All workers in playgrounds and places of amusement and recreation. All professional entertainers.
Submitted by IWW.org Editor on Tue, 03/26/2013 - 5:35pm
IWW Organizer Deirdre Cunningham has been fired from Star Tickets after a successful union election. The IWW workers of Star Tickets were officially recognized as the bargaining agent for Star Tickets today. Also today Mrs. Cunningham was fired in retaliation.
Call owner Jack Krasula and demand justice for Deirdre!!
Phone - 248-945-1127
Submitted by x359437 on Thu, 02/07/2013 - 6:27pm
Employees of Large Ticket Distributor Join Together and Demand Recognition
Grand Rapids, MI - Employees of Star Tickets have "walked on the boss" today demanding a reduction in workload, an employee grievance procedure, and recognition of their union. The employees have formed the IWW Star Tickets Workers Union for mutual support and respect on the job. Their intentions are to begin collective bargaining with owner, Jack Krasula, over a work environment that they say has become untenable.
“We are just exercising our legal right to form a union for our mutual benefit” said Deirdre Cunningham, a Client Services Representative. “We have been meeting, assisting one another, and acting as a union for some time so today we made it official to our boss."
Submitted by x344543 on Sun, 10/10/2010 - 1:31pm
When the City of Ottawa installed speakers and started broadcasting muzak in busker Raymond Loomer's favourite underpass, he cut the speaker wires one day in May 2009. He then taped the wire on the door of the office door of the Downtown Rideau Business Improvement Area, a business lobby group that has waged a campaign to remove street people and performers from the city centre.
As a tin flute player, he was one of several buskers who relied on the unique acoustics of the downtown Ottawa underpass near the Rideau Centre shopping centre to make a living. Loomer is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He did not take kindly to having his live music replaced by a machine.
"They were playing music to interfere with our industry," he said.
City police arrested Loomer and charged him with two counts of mischief under $5,000. He was convicted on May 25, 2010 with a sentence of 12 months probation and 20 hours community service. Loomer represented himself and has appealed, saying the city failed to provide bylaw information he could have used in his defense and that he has rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to make a living and freedom of expression. He objected to the community service as "the slave style practices of government" for appropriating his labour power.
Loomer's appeal will be heard on November 12, 2010 at the city courthouse.
Ottawa had introduced restrictive bylaws requiring street performers to get a license and perform in designated spots chosen by the city. Ontario's Safe Streets Act, brought in to target squeegee kids, buskers and other street people making a living on the province's streets, has set the stage for tighter controls on informal workers.
For more information, visit www.ottawaiww.org
Submitted by x344543 on Thu, 12/04/2008 - 8:45pm
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
Submitted by x344543 on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 1:23pm
By David Rovics - May 25th, 2008
I wouldn't want to elevate anybody to inappropriately high heights, but for me, Utah Phillips was a legend.
I
first became familiar with the Utah Phillips phenomenon in the late
80's, when I was in my early twenties, working part-time as a prep cook
at Morningtown in Seattle. I had recently read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States,
and had been particularly enthralled by the early 20th Century section,
the stories of the Industrial Workers of the World. So it was with
great interest that I first discovered a greasy cassette there in the
kitchen by the stereo, Utah Phillips Sings the Songs and Tells the Stories of the Industrial Workers of the World.
As
a young radical, I had heard lots about the 1960's. There were (and
are) plenty of veterans of the struggles of the 60's alive and well
today. But the wildly tumultuous era of the first two decades of the
20th century is now (and pretty well was then) a thing entirely of
history, with no one living anymore to tell the stories. And while long
after the 60's there will be millions of hours of audio and video
recorded for posterity, of the massive turn-of-the-century movement of
the industrial working class there will be virtually none of that.
Share