IWW iu670 Curbside Recyclers in Berkeley Demand "No Concessions!"

For Immediate Release: Contact Bay Area IWW (510) 845-0540

Fellow Workers and Supporters of the IWW and the working class: Negotiations for a new contract with the Ecology Center are not going at all well. Their latest proposal includes a worse Kaiser plan, making the workers pay for part of the premium, no raise after the first year of the contract, and a reduction in what the employer pays into the workers' annuity plan. Workers are saying that all they've been getting in recent contracts are cuts and where will it all end?

The Ecology Center is openly saying that they expect "more work for less pay." A strike on Feb. 1 remains possible. We are organizing a protest rally at the work place for this Thursday at noon. The rally will be held at the corner of Second and Gillman Streets, in Berkeley (near the Gilman Street exit off of Eastshore Freeway / I-80 & 580) where it will be more visible. We urge all supporters to attend and to bring friends.

The IWW has had a union contract with the Ecology Center since 1989.

Help Temp Workers Organize & Fight Back!

Donate Here! - https://www.wepay.com/xox4csn/donations/temp-worker-organizing

The continuation of high unemployment is eroding the bargaining power of the working class, and without an organization to collectively harness that power, the working class will continue to be at the will of the economy and it's architects, the employing class.

Many of the workers unable to secure permanent and/or full time employment have been increasingly turning to temporary employment agencies for relief. However, uncertain whether or not they will be chosen for work that day, many leave distraught and empty handed. Those who do find work, are paid a pittance of a wage, barely providing any sort security or stability, unsure of what tomorrow will bring.

IWW Member Isn't Toying Around with Wagner Rights

  Grand Junction, CO- After months of organizing and radical action in the anti-worker state of Colorado, the hammer of injustice finally fell for one Industrial Worker of the World member.
  Josh Carmona, IWW member and anarchist agitator on the Western Slope, was terminated from Toys For the Fun of It, Tuesday, for organizing his workplace. Although the official explanation that he was losing customers because of his involvement at a Romney/Ryan rally weeks earlier; Josh believes that this is just a coverup for his boss' wobbliephobia.

  After a quick call to his delegate, John (4 Corners IWW), action was decided.

 

An unfair labor practice charge was filed with the National Labor Relations board.

An unemployment claim is being filed.

  This Saturday, Nov. 10th, 2012, a call-in action is planned for the anti-worker toy store.

  From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. MST please call or email complaints to the store letting them know what you think of worker reprisal and unfair labor practices.

Toys for the Fun of it

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

Beverage Distribution Workers Win Nearly $1 Million in Wage Theft Case

By to Focus on the Food Chain - September 27, 2012

A federal judge has awarded a group of immigrant workers over $950,000 in unpaid wages for work at a Queens-based beverage distributor. A group of Latino warehouse workers and truck drivers brought the class action lawsuit against Beverage Plus and its owners after years of disrespect and systematic violations of state and federal law, violations which the judge found were intentional. The workers are members of Focus on the Food Chain, a coalition promoting good jobs and a sustainable food system in New York City's growing food processing and distribution sector.

"My co-workers and I were deprived of our pay and badly exploited but we finally learned about our rights," said Richard Merino, who drove a delivery truck at Beverage Plus for six years and was a named plaintiff in the case. "We stood up together and now justice has arrived for us and more importantly for our families."

Beverage Plus employees were worked as many as twelve hours a day, deprived of overtime, and subjected to unlawful deductions from their pay.

The Dominos Fall

By Ryan Faulkner - September 18, 2012

Domino’s Pizza sucks. Not just in the sense that it treats its workers heinously, the pizza itself is of a low quality. Eating a slice of Domino’s pizza is a similar experience to swallowing a salt shaker. So its not surprising that on a Saturday night in Berkeley, the Domino’s storefront was dead. A delivery car would run out the back every 15 minutes or so, but business was not booming.

Us Wobblies posted up at a Chinese restaurant next door, waiting for 6 PM, when our demonstration was set to begin. We had committed to stage an action in solidarity with Domino’s Delivery Drivers in Australia, who have received an arbitrary wage cut of 19%, a punishment for the 23 delivery drivers who raised complaints over a trend of paychecks that came up short of their promised salaries.

The consensus in the Chinese restaurant was that this was going to be a git ’er done and out kind of deal. Walk around with signs in front of the location for a couple hours, chant some angry chants, and flyer passersby. Hopefully, by the end of the night, we’d cost Domino’s a few customers, get the workers thinking about the stability of their own wages, and bother the boss enough that they’d give corporate management a call.

But we got so much more.

Industrial Worker - Issue #1749, October 2012

Headlines:

  • For The Works: Report From The 2012 IWW General Convention
  • Solidarity With Murdered South African Miners
  • Prisoners Stage Hunger Strike In North Carolina

Features:

  • The NCAA: The Boss’s Dream, The Worker’s Nightmare
  • Workers' Power: A Look At Wobblies And Unfair Labor Practices
  • Class, Struggle And The State

Download a free PDF of this issue.

Industrial Worker - Issue #1748, September 2012

Headlines:

  • Work People's College: Reviving An Old Tradition Of Educating IWW Agitators
  • Milwaukee Pizza Factory Workers Strike
  • Prisoners Stage Hunger Strike In North Carolina

Features:

  • Work People's College: Reviving An Old Tradition Of Educating IWW Agitators
  • Self-Employment, Or The Illusion Of Freedom
  • International Solidarity: Spotlight On Africa

Download a free PDF of this issue.

Industrial Worker - Issue #1747, July/August 2012

Headlines:

  • Snapshots Of The Student Movement In Montréal
  • Wobblies Support Fired IWW Jimmy John’s Worker In Florida
  • Workers Strike At French Telecommunications Subcontractor In Casablanca

Features:

  • Workers' Power: The Wages System
  • Organizing In The Nonprofit Industrial Complex
  • A Wobbly Report From Greece

Download a free PDF of this issue

"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