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.

Featuring:

• Immigrants on hunger strike at South Texas ICE detention centre
• Milwaukee construction workers organize for jobs and safety
• New York City workers march against their bosses, rain, on May 1st
• Baristas form the first Starbucks union in Latin America

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.