration at Monday's collective meeting to cancel any such plans. The public is always welcome to attend Sisters' Camelot's collective meetings, and any individual who wants to observe or engage in respectful dialogue on Monday should feel free to do so. However, the union is explicitly canceling plans of civil disobedience or disruption of and kind, and asks that people please respect that decision so the collective can have healthy discussion about this very important decision.

“This is exciting and encouraging to hear. Once this issue is fixed then we will be one step closer to ending this strike through negotiation with our entire union represented at the bargaining table,” stated Alex Forsey, one of the striking IWW Sisters' Camelot Canvass Union members.

The campaign at Sisters Camelot represents a new step for Food and Retail Workers United, an organizing committee of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks and Jimmy Johns workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.

Capital Blight: It's Past Time to Get Off the Coal Train.

Posted Wed, 04/24/2013 - 6:38pm by x344543

By Steve Ongerth - April 24, 2013

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

A recent debate took place on my personal Facebook page regarding the matter of jobs and the environment, and there is little doubt that it will not be the last.

As you may (or may not) be aware, I have been combing various environmental and labor news sources for stories about campaigns where class struggle and environmentalism have some degree of intersection (or conflict, though the latter is almost always manufactured vy the capitalist class). Most of these I have been posting on the new IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus Facebook Page, but since much of that happens while the only means of information transfer is a smart phone, so often, due to the limitations of smartphone apps, I have to engage in some klunky work-arounds, and sometimes that means that certain bits of information wind up on my personal page first, but I digress...

Last week, I happened upon a statement from a BLET engineer downplaying the dangers of coal dust drifting from coal trains passing through the southern part of the Seattle metropolitan area, and I immediately regarded this as the thoughts of a scissorbill and I said as much. That statement drew a response from another individual, a Facebook "friend" (a former Wobbly turned low-level ILWU leader, by the way), telling me that the coal dust issue was overstated, that the Sierra Club--who was leading the opposition to coal trains there--was hypocritical (due to the latter's having accepted donations from capitalist Natural Gas interests), and that I was insufficiently "solidaric" with my (business) union brothers and sisters. He informed me that the Sierra Club was only canvassing well-to-do neighborhoods in the area and completely ignoring those working class neighborhoods closest to the potential route, which--by the way--had far more immediate and far more serious environmental issues.

Since I am a transportation worker by trade (I'm a ferryboat deckhand, iu510 you know), I figured I might have fired before aiming, so I decided to dig a little further (pun not intended) and see just what was up.

I needn't have held my fire.

Support Striking Sisters' Camelot Workers!

Posted Tue, 04/23/2013 - 12:21am by x359437

The Sisters' Camelot Canvass Union has been on strike since March 1st. One of the striking workers was fired while on strike, and they have refused to sit down and negotiate with the union.

Here are the names, phone numbers, & email addresses of each member of the management of Sisters' Camelot.

Call, text, and email them every day. Here are the talking points and guidelines:

1. Urge them to rehire the fired worker and negotiate with the union.

2. Remind them that the world is watching and knows that they are responsible for this strike.

3. Ask them to resign if they are not willing to negotiate with a union.

4. Please do not make any threats.

The Sisters' Camelot Collective
Office phone number: 612-746-3051
Email Address: sisterscamelot@gmail.com

Bay Area Wobblies Protest Keystone XL Pipeline

Posted Mon, 04/22/2013 - 6:10pm by x359437

From the Industrial Worker

Happy Earth Day fellow workers! To celebrate, Wobblies in the Bay Area today protested the Keystone XL pipeline. Read more here: https://www.facebook.com/events/247835108693864/

Donate to Food & Retail Workers United campaign at Chicago-Lake Liquors

Posted Thu, 04/18/2013 - 5:45pm by x359437

Click here to donate.

On April 1st, 5 workers were fired at Chicago-Lake Liquors, Minnesota's highest volume liquor store, for asking for better wages. Two days prior, they presented a petition signed by co-workers to management asking for a $1 raise in the starting wage from $8 an hour to $9 an hour, an across the board $1 raise, and a raise in the starting wage from $10.50 an hour to $13.

The five fired workers, Joe Giwoyna, Davis Ritsema, Max Specktor, Arella Vargas, and Hallie Wallace went public as members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and Food & Retail Workers United, an organizing committee of the IWW.

They have filed Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs) with the National Labor Relations Board and have been doing actions at Chicago Lake Liquors demanding they be rehired, that their wage demands be met, and that their bosses stop union busting.

Solidarity with Indiana University strike

Posted Sun, 04/14/2013 - 5:53pm by x359437

 

From the Indiana IWW

Wobblies showing solidarity at the Indiana University strike! In all we had 21 FWs come out to IU Bloomington to support the effort.

Management Refuses Deal with Sisters' Camelot Canvass Union

Posted Tue, 04/09/2013 - 1:21pm by x359437

The I.W.W. Sisters' Camelot Canvass Union has been on strike now for 39 days, since management refused to recognize their right to unionize and negotiate with the worker's union. Last week the striking worker's union offered management a package deal in hopes of ending the strike and returning to work. In this deal all issues related to pay were taken off the table, leaving only the bare minimum terms needed by the workers to have enough workplace democracy to end the strike. This offer included 8 of the original 18 terms of unionization intended to be worked out at the negotiating table.

Since the canvassers at Sisters Camelot went public as a union, the management has simply refused to attempt any negotiation to recognize the workers right to be unionized, and even illegally fired a union member in retaliation. This last deal was an attempt by the canvass union to offer the management the easiest possible deal for them to accept so canvassers can return to work and continue discussion about the issues they took off the table at a later time.