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IWW Workers at Curbside Ready to Strike - Solidarity Needed

Submitted by intexile on Tue, 12/30/2008 - 6:46pm.
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.  


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In Big IWW Victory, Judge Finds Starbucks Guilty of Extensive Union-Busting

Submitted by intexile on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 5:12am.
For Immediate Release:
Starbucks Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World)

Contact: StarbucksUnion (at) yahoo.com

Judge Finds Starbucks Guilty of Extensive Union-Busting

The IWW Scores Big Victory Over Global Coffee Chain

New York, NY (Dec. 23, 2008)- Following a lengthy trial here last year, a National Labor Relations Board judge has found Starbucks guilty of extensive violations of federal labor law in its bid to counter the IWW Starbucks Workers Union.  In an 88-page decision, Judge Mindy E. Landow found, among other things, that Starbucks maintained multiple policies which interfered with workers' right to communicate about the union and about working conditions; terminated three workers in retaliation for union activity; and repeatedly discriminated against union supporters.  The decision comes despite a 2006 New York settlement in which Starbucks pledged to stop illegal anti-union activities and mirrors federal government action against the company for its conduct toward baristas in Minnesota and Michigan.

"The judge's decision coupled with previous government findings expose Starbucks for what it is --- a union-busting corporation that will go to staggering lengths to interfere with the right to freedom of association," said Daniel Gross, a barista and member of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union found to have been unlawfully terminated by the coffee giant.  "In these trying economic times of mass layoffs and slashed work hours, it's more important than ever that Starbucks and every corporation is confronted with a social movement that insists on the right to an independent voice on the job."

The Board decision is the latest blow against a company that has experienced a stunning fall from grace.  From a precipitous decrease in customer demand to its increasingly tattered socially responsible image, the myriad of challenges facing Starbucks has resulted in the company losing over half its value from just a year ago.  The decision also represents a significant victory for the IWW Starbucks Workers Union which continues to grow across the country with baristas taking creative and determined actions to improve the security of work hours and win respect on the job.  Starbucks faces another Labor Board trial next month in Grand Rapids, Michigan over illegal union-busting.


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Union Starbucks Baristas Spill the Beans in New Blog

Submitted by intexile on Wed, 12/24/2008 - 5:06am.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Erik Forman, 608 695 8705
Starbucks Workers Union/IWW

December 23, 2008

Twin Cities Starbucks Baristas to Spill the Beans in New Blog - Starbucks Workers Union Invites Public to 'Look Behind the Brand


Minneapolis, MN-- the Starbucks Workers Union announced today that Twin Cities Baristas have launched a new blog to document their struggle against poverty wages, inconsistent scheduling, and job insecurity at the world's largest coffee chain.

Union Barista Aaron Kocher said, "This is the blog that Howard Schultz doesn't want you to read. As Starbucks' overpaid executives gut the company to feed greedy investors, we will bring the truth behind the brand into the public eye."

The blog, accessible at http://tcsbuxunion.com, will provide an inside look at working conditions at Starbucks, keeping the public abreast of Starbucks' vicious attempts to thwart worker unionization amidst deteriorating working conditions.


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Liberation of the Offices of the General Confederation of Greek Workers

Submitted by intexile on Mon, 12/22/2008 - 3:52pm.

Posted in Solidarity:

On the morning of Wed. (17 December 2008), the offices of the G.S.E.E. (at the intersection of Patision St. and Alexandras St.) were occupied by insurgent workers and the building was declared a liberated workers' zone. Their declaration speaks of their wish "[t]o disperse the media-touted myth that the workers were and are absent from the clashes, and that the rage of these days was an affair of some 500 "mask-bearers," "hooligans" or some other such fairy tale, while on the T.V. screens the workers were presented as victims of the clash, while the capitalist crisis in Greece and worldwide continues to lead to countless layoffs that the media and their managers portray as a "natural phenomenon"."

Communique #1 (17 December 2008):

We will either determine our history ourselves or let it be determined without us.

We, manual workers, employees, jobless, temporary workers, local or migrants, are not passive T.V. viewers. Since the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday night, we participate in the demonstrations, the clashes with the police, the occupations of the centre or the neighborhoods. Time and time again we had to leave our jobs and our daily obligations to take the streets with the students, the university students and the other proletarians in the struggle.

WE DECIDED TO OCCUPY THE BUILDING OF G.S.E.E.

-- To turn it into a space of free expression and a meeting point of workers.

-- To disperse the media-touted myth that the workers were and are absent from the clashes, and that the rage of these days was an affair of some 500 "mask-bearers," "hooligans" or some other fairy tale, while on the T.V. screens the workers were presented as victims of the clash, while the capitalist crisis in Greece and worldwide continues to lead to countless layoffs that the media and their managers deal as a "natural phenomenon".


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The IWW Against Starbucks

Submitted by intexile on Mon, 12/22/2008 - 3:45pm.

As members of the Starbucks Workers Union, we believe that the need for workplace organizing is greater than ever before ; behind each shiny logo lies a potential struggle. Since the mid-1970s bosses have been on the offensive : battering workers with inflation, union busting, outsourcing, industrial restructuring, and the destruction of the last shreds of the social safety net. The result of these shifts can be summed up as the rise of "precarity" as the defining fact of life for an ever-growing section of the working class.

