PACK THE HEARING ROOM STARTING MONDAY, MARCH 6TH!  STAND WITH IWW BARISTAS AND AGAINST STARBUCKS UNION-BUSTING!

Who:

A judge hearing testimony from senior Starbucks officials and members of the Industrial Workers of the World on allegations of threats, bribes, surveillance, discrimination, and retaliatory discharge of union employees. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union will be represented by its General Counsel, Stuart Lichten, of Schwartz, Lichten & Bright. Starbucks will be represented by Daniel Nash and Gregory Knopp of the corporate firm Akin Gump. Ironically, Nash and Knopp are the very same lawyers who were advising the company during the anti-union campaign that resulted in the federal complaint.

"By building organizations based on solidarity, rather than on bureaucratic chain-of-command, we build organizations that by their very existence help to bring a new kind of society into being." --Staughton Lynd, Solidarity Unionism

For the first time in recent memory wobblies from all over will be meeting with the primary objective of discussing organizing. The Organizing Summit is what many wobs have been wanting for years. It is a chance to focus on organizing in the union and what it means to say, "Every member is an organizer."

The weekend will be hosted by the Austin GMB and was proposed at General Assembly 2005 in the hopes of supporting the work of the Organizing Department Formation Committee (ODFC). The assembly endorsed the Summit and the ODFC has also endorsed the meeting.

By New York city MTA Train Operator Harry Harrington - Industrial Worker, February 2006

The drama of the New York City transit strike began three years ago during the last contract struggle. The president of the subway and bus workers union local 100 of the Transport Workers Union went down to the deadline with threats of a strike but no preparation until, the day after the contract deadline, he accepted what members considered a terrible deal. It called for no raises in the first year of the contract, with givebacks in health benefits, discipline and job security – the future of hundreds of bus drivers and support personnel – by accepting little input in the MTA’s bus consolidation plans.

By Richard Myers - Industrial Worker, February 2006

One miner is injured in an explosion and will soon die. Twelve miners walk through the mine without necessary information or direction, their lives also in mortal danger.

The communication system has failed and ventilation controls were damaged during an explosion, allowing the buildup of dangerous gases. The emergency response is deficient, it fails to protect and evacuate miners at risk.

But this was not the Sago Mine in West Virginia. This was Brookwood, in Alabama, September of 2001. There had been a methane explosion, injuring four miners. Three were carried to safety. A second, larger explosion took the lives of the miner immobilized in the first blast, and twelve would-be rescuers. It was one disaster in an endless thread of disasters, a continuing calamity across the ages.

Industrial Worker - February 2006

Deep in the gritty, industrial district of North Brooklyn/Queens, 15 workers of EZ Supply started the new year right by marching to their workplace and demanding that their highly abusive boss sign a petition recognizing the IWW as their union.

Little over a month earlier they had come to the workers’ night at Make The Road by Walking, and told of working long hours without being paid overtime, which ultimately amounted to being paid less than minimum wage. Sometimes the trucks would finally be loaded to the top at 3 p.m., and the workers would be told that all 25 stops in Manhattan had to be made. And they did something rarely heard of: they collectively forced their boss to rehire a fired worker, who had been fired because he hadn’t made all the stops that day.

By Tomer Malchi - Industrial Worker, February 2006

On Friday Nov. 18, Starbucks workers at Union Square publicly declared their membership in the Starbucks Workers Union.  Throughout the weekend workers showed their strength by refusing to take off union pins in the face of management attempting to enforce a no-pin policy. Our key demands were for guaranteed hours, a group meeting with management, and an end to anti-union discrimination. 

District manager Kim Vetrano informed us three days after we went public that we could not wear our pins; although pins have been worn in the past, the policy was suddenly being enforced. Vetrano also insisted there would be no group meeting. We could have one-on-one meetings with managers, but not as a group. 

Industrial Worker - February 2006 

The Madison (Wisconsin) General Membership Branch has launched a campaign to organize the 400 or so businesses in the downtown area. The campaign began last Fall by canvassing the district, gathering contacts in dozens of shops, and is now well on the way to mapping the entire district.

The IWW Downtown Workers Union has opened an office at State and Gilman streets, produced a brochure on Workers’ Rights in Madison, and is working to build a strong union presence among these low-paid, hard-working, unorganized workers. They are working to establish new industrial union branches in IUs 640 (restaurant and building service) and 660 (general distribution), and to build an ethos of solidarity unionism that will give these workers the tools to win some of the good things of life.

By Tabitha Chase - Industrial Worker, February 2006

When I awoke on March 17, 2005, I checked my phone and found that I had five calls from three different phone numbers that I did not recognize. All of them were from special agent Dante Jackson of the FBI stating that I “had to call him back.” I immediately called my friend and attorney Ken Driggs, gave him the name of the agent and numbers, and asked him to find out what these calls were about. He called back later that day saying that they “were demanding a compulsory interview, and that should I refuse to schedule one or fail to show up, they would come and pick me up.” We scheduled the appointment for the following day.