Quebec City Starbucks Baristas Steamed over New Scheduling Demands

Quebec City, Canada – Steamed over unreasonable new scheduling demands and deteriorating working conditions, baristas at the Germain-de-Prés Avenue Starbucks filed for union accreditation Monday, becoming the first store in Canada to affiliate with the Starbucks Workers Union, a campaign of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. The Labor Relations Commission of Quebec will grant the union accreditation after verifying their authorization cards in the next few days.

Policy changes related to Starbucks’ new “Optimal Scheduling” program, one of a slew of recent schemes intended to slash labor costs, provided the main impetus for unionization. Under the new policy, Starbucks requires nearly around-the-clock availability from workers, while refusing to guarantee a single work hour each week.

Workers at Streetlight / Porchlight Youth Shelters are asking for support from Fellow Workers in the IWW in an escalation campaign against Janus Youth Programs. The workers have been in wage re-negotiations with Janus since January but the negotiations have been shaky since the beginning.

Janus has repeatedly insisted that they don’t have to bargain and have refused to put forward any counter-proposals that would allow for the modest demands that the Union is seeking. Janus has denied the overwhelming majority of Information Requests throughout the course of negotiations as well, further hampering the negotiations. Attempts to reach out to the National Labor Relations Board have been fruitless as well despite evidence of “bad faith bargaining” on behalf of Janus.

The Union has dropped several of the original demands including a Spanish speaking pay differential in order to focus on a Cost Of Living Adjustment (if Janus provides it for other non-union Janus employees) and a raise for the On-Call (Sub) positions when they reach Bargaining Unit status. Janus’ last communication to the Union was that they were done with negotiations and that workers should wait until next year when the full contract expires to re-negotiate.

The first step in escalation was to have Portland IWW members and other local allies put pressure on Janus through a phone and email blast. The next step is to ask FW’s from across the world to do the same.

Below is a rough draft script for when making phone calls or sending emails. Phone calls are most effective but emails help as well. We are trying to hit them Monday (August 3rd) through Wednesday (August 5). Please take some time and make a couple calls during those days to help out workers at Streetlight / Porchlight Youth Shelters. If you have any questions or would like to get more involved please contact Chris at chrisagenda@gmail.com.

The following Motion was passed unanimously by the members of the International Solidarity Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World on July 25, 2009.
--- Portions of this Motion are addressed to the SweatFree Communities and the AFL-CIO Union Label Committee. Both are convening in September.
---

Where as… there is a viable global apparel union organizing drive spearheaded by workers in the Export Processing Zones and Free Trade Zones producing apparel for the North American consumer market. Policies that leverage the high expectations for workers rights in North American communities and the solidarity of workers in North America through licensing and procurement are a necessary component of this organizing drive.

Be it resolved… that the ISC of the IWW commend SweatFree Communities on its annual conference to be held in Detroit MI on September 11- 13, 2009 and recognizes that SFC Executive Director Bjorn Claeson has worked persistently to maintain openness and substantive dialogue within the community of North America activists supporting global apparel union organizing. Where as… SFC has acknowledged and supported the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance’s strategy of Community Collective Bargaining with the Home Team as the only way to leverage the anti sweatshop sentiment of communities working to hold their sports teams accountable for the working conditions in which team apparel is sewn.

Be it resolved that the ISC of the IWW continues to its support of Community Collective Bargaining with the Home Team and urges our colleagues in the North America anti sweatshop movement to reject direct negotiations with any of the major leagues.

Disclaimer: This is not an IWW action; it is being posted in solidarity.  

Workers staging a sit-in at the soon-to-close Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight are being starved out by police.

The police, many inside the factory and dressed in riot gear, have denied food to the workers who took over the factory offices last night, to protest about the closure of their factory. The police, operating with highly questionable legal authority, have surrounded the offices, preventing supporters from joining the sit-in, and preventing food from being brought to the protestors.

Around 20 workers at the Vestas Plant in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, occupied the top floor of offices in their factory to protest against its closure which will result in over 500 job losses.

By Daniel Gross - Originally published on Znet, June 30, 2009

The EFCA Debate

The labor movement is dedicating much of its energy to passing the law known as the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). EFCA has three provisions: 1) increased liability for illegal union-busting during certain critical organizing periods; 2) adding majority sign-up as another mechanism to certify a union alongside the election method; 3) implementing a binding arbitration option if a first contract cannot be agreed upon by a union and an employer.

From the perspective of the corporate CEOs and their special interest front groups, EFCA is all wrong, especially majority sign-up and binding arbitration. Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, probably reflected the sentiments of many CEOs on EFCA when he lamented that: "This is the demise of a civilization. This is how a civilization disappears."

By Diane Krauthamer

On Wednesday, June 17, members of the New York City IWW protested against the callous layoffs at Havas’ Media Planning Group (MPG), a multimillion dollar media agency whose clients include some of the largest corporations in the world.

MPG recently cut 11 percent of its staff, primarily at its headquarters in New York. But the media giant did not anticipate that one of its former employees, Joseph Sanchez, would publicize their anti-worker practices.

“This extremely profitable corporation laid me off just to put extra money in their pockets,” said Sanchez, who worked in the client accounting department. “Instead of making a living wage, I’m surviving off unemployment benefits and food stamps.”