The Precariat : An Impossible Class
More than anything, precarity describes the everyday life experience of workers in the corporate chains. It is simply impossible to make a life for yourself working one of these jobs. Because of the lack of union organization in these industries, we are almost all legally classified as "At Will" employees. This means that under U.S. labor law, we can be fired for no reason. The threat of firing, however, is only the least subtle of many mechanisms used by management to control us.

At Starbucks, many workers have difficulty budgeting or planning ahead because our work hours fluctuate wildly from week to week. The company uses a computer system to determine staffing levels for the stores based on past sales. Starbucks’ "Automated Labor Scheduling" software displaces almost all of the risk of the vagaries of the market onto individual workers. Bosses order "labor" exactly like they order coffee beans or other inputs. When workers challenge the arbitrary authority of their boss they often face punitive measures, such as cuts in hours. But we are not coffee beans, we are human beings ! By organizing, we assert our humanity in a system founded on our commodification.


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We Won't Back Down: Starbucks Manager Threatens Lawsuit and Criminal Complaint Against IWW

Submitted by intexile on Mon, 12/22/2008 - 3:37pm.
Statement of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union followed by threat letter received yesterday

December 17, 2008

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) and our dear friends in the global movement for worker justice have been campaigning against Starbucks for punitively denying two weeks of work to an SWU member who went home ill from a shift one day.  In these terrible economic times, barista Anna Hurst absolutely must receive the compensation she is owed to pay rent and put food on the table for her two children.

Instead of paying the money owed, a lawyer for Starbucks store manager Gwendolyn Krueger has now threatened a frivolous lawsuit and even a criminal complaint against the Industrial Workers of the World.  To call the truthful expression of our collective voice harassment and libel is both offensive and wrong as a matter of law.  

Let us be clear: the IWW Starbucks Workers Union takes our right to defend baristas' interests and our right to free speech very seriously.  We do not back down in any respect in response to baseless threats of litigation --- the struggle for secure work hours and respect on the job at Starbucks is too important.

The movement toward justice for Anna and all working people continues full-steam ahead at www.StarbucksUnion.org and www.iww.org.


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International Solidarity Commission Monthly Update Bulletin -- December 2008

Submitted by mpesa on Sat, 12/20/2008 - 7:06pm.
Greetings from the International Solidarity Commission (ISC) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and welcome to the sixth digest of our monthly international news letter.

The purpose of this newsletter is to keep our allies around the world informed of our activities, solidarity campaigns, and relevant international labor struggles. It is our hope that this newsletter will contribute to building worker-to-worker solidarity through strengthened communications and exchanges of information.

If you would like to contribute story ideas or news for the bulletin, or wish to contact the ISC, you can email solidarity@iww.org.

Saludos de la Comisión de Solidaridad Internacional (ISC) de los Trabajadores Industriales del Mundo (IWW) y bienvenidos a nuestro boletín internacional mensual.

El propósito de este boletín es mantener a nuestros aliados alrededor del mundo informados de nuestras actividades, campañas de solidaridad, y luchas obreras relevantes. Esperamos que este boletín contribuya a construir solidaridad entre trabajadores reforzando las comunicaciones e intercambios de información.


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NC Truckers to Formalize Union Over MLK Weekend - Negotiating Committee Already Formed in Preparation for Talks

Submitted by intexile on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 9:27pm.

On the weekend of Martin Luther King Day, log truckers and container haulers from Eastern North Carolina and Virginia will be gathering to formally charter the United Truckers Union. This event will be the culmination of a nearly year-long organizing drive that led to a work stoppage on the morning of December 8, 2008. That action, which saw small but lively pickets outside of Weyerhaeuser mills along coastal North Carolina, reduced the amount of logs entering the New Bern mill by approximately 35% and shut down several tree stands in the Plymouth area. Only six trucks left BTT's yard, one of Weyerhaeuser's primary subcontractors and a target of the strike. Following the mornings' stoppage, a unnamed Weyerhaeuser representative announced to local media that management agreed to the workers' key demand: that mill management recognize the drivers' organization and arrange a meeting between the drivers' negotiating committee, Weyerhaeuser, and representatives of the subcontractors who employ the drivers. Accordingly, the union has directed a letter to the Vice President for Southern Timberland in Seattle, Washington offering several dates and places for an initial meeting.

Community support has proven integral to the drivers' success. In particular, local churches have vocally supported the organization. "Preacher," a union member and an ordained reverend, described this relationship: "The drivers represent the community, the church represents the community. What affects one of us, affects all of us. We're all in this together." Along much these same lines, the solidarity shown by the larger labor movement has been a source of moral as well as real world support. The drivers would to take this opportunity to thank the unionists and environmental activists who picketed Weyerhaeuser corporate headquarters on the day of their recent strike. Likewise, they are extending their sincerest appreciations to USW Locals in North Carolina and Washington State, UE 150, and the Northwest Log Truckers Cooperative.

The drivers have already announced their intention to affiliate with the Industrial Workers of the World Motor Transport Workers Industrial Union (IWW IU 530). Founded in 1905, the IWW is a democratic and militant rank-and-file industrial union. The IWW believes that only through organization can the men and women who carry everything our communities need break the pattern of injustice faced by America's truck drivers.


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