By Luci Scott - The Arizona Republic, Jun. 29, 2010

Twelve employees of Pei Wei Asian Diner at 54th Street and Ray Road in Chandler were fired after they skipped work to participate in a May 29 protest of the new immigration law Senate Bill 1070.

That was nearly half the staff at that restaurant, which has a workforce of about 30, said Pei Wei spokesman Peter Marino.

The fired workers violated a well-established Pei Wei attendance policy, he said.

"When employees choose not to show up for a scheduled shift and choose not to give notice, it causes tremendous disruption to fellow co-workers and impedes our ability to serve our guests," the company said in a statement.

At the same time, Pei Wei said it respects the rights of people to peacefully protest, and it does not comment on local, state or federal laws.

The International Solidarity Commission (ISC) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a global union dedicated to revolutionary social change and workers self-management, is shocked and appalled by Israeli forces’ attack this morning on the lead ship of a humanitarian aid convoy, the Turkish vessel “Mavi Marmaris”, killing at least ten people.

The ISC holds the Israeli authorities entirely responsible for the provocative storming of the ship, and condemns the harm caused to the civilians on board, who included peace activists and parliamentarians from many different countries.

The ISC supports any efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, who have been suffering the effects of the Israeli blockade since 2007, a suffering greatly intensified by the massacre of Dec 2008-Jan 2009. We salute the brave human rights activists attempting to deliver aid to the people of Gaza, including the crew and passengers on the MV Rachel Corrie, en route to Gaza.

A protest was recently held at the Oakland docks against an Israeli ship that was due to be unloaded there. There was wide celebration on the left that this unloading was delayed for 24 hours. While this was a success, some weaknesses were also revealed. For more, see the attached article.

Headlines:

• The Right Tools For The Right Job - By George Dozsa
• Welcome to the Business-Friendly Carpenter’s Union - By David Correia
• “The Wobblies Show” Debuts - By Jim Del Duca

Features:

• Reader Suggested Books
• On the Job Crossword Puzzle - by Jay

Download a Free PDF of this issue.

Note: This action was not called by the IWW, though some IWW members participated in the planning of the event and at least a dozen joined in the action. The organizers included the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee and ANSWER. This article was originally posted here.

In a historic action and unprecedented action today, over 800 labor and community activists blocked the gates of the Oakland docks in the early morning hours, prompting longshore workers to refuse to cross the picketlines where they were scheduled to unload an Israeli ship.

Original Published at RVAnews [ http://rvanews.com/news/rrichmond-transit-riders-union-holds-first-meeting/29072 ]

Note: The Richmond Transit Riders Union was officially formed June 14th, 2010 at 9:30pm by riders of public transportation, namely Greater Richmond Transit Company, a bus system that serves the City of Richmond, Henrico, Petersburg, Fredricksburg, and *small* portion of Chesterfield County (co-owner with the City of Richmond), Virginia.

Richmond Transit Riders Union holds first meeting

by Erica Terrini

June 15, 2010

About 30 people attended the Richmond Transit Riders Union’s first Community Town Hall Meeting, Monday night at the University of Richmond Downtown building.

The RTRU’s initiating committee — made up of individual activists, Richmond Industrial Workers of the World members and other local organization supporters — spoke to community members about the Greater Richmond Transit Company’s (GRTC) recent service cuts, which they claim began with about five routes being eliminated and five being reduced in January.

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is proud to celebrate the sixth anniversary of our campaign for fair wages, consistent scheduling, a healthier and safer workplace, and a voice on the job at the world's largest coffee chain. As we enter our sixth year of struggle, we leave behind us a year marked by the continued rapid deterioration of working conditions at Starbucks: the doubling of our health insurance costs, massive layoffs, reduced staffing, and the continued disregard of greedy company executives for the well-being of hard-working Baristas and their families? even as Starbucks achieves record profits of $760.3 million in the last 12 months. This represents a profit of roughly $5354 from each of Starbucks 142,000 workers. Rather than return the wealth of our labor to hard-working Baristas who are living in poverty, Starbucks executives issued the first-ever dividend to shareholders, further enriching the financial class that has driven our world to ruin in the worst economic crisis since 1929. However, even as conditions continue to worsen in corporate management's greed-fueled race to the bottom, our movement for justice at work continues to gather strength. We now take a moment to celebrate our victories as we prepare for the battles to come.

In the past year, we gained members and took action to win our demands and build power on the job on shopfloors across the world. The Starbucks Workers Union expanded to Canada as Baristas in Quebec City joined the IWW in response to Starbucks new Optimal Scheduling system, which forces students to choose between keeping their jobs and staying in school, and pressures working parents to choose between their children and their careers. In the United States, we have continued to gain ground in our fight to defend our right to organize, with Starbucks cornered into signing its sixth settlement agreement with the National Labor Relations Board pledging to end its anti-union misconduct. We gained valuable public support thanks to our new allies at Brave New Films, who launched a social media campaign to raise awareness of Starbucks' repeated and intentional violation for our right to organize. A YouTube video about the Starbucks Workers Union filmed by Brave New Films was viewed over 80,000 times, forcing a response from Starbucks. In New York, Starbucks was hit by yet another NLRB legal complaint, increasing pressure on company bosses to respect our right to association.