Foodstuff Workers Industrial Union 460

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

Strikes can be a Class Act

Posted Sun, 03/05/2006 - 9:26pm by x344543

By Gary Cox - Industrial Worker, March 2006

As I said in another column, my definition of “class” has evolved by slowly stripping away layers of exclusivity, a word I’ve grown to despise, and gluing on layers of inclusiveness. I say “glue on” because the glue doesn’t always hold. The process has often been a “two steps forward, then one backward” kind of thing for me. I keep trying because I believe that solidarity must be our goal if working people are to stand a chance in the class war being waged on us. However, it is very unlikely that many of us will be in exactly the same place at the same time on this one.

Cheesecake is Forced into a BIG PAYBACK - Young Workers United Victory!

Posted Wed, 08/31/2005 - 1:31am by x344543

Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW.  The views of the author and the publisher do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.  (Plus, they gave us a plug, so it's only right to return the favor!)

Originally published on www.indybay.org 

Victory! We are happy to report the Cheesecake Factory has finally settled and workers will finally get their rightful piece of the pie. For three years, workers were denied breaks in the busiest and most profitable restaurant in the City. After two years of actions, worker organizing and public pressure, we won back pay and a new system! Workers across the state will get a $4.5 million settlement.

Through the course of the campaign, they’ve also won increased wages for the breaker position, instead of paying the breaking worker to take a break. We’ve built a solid crew in the kitchen who are standing up to abusive managers. In perhaps unrelated news, former General Manager Jeff Reznick has been transferred to Pensacola, a little town in mid-Florida. We invite you to celebrate with us and tell the press:

A Union Revolution is Brewing at Starbucks

Posted Thu, 05/26/2005 - 9:59am by webadmin
Baristas of the World, Unite!
You have nothing to lose but your company-mandated cheerfulness.
By Anya Kamenetz


Daniel Gross standing in front of his employer—and nemesis—on May 15. (Photo credit: Jake Chessum)
Nothing seems amiss at Starbucks Coffee Store No. 7356, on the southwest corner of Madison Avenue and 36th Street. It has a nice view of a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival church. The familiar aroma of dark-roasted Sumatra curls through the air. Most of the staffers are no older than teenagers, but none betrays the slightest hint of sullenness—or simmering political rage. “Here you go, sweetie,” says a barista in blonde pigtails as she hands a grande iced chai over the counter. You’d never suspect that this little island of repose in the crush of midtown is a revolutionary cell. Unbeknownst to its customers (or “guests,” as they’re called), store No. 7356 birthed the first-ever campaign to unionize a Starbucks—a movement that renegade baristas hope will spread through the chain’s 6,668 other U.S. outlets.