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.

For an overview of the IWW's Union structure, please visit the Unions homepage.

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Katrina: Social Tragedy Benefits Exploiters, Devastates Workers

Posted Wed, 11/02/2005 - 4:54am by x344543

By Jon Bekken - Industrial Worker, October 2005

Hundreds of thousands of workers face untold misery after they were displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and the flooding that wrecked much of New Orleans in its aftermath. It may be months before many of those displaced from coastal Louisiana and Mississippi are allowed to return to what remains of their homes. However, things are looking much more promising for business. Owners of office space throughout the Gulf Coast region are doing record business; hotels are charging top dollar for shabby units; oil companies are enjoying windfall profits as the wonders of capitalism transform their damaged (and fully insured) refineries and drilling platforms into a price bonanza for energy suppliers.

Stock prices for major contractors Halliburton and Baker Hughes - which also have been making out like bandits from the carnage of the Iraq war - skyrocketed as they joined in the scramble to profit off this tragedy. A Sept. 6 story in the New York Times celebrated the business opportunities, even as it cautioned that some "are wary about seeming too gleeful in light of New Orleans' misery."

Radical Economics and the Labor Movement

Posted Tue, 10/25/2005 - 3:55pm by x344543

By Jon Bekken - Industrial Worker, October 2005.

More than 50 economists and labor activists went to Kansas City Sept. 15 – 17 for a conference on radical economics and the labor movement organized as part of the IWW centenary. Presentations addressed a wide variety of topics, from historical work to studies of recent efforts by Latin American workers to defend their labor standards through strikes and worker collectives. Other papers sought to update IWW and Marxian economic analysis, reported on initiatives to bring radical economic analysis to broader audiences, and explored the intersection between radical economics and economic thinkers such as Galbraith and Sraffa. In addition, there was a tour of Kansas City labor history sites (shortened by bad weather), culminating in a performance of Wobbly songs in the old City Market by Bob and Judy Sukiel. The idea was to bring together economists and labor activists for a dialogue which might restore the dialogue between economists and working-class movements that once posed a vital challenge to the dominance of capitalism’s house economists. As Dirk Philipsen of Virginia State University noted in his presentation on historical struggles for economic democracy, “It is clear that corporate capitalism is not sustainable. It is not realistic to believe that it can survive.” And so there is an urgent need to open a conversation about economic alternatives.

Do Workers Still Have the Right to Socialize?

Posted Sun, 10/09/2005 - 4:51pm by x341463

By Alexis Buss - Industrial Worker, September 2005.

In a stunning turn-around from recent decisions limiting workers' rights, the Bush-appointed U.S. National Labor Relations Board issued a June 7 ruling which requires that every trip to the bar, ballpark or café among coworkers should include discussion of wages, hours and working conditions. Otherwise, workers may not have legal protections for hanging out with one another.

Ok, not quite. The case, which originates in a charge filed by SEIU Local 24/7 against Guardsmark, a San Francisco-based security company, was filed to deal with three Guardsmark work rules relating to workers' abilities to talk to one another, and enlist the support of the public, including the firm's clients:

1) A "chain of command" rule, which says that on-duty workers may only take problems up a chain of command in a very proscribed way, and that workers may not register complaints with the company's clients;

2) A "no-solicitation" rule prohibiting solicitation and the handing out of literature while on duty or in uniform;

AFL-CIO Splits: Business Unionism in Crisis

Posted Sun, 10/09/2005 - 4:40pm by x331117

By Jon Bekken - Industrial Worker, September 2005. 

The AFL-CIO suffered a devastating split as it celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding July 25-28, with three unions representing nearly a third of its members quitting, and two others refusing to participate in its biennial convention. The Teamsters and Service Employees unions withdrew on the eve of the convention; the United Food and Commercial Workers quit the Federation as delegates were leaving Chicago.

The Change to Win Coalition kicked things off with a high-energy press conference packed with union staffers. The presidents of all six CWC unions - SEIU, Unite-HERE, Teamsters, UFCW, Laborers and United Farm Workers - spoke to an enthusiastic crowd, but the surface unity quickly dissolved when things got down to specifics. Four Coalition unions boycotted the AFL convention, two said they would participate. The officers were unwilling to say whether their unions would formally quit the AFL-CIO; the decisions trickled in over the next few days.

While CWC representatives said the split was over the need to "restructure" the Federation to focus resources on organizing,  the closest thing to a specific illustration of differences on offer was when SEIU President Andy Stern contrasted the wording of the AFL leadership's and CWC's resolutions: where the AFL-CIO resolutions employed the word "should," the Coalition used the word "shall." Such momentous differences can not help but inspire a movement.

Canada: This is Class War

Posted Sun, 10/09/2005 - 4:16pm by x344543

By Eugene Plawiuk - Industrial Worker, September 2005.

It is time for the labour movement in Canada to grow a backbone and "Just Say No!" to working with or obeying Labour Relations Boards and their rulings.

In Alberta, recent rulings against unions include one that it's legal for Finning to outsource its work to the rat union CLAC plant. The fact that Jim Dinning, who hopes to replace Ralph as Premier of Alberta, sits on the Finning board probably influenced this decision against the Machinists whose members are having their jobs contracted out.

A disputes inquiry is being held into the Lakeside Packers strike, effectively ending the strike for 60 days, but with no guarantee of binding arbitration. The union requested binding arbitration and the Minister of Labour never responded. Lakeside Packers is owned by the world's biggest meat merchant, Tyson Foods. Tyson is happy. Their plant is operating. Supervisors are telling employees the union is powerless.

There is no fair or level playing field for workers in Alberta labour relations. The game is rigged in favour of the bosses. While unions have representatives on the Labour Relations Board, so do the bosses. In this case the government picked a management lawyer representing the anti-union Construction Industry Merit Shops as chair.