News - All Departments and Unions

This is the news page for all IWW Departments and Unions. This page displays *all* news items from every Department and Union. To see news only from a particular Department, click on the Department title below.

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Richmond, VA: Richmond Transit Riders Union Open Letter

Posted Tue, 09/14/2010 - 2:19pm by x370724

The Richmond Industrial Workers of the World have been working closely with the Richmond Transit Riders Union since its formation in June 2010. Together we have written and delivered this open letter to key city officials.

Dear Mayor Dwight C. Jones, Council Persons and CEO John M. Lewis Jr.,

The Richmond Transit Riders Union understands that it was determined during the July 26, 2010 City Council Meeting, that a need for an expedited increase in fares was able to be deferred until September 19th due to a 3 percent increase in ridership over the previous three months.

However, John Lewis stated in a July 27th Richmond Times Dispatch article, “If that trend continues, we’ll be more than able to absorb that $190,000″ in lost revenue.

If there has been an increase in ridership, and that increase has allowed GRTC to be “more than able to absorb” lost revenue, why should riders still expect to pay an increase in fares?

We ask to place a freeze on the scheduled fare increase, and wait another quarter to determine whether the revenue from the fare box is sufficient.

Photos from General Convention

Posted Tue, 09/07/2010 - 3:12pm by x360279
IWW members met in St. Paul, Minnesota this past weekend for the annual IWW General Convention. Wobblies from the US, Canada, the UK, and Germany gathered to discuss union business, vote on constitutional amendments and resolutions, and of course to meet and get to know one another! The convention took place at Macalester College.

In addition to attending the convention, wobblies participated in a picket outside one of the Twin Cities' nine Jimmy John's locations on Saturday.

IWW International Solidarity Commission Resolution on Bangladesh

Posted Tue, 09/07/2010 - 2:18am by x344543

The International Solidarity Commission of the Industrial Workers of the World is deeply concerned about current repression and detention of workers and activists in Bangladesh. At the current moment, we especially highlight the situation of Kalpona Akter of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity NGO (BCWS), and demand that she be released from detention, all charges against her be dropped, and that the NGO status of the BCWS be immediately reinstated.

Responding to the government?s cruel and insulting offer of merely $43 a month minimum wage, in the country with the lowest garment wages in the world, Bangladeshi workers took to the streets for five days. The workers were met with the full force of the Bangladeshi police and security forces, in the service of the bosses.

Is the US Pulling the Plug on Iraqi Workers?

Posted Sat, 08/28/2010 - 11:03pm by x323510

By: David Bacon, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed, Friday 27 August 2010

Hashmeya Muhsin, head of the electrical workers union, talks with other union leaders at a meeting in Basra. (Photos by David Bacon)

Early in the morning of July 21, police stormed the offices of the Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union in Basra, the poverty-stricken capital of Iraq's oil-rich south. A shamefaced officer told Hashmeya Muhsin, the first woman to head a national union in Iraq, that they'd come to carry out the orders of Electricity Minister Hussain al-Shahristani to shut the union down. As more police arrived, they took the membership records, the files documenting often-atrocious working conditions, the leaflets for demonstrations protesting Basra's agonizing power outages, the computers and the phones. Finally, Muhsin and her coworkers were pushed out and the doors locked.

Shahristani's order prohibits all trade union activity in the plants operated by the ministry, closes union offices, and seizes control of union assets from bank accounts to furniture. The order says the ministry will determine what rights have been given to union officers, and take them all away. Anyone who protests, it says, will be arrested under Iraq's Anti-Terrorism Act of 2005.

So ended seven years in which workers in the region's power plants have fought for the right to organize a legal union, to bargain with the electrical ministry, and to stop the contracting-out and privatization schemes that have threatened their jobs.

IWW Statement in Support of NGWF Campaigns to Increase the Minimum Wage and End Garment Factory Fires

Posted Fri, 07/23/2010 - 6:37am by x359515
Dear brothers and sisters,

This letter is to declare the strong support of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance (PASCA)for the National Garment Worker Federation's (NGWF) campaign to increase the minimum wage from 1,162 Tk. to 5,000 Tk. per month. We are also declaring our support of the campaign: "No More Fires - No More Gate Lock - No More Garment Worker Deaths.”

These campaigns are sorely needed in the garment industry in Bangladesh. In February of 2010, 21 workers died as a result of fire at a garment factory in Bangladesh. Many of these deaths were a direct result of the front gates of the factory being locked, trapping workers on the premises as the fire raged. Sadly this is not an isolated incident. Since 1990 more than 400 garment workers have been killed as a result of factory fires. These deaths could have been prevented if there were adequate fire and safety measures in every garment factory. Therefore we support the NGWF campaign to bring attention to these preventable deaths. In addition to raising awareness the NGWF is also advocating that new safety laws and regulations be put in to place across the country. If laws such as these are implemented we believe many lives will be saved.

Similarly, we strongly support our brothers and sisters in the NGWF as they demand that the minimum wage be increased from 1,162 Tk. (about 24 US dollars) to 5,000 Tk. (about 71 US dollars) by 27 July 2010. The current minimum wage is grossly inadequate for any person to survive in Bangladesh, especially in and around the capital city of Dhaka. Survival on these paltry wages has been particularly difficult as the price of food and essentials has rapidly increased over the last several years. As was pointed out by Brother Amirul Hoque Amin, Bangladesh’s garment workers are the lowest paid of the major garment producing nations.