By Eric Griffey - Fort Worth Weekly, February 3, 2010.
In late December, a small group of Starbucks employees blocked the drive-through window at the company's coffee shop at Rosedale Street and 8th Avenue for about 20 minutes, in protest of the rising cost of their healthcare insurance, low wages, and a litany of other issues. The protest signaled that a handful of local baristas had gone public with their association with the Starbucks Workers' Union - and it meant that, for a while on that afternoon, customers had to wait even longer than usual to get a cup of gourmet coffee. coverThe protesters said they didn't intend for the store to lose any business. They saw the move as a symbolic gesture, a message to the corporate coffee giant that they are willing to go to great lengths to improve their working environment. Although the protest hardly measured up to, say, the garbage workers strike in Fort Worth in 1999, it did get the company's attention. Organizers said that the company's top brass now has the Rosedale store under a microscope and that corporate officials visit frequently.
Fort Worth is the sixth city in the U.S. and the first in Texas to associate with the Starbucks Workers Union, which was started in 2004 under the umbrella of the Industrial Workers of the World, a century-old international union that takes a kind of class warfare approach and has had success in organizing in nontraditional industries, from bicycle messengers to food co-op workers.
Michelle Cahill, the group's organizer, said that she and others have seen firsthand the declining morale of their co-workers, as the company has been forced to make changes to cope with hard times.
The unhappy baristas feel as though the company, which is perennially listed on Forbes magazine's "best companies to work for" list, has lost its way, and is becoming more like a fast food chain - concentrating more on moving product than connecting with customers. "There are people in every store in the country who feel that the company isn't what it used to be," Cahill said.
But she said the union's goals have less to do with the overall direction of the company than with mistreatment of workers. Among their demands are better and cheaper healthcare, increased wages, more hours, and better working conditions.
Originally posted here
Andrew Nellis of the Ottawa Pandhandlers Union said the group has reached a settlement after filing a $1-million lawsuit against the city last year.
The lawsuit accused the city of violating panhandlers' constitutional rights by putting up a fence at the underpass across from Chateau Laurier. Nellis ended up being charged after he snipped a lock off the fence.
On Tuesday, Nellis said the panhandlers and city reached a deal but an agreement on confidentiality prevented him from going into details. Sounded like the settlement might involve allowing the panhandlers to use some property for a street art gallery.
Nellis is claiming victory.
"It won't be the first victory we have, either," he said.
In the same breath, Nellis said the panhandlers group plans to sue the city again if an updated nuisance bylaw comes into force for roads and sidewalks. The bylaw passed the transportation committee meeting Wednesday.
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Philadelphia IWW Demonstrates at the German Consulate Against Repression of the FAU Union in Berlin
By John Kalwaic, contributions by Walt Weber
Despite freezing cold weather on January 29 members of the Philadelphia General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World picketed the Philadelphia German Consulate as part of an International day of action in solidarity with the FAU-B or (Free Workers Union) in Berlin, Germany. The FAU Berlin has come under attack from both the employers of the Babylon Cinema where workers are trying to organize and the city government, which is trying to outlaw the FAU. Philadelphia IWW members displayed signs in both English and German expressing solidarity with the FAU outside the building. In addition to distributing flyers, branch members sang labor songs and chanted that workers had the right to organize anywhere in the world.
By Jonathan Christiansen and Kenneth Miller
Jonathan Christiansen, a Delegate of the Boston IWW, is living in Bangladesh with his wife and son until July 2010. Before leaving for Bangladesh he spoke with Jason Fults and reviewed the reports from his time as ISC Delegate in Bangladesh. The 2009 ISC made Christiansen an ISC Delegate to Bangladesh in December. In early January the IWW hosted a conference call to discuss the best ways to support Jonathan’s efforts in Bangladesh. Members of the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance and Bjorn Claeson of SweatFree Communities were guest on the call. The call concluded with the participants agreeing on three projects:
For Immediate Release:
Brandworkers
January 20, 2010
Contact: press (at) brandworkers.org
Workers Reach Comprehensive Settlement with Prominent Seafood Company
Protracted Grassroots Campaign Saw Over 75 Leading Restaurants Stop Serving Wild Edibles Products
New York, NY- Lawyers filed with a federal bankruptcy judge a global settlement agreement totaling over $340,000 and containing strong workplace protections in a high-profile set of litigation brought by workers against one of New York's leading seafood companies, Wild Edibles, Inc.
The comprehensive settlement comes after a bitterly-contested campaign in which some two-dozen recent immigrant workers and their non-profit organization, Brandworkers, used grassroots actions, media advocacy, and community organizing in an effort to win legal accountability at Wild Edibles, which supplies seafood to some of NYC's most famed restaurants in addition to operating retail seafood outlets.
"We're on top of the world today because more than anything we showed that ordinary workers can get organized, take action together, and win," said Raymundo Lara Molina, a former Wild Edibles employee and member of Brandworkers.
