Municipal and Utility Service Workers Industrial Union 670

This page displays *all* news items from Municipal and Utility Service Workers Industrial Union 670.

For an overview of the IU 670's history and contact information, please visit our homepage.

Bay Area IWW iu670 Organizing Committee Urges: Bail out the Public Sector!

Posted Wed, 01/28/2009 - 1:08am by x344543

Practically every state, county and city in the country is in fi nancial crisis and the plan is to make you pay for it. (for details see attached PDF)

This crisis is actually getting worse, and all these projected defi cits will probably continue to increase. If allowed to pass, these cuts will only get worse. Other cities in the area and most states in the country face similar or worse deficits.

We do not have to be the victims! There is a solution!

Right now, the federal government has committed some $7 trillion to bail out banks, insurance companies and even the auto industry.

And many of these banks, they won’t even tell us, the taxpayers, how they are spending that money. This is our money and we have every right to say how it gets spent!

If the federal government can bail out Corporate America, then they can bail out “public America”. The unions should all get together and call mass public meetings to organize a campaign to demand that federal bail-out money be used to eliminate the budget defi cits of our cities, counties and states.

  • No cuts in services, public jobs or pay of public workers and retirees
  • Use federal bail out money to make up the budget shortfalls

Who we are:

The Industrial Workers of the World is a union that currently represents several different workforces. We have a long, revolutionary tradition in American’s labor movement. We do not seek to compromise the interests of workers to benefit the employers. We want to work with the rest of the unions and with all workers’ organizations to launch this campaign:

IWW-Represented Workplaces:

  • Buyback Recycling (Berkeley)
  • Curbside Pickup (Berkeley)
  • Shattuck Cinema (Berkeley)
  • Stonemountain & Daughter retailer (Berkeley)

The IWW is also conducting a nation-wide organizing campaign at Starbucks, as well as other organizing drives nationally.

IWW Curbside Recyclers Negotiate New Contract, Win Wage Increases

Posted Sat, 01/17/2009 - 5:30pm by x356641
Union and Ecology Center Sign Contract The "non-profit" Ecology Center, under contract with the City of Berkeley, runs the Curbside recycling pickup program in that city. We, the IWW, are the representatives of these workers. The economic (wages and benefits) portion of this contract expired on Jan. 1 and we have been in negotiations for the last several months (up until today operating on a contract extension).

Basically, the position of the Ecology Center (EC) is that because the City of Berkeley is having a budget crisis (as are almost all other cities), that they could not afford a decent raise and, in fact, had to reduce the level of health benefits. They also made the claim that since they are a non-profit that we should regard them differently. Neither the workers nor the Union was buying this. This is especially so because they refused to give us the figures for how much it costs to run Curbside and, therefore, how much of the contract with the city they are creaming off of the top to finance other EC operations and salaries.

Their offer ended up as being a 3% wage increase plus a payment of $2,000 per year into each worker's 401(k) plan. In addition, family members of the workers would be covered by the health plan before they have been up until now. This was an improvement over their original offer which did not include the $2,000 payment but did include a demand for a significantly worse health care package.

IWW Workers at Curbside Ready to Strike - Solidarity Needed

Posted Tue, 12/30/2008 - 4:46pm by x344543
Everyone - Workers at Curbside recycling are bargaining over wages and benefits on their contract. This is to take effect starting Jan. 1.
 
We do not have an agreement yet. The Ecology Center, which runs Curbside has taken the position that any agreement in January will not be retroactive to Jan. 1.
 
Workers at Curbside have decided that unless they back down on this, they will strike on Jan. 1. A strike is not definite; management could still change its position on this, but we need to begin preparing for a strike now.
 
Anybody who can get out to Curbside first thing Friday, Jan. 2 first thing in the morning - your presence would be greatly appreciated. I think we need to start gathering at 6:30 a.m., but if people can only come later, this would be good too.
Call 510-845-0540 for details.  

Berkeley IWW Recycling Workers Unite in Solidarity to Win Better Contracts

Posted Wed, 02/06/2008 - 2:56pm by x344543

By M.K. and other members of the Bay Area Utility Service Workers iu670 industrial organizing committee.

The contract negotiations between the Bay Area IU 670 Recycling Workers Union and the two Berkeley Recycling Companies has been a challenging struggle, but workers have stepped up to fight for tremendous improvements. The Bay Area IWW represents drivers at The Ecology Center who do residential curbside pickup, and workers at The Community Conversation Center yard who sort and process recycling materials. Both workers have been waging shopfloor struggles to resolve grievances and improve their working conditions. With both contracts coming up for negotiations, workers stepped up the fight.

The drivers met several times both at work and outside of work to draft an ambitious list of roughly 15 demands including an across the board wage hike, increase in pension payments by the company, and a change to the current accident penalties. The existing agreement resulted in termination of any driver who was involved in three accidents incurring more than $1400 worth of damage. With the narrow winding streets of Berkeley and the increasing costs of small accidents like broken rear-view mirrors, we have seen several workers purposefully dropping down to a loader after two incidents. This has resulted in wage decreases of up to $10 per hour!

IWW Recyclers in Berkeley rally for Strong Contracts

Posted Wed, 11/14/2007 - 3:42pm by x345292

Recyclers held a stop work rally to press contract demands on Thursday, November 8th, at recycling facilities in Berkeley.  Thirty-five or so workers from two Berkeley recycling operations are in the midst of renegotiating contracts. At “curbside”, recycling trucks go out every week day morning to pick up residential recycling.  Across the way at “the Buyback,” residential recycling from the trucks plus drop-off recycling is sorted by twenty workers.  All workers are members of the IWW.  Both union contracts expire on December 31st, 2007.   During the rally workers from both shops stepped up and spoke about the need for unity, participation and solidarity in order to win their demands.  Demands are not the same at both shops.  However, workers at both shops are calling for a five dollar an hour wage increase across the board.  This is a serious demand.