Submitted by x370724 on Tue, 09/14/2010 - 3:19pm
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.
Submitted by x344543 on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 1:53pm
Momentum Builds as Workers Seek Relief for Mounting Economic Frustration - jimmyjohnsworkers.org
MINNEAPOLIS- From Clovis, California to Miami, Florida, Jimmy John's was besieged coast to coast on Labor Day by leafleting and pickets in support of the first-ever unionization effort at the national sandwich chain. The emergent IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Union is coordinating a National Week of Action against the company to reach out to workers and pressure Minneapolis franchise owners to meet with their employees, who moved to unionize on Thursday. Over the course of the week, actions are planned in 32 of 39 states in which the company operates.
“Working conditions are terrible- poverty wages, being forced to work while sick, inconsistent hours, management favoritism, the list goes on. We formed a union to fight for change, starting at Jimmy Johns today, and throughout the entire fast food industry tomorrow. These nationally-coordinated actions have shown company owner Jimmy John Liautaud that if he doesn't clean up his act, we'll take a bite out of his business,” said David Boehnke, a union member at Jimmy Johns.
The national corporate headquarters of Jimmy Johns has yet to respond to the unionization campaign, the first at the expanding sandwich empire. The union effort could have profound implications for other employers in the fast food industry, a sector known for the lowest rate of unionization– and lowest wages– in the United Sates. Only 1.8% of food service workers were represented by a union in 2009, far below the nation-wide figure of 12.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The fast food workers' move to unionize is emblematic of mounting frustration amongst US workers with the sluggish pace of recovery from the Recession. With unemployment rates hovering around 9.5%, many workers view low wage service jobs as their only option. Employment in the food service industry is expected to grow 8.4% from 2008 to 2018, higher than the 7.7% rate predicted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for all industries. Wages and working conditions in the fast food industry are widely regarded as substandard; in 2009, about 17% of food workers earned at or below $5.15 an hour after taxes, the highest percentage of any occupational group.
Submitted by x360279 on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 4:12pm
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.
Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 3:18am
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.
Submitted by x323510 on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 12:03am
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.
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