Foodstuff Workers Industrial Union 460

All workers except agricultural and fishery workers, engaged in producing and processing food, beverages, and tobacco products.

Revitalizing the Labor Movement: Wobblies March Through Brooklyn on Presidents’ Day - Wobblies and others protest slave wages

Posted Thu, 02/22/2007 - 10:37pm by x344543
Bushwick- In continued actions resulting from the illegal firing of IWW union organizers in five food distribution companies, hundreds of Wobblies, activists, and community supporters gathered on Feb 19, 2007, to demonstrate against the repressive tactics characteristic of bosses in the food industry. Prior to organizing, most workers received about $280 weekly for 60 hours of work without benefits, sick, or vacation days. Some workers have been organizing with the IWW since 2005. In response to the protest, at least three of the food warehouses closed for Presidents’ Day. IWW organizer Billy Randal estimates that due to the closing each distributor has lost roughly $20,000.

(Click here for media round-up and pictures)

Workers of Brookyn and Queens Unite!

Posted Thu, 02/22/2007 - 10:30pm by x344543

By Nik Kovac - Brooklyn Downtown Star / Queens Ledger

When you block traffic in the streets of Ridgewood and East Williamsburg, just north of Flushing Avenue, you're pretty much just getting in the way of forklifts and delivery trucks. It's an industrial swath at the southeastern end of Newtown Creek, and there's not a whole lot of cars passing through.

This past Monday morning, with snow on the ground and a chill in the air, nearly 200 union and immigrant activists chanted, held signs, and beat buckets from Metropolitan Avenue across the borough divide, eventually crossing Flushing southward into Bushwick along Knickerbocker Avenue. Their targets were three dry goods warehouses and a grocery store, and along the way most of the forklift and truck drivers seemed to enjoy their noisy presence.

Fighting for Minimum Wage Rights

Posted Thu, 02/22/2007 - 1:02pm by x344543

By Clark Merrefield  - The Indypendent. 

For many of the Latino and East Asian warehouse workers in North Brooklyn and Queens who keep the shelves and kitchens of New York City restaurants, grocery stores and delis stocked, getting by is a constant struggle.  Customers are often culturally and economically removed from the warehouses’ largely immigrant workforce, while the management can be downright exploitative.

Top City Produce, a warehouse in Bushwick, has faced accusations of unfair labor practice from its employees and their representative union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Management at two other IWW-represented warehouses, Handyfat Trading Inc. (Bushwick) and EZ Supply Corp., now Sunrise Plus Corp., (Queens) have fired all their unionized workers in the past month and a half. On Feb. 3, Top City workers were told in a letter from management that Top City would be closing for three weeks to financially restructure.

IWW President's Day March Round-Up - Hundreds rallied in the cold for hours to protest the illegal union-busting in Brooklyn

Posted Tue, 02/20/2007 - 10:09pm by x344543

By Diane Krauthamer 

Yesterday, the IWW and Make the Road by Walking marched through the industrial areas of Brooklyn and Queens for hours in below-freezing conditions, demanding justice for fired workers.

Major news organizations such as Telemundo (Channel 47), News12 (video link), WBAI - "Building Bridges", and El Diario covered the event.

Workers Allegedly Fired For Unionizing, Plan Rally

Posted Tue, 02/20/2007 - 9:49pm by x344543

February 14, 2007 - Reposted from www.ny1.com

Workers in Brooklyn and Queens prepared for a rally after they say they were fired for unionizing.

Their employers, various food warehouses in the boroughs, say they were fired as a result of the workers immigration status.

The workers, part of the Industrial Workers of the World, say they wanted to unionize so they could collect money they were owed in back pay and overtime.

"These owners felt like the union was getting too strong,” said John Alexander of Industrial Workers of the World. “This is not just an isolated issue; this is an issue that goes throughout the industry of the warehouses that distribute food products to the restaurants that we eat in every day."