For Immediate Release:
Industrial Workers of the World (NYC)
January 18, 2010
Contact: Liberte Locke, 917-693-7742
Baristas Call on Starbucks to Honor Dr. King with March and Rally
IWW demands that coffee giant pay workers the same premium it pays on other federal holidays
New York, NY- The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) branch here held a march and rally at Starbucks today to call on the corporation to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the federal holiday commemorating his birth. The Starbucks Workers Union of the IWW is demanding that Starbucks pay a holiday premium to baristas who work on MLK Day just as the Seattle-based chain does for five other federal holidays.
The IWW is engaged in contract discussions with the Ecology Center, which runs Curbside Recycling - the outfit that picks up recyclable trash in Berkeley. They have presented a series of demands for draconian cut backs.
This includes demanding that the workers pay 20% of the cost of their health insurance premiums. Their position is that everywhere else such cuts are being instituted and they have to do the same. Our position is that these cuts have to be stopped somewhere, or, to paraphrase Harry Truman, "the cuts stop here." At the same time, Buyback - the recycling yard that is on the same property as Curbside and also under IWW contract - has announced that they will be laying off a worker, a first there.
The IWW is holding a "safety meeting" rally to protest these twin events. This will be in their yard at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21. The yard is on 2nd Street, just north of Gillman in north Berkeley (near the freeway).
We are urging all union members and supporters, students and community members to participate.
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Disclaimer: the following is the opinion of the author and not the official position of the IWW.
When the earthquake leveled much of Haiti, including the Presidential Palace, it destroyed the capitalist state apparatus as well as buildings and lives. In a country whose history includes bloody repression and paramilitary death squads, all reports were that both the police and the military had disappeared from the streets.
For several days, the US administration dithered, uncertain of what to do. Then Obama announced the sending of troops to Haiti along with the commitment of the miserly sum of $100 million in aid (one third less than was spent on his inaugural ball). What is the purpose of those troops there?
“Restoring Order”
The conservative Heritage Fund spelled it out: “We should rapidly deploy sufficient US military and civilian forces to help Haitians restore order in the capital of Port-au-Prince and in surrounding areas,” they write on their web site. They also clearly see the necessity of using the troops to prevent the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes from increasing their influence in Haiti. Nobody should be surprised if conflicts develop along these lines in Haiti.
Obama also carried out the Heritage Fund’s recommendation of appointing Bill Clinton and George Bush to head up US initiatives in Haiti. Clinton has a long history of helping foster neo liberal policies there (low wages and privatization) as well as having supported the coup against Aristide. Bush is famed for his administration’s “relief” effort in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The failure to provide timely aid in Haiti shows that the direction of efforts in New Orleans was no mere accident, nor the product of the incompetence of one particularly stupid US president; it was the result of the policy of massive privatization. The fact that these two are in their present position regarding Haiti shows that nothing has changed.
IWW Fundraising for Haiti Earthquake Relief
Haiti's Tourniquet (Part 1 of 2)
Haiti's Tourniquet (Part 2 of 2)
A devastating 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti Tuesday January 12th. Thousands have been killed, and much Port au Prince leveled. This follows a series of deadly hurricanes in late 2008, and decades of foreign-influenced economic terrorism, culminating in a US-led coup in 2004, and continuing UN occupation. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, is the only country to successfully liberate itself from slavery and the former colonial masters have not let them forget. Most people live on less than $2 a day, and many on less than $1. In April 2008 representatives of the ISC participated in an IWW delegation to Haiti where they met with workers and peasants struggling against neo-liberal slavery. We pledged our continued support to their struggle, and FW's donated generously to support their organizing, and again for aid following the hurricanes. Currently communications with Haiti are nearly impossible, but no doubt they will need our help again.
For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World)
Contact: Liberte Locke, 917-693-7742
December 30, 2009
Statement of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union
Year of Legal Losses for Starbucks is Capped Off with Another Union Victory
Less than two months after a legal defeat in a high-stakes appeal, Starbucks is settling charges of further workers' rights violations committed against baristas organizing with the Industrial Workers of the World for secure work hours, affordable health care, and respect on the job.
After an independent investigation, Region 2 of the National Labor Relations Board in Manhattan brought a complaint against the fast food coffee chain for illegally suspending and reprimanding a barista who stopped work to participate in a union protest; interrogating baristas about their union activity; and tearing down union flyers from company bulletin boards.
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On December 8th, FW Vale Ray Jessop died in an industrial accident, while at work. Below is one obituary for the Fellow Worker, and a link to an article about the accident.
On the 6th December Fellow Worker Ray Jessop of Hull was killed in a workplace accident. Enquiries are continuing into the circumstances of Ray's death, but evidence is emerging that the cost-cutting policies of his employer, Kier, played a large part. It will be some time before a formal inquest takes place, but I have heard that UCATT, of which Ray was a member, is seriously considering making a case for a corporate manslaughter prosecution.
Although Ray was not well known in the OBU he was a loyal member and supporter of our union which he joined in 2002. He was not a passive member of UCATT and spoke out against managerial abuses. Workmates had tried to persuade him to take the shop steward's position, but he declined as he did not feel that he was the right person for that task.
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