The author of this article refers to the IWW's "violent" past, but he fails to note that the violence was caused by the employing class in reaction to the IWW at least 99% of the time.  Otherwise the article gives the IWW fair coverage. . .

As the transit strike drama has played out on television and in newspapers, the public eye has watched union members pack conference rooms in nice hotels, their angry leaders speaking loudly from a pulpit about the gall of government officials.

By Charles Sullivan.  The views expressed here are the author's alone.

More than fifty years ago two of the most powerful labor unions—the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Workers—merged into one. Since that time union membership has steadily declined. In 1953, thirty-six percent of private-sector workers belonged to unions; today that percentage has dwindled to less than eight percent. Most American workers are now classified as ‘at will’ employees who have no protection against their employers. At will employees can be terminated at any time at the discretion of their employer, for no reason at all, with virtually no recourse to the legal system for redress of their grievances. This is an intolerable situation that exposes workers to widespread abuse by their employers.

Now view the situation against the larger economic back drop in which inflation has outpaced salaries for the first time in fourteen years. This in effect equates to lower wages for working people. The result is erosion in the living standard of working class people across the board. During this same period of time the economy has expanded at a four percent rate.

Meanwhile, corporate profits are soaring to record levels because management has squeezed significantly more production from the workers, without raising their wages. In addition, businesses—even the most profitable among them—are paying fewer benefits to their employees, thereby placing yet another financial hardship upon them. As evidence of this, pay rose only 2.4 percent in 2004, while benefit costs jumped seven percent. The result is less income in the pockets of the workers, and more money into the bank accounts of the employers.

It is clearly a big bonanza for business whenever workers increase productivity, without a corresponding increase in wages, with the result that wages are no longer keeping pace with inflation. Furthermore, this is occurring as CEO salaries rise astronomically and exponentially. Thus the fat cats on Wall Street are reaping enormous profits, as always, on the backs of the workers who produce the wealth. In effect, the work force is being raped by their employers, and only a small percentage of them have union representation.

The decline of labor unions is two fold. Business, with the aide of the commercial media, has been enormously successful in portraying unions as the culprit of the mass exodus of American jobs to other countries. The claim is that union wages increase the cost of products so much that American companies cannot compete in the global market. This is nothing more than propaganda. Corporate profits, especially CEO salaries, increase whenever cheaper sources of labor are found. Remember that corporate profits are soaring. The real culprit responsible for the exportation of jobs is corporate greed. The pervasive exportation of jobs adversely affects the work force globally by driving down wages, and creating the deplorable working conditions known as sweat shops.

At home, it results in widespread job loss, which impacts local economies as well as families. Abroad, it results in slave wages, deplorable working conditions, environmental degradation, and sweat shops. The effect is to drive down wages in the global economy, while simultaneously increasing corporate profits. Wal-Mart, the largest corporation on earth, is the most egregious example of how global economics hurts local economies and exploits cheap labor markets. It is NAFTA and GATT, not unions that are exporting jobs to countries like China, Sri Lanka and Thailand—to the detriment of workers everywhere.

The second prong of the problem stems from the unions themselves. Most unions have become bureaucracies that closely resemble the corporations they purport to oppose. When unions compromised and capitulated to corporate demands, in effect, they jumped into bed with management and abandoned the workers they are supposed to represent. Too many union reps are more concerned about their personal welfare than they are with the needs of the workers. The result is a precipitous decline in union membership, loss of trust from the rank and file, and feelings of betrayal. Corporate profits are shooting through the roof; worker productivity is increasing sharply, but real wages are on the decline. What is wrong with this picture?

If working class people are ever to receive their fair share of the wealth they produce for their employers, they must organize on a grand scale. They must form more powerful unions that represent the workers by electing workers, not bureaucrats, to union offices. Unions were at the height of their powers when they were most militant and strongly advocated on behalf of the workers; when they did not cut deals with the company. They had leverage when they called general strikes, when members of all unions walked off the job in support of their brethren in trades other than their own. The strike is labor’s most powerful weapon. It has always been so. Yet strikes are infrequently utilized these days.

Labor needs a new breed of organizers who understand labor history, as well as the history of the corporate exploitation of workers. We need militant organizers who see employers as the enemy they are. The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. New unions have to be built by the rank and file. They must adopt a tough, aggressive approach to representing the workers.

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Wobblies, had it right. Especially in this era of economic globalization, we need to organize the work force on a global scale. One Big Union. This affords the best opportunity to protect workers from the corporate predators they are forced to work for. It is also the best way to counter the injurious effects of globalization upon working people, and the planet. The IWW still exists as a mere ghost of its old self. We could revive it. It deserves our support.

Finally, we must make anti-union political candidates pay a great price for their betrayal of the working class. This means that none of us can afford to vote Republican. We must create a political atmosphere that is favorable to workers by developing a medium that values people above profits. United, the people truly cannot be defeated. There can be no justice anywhere until there is justice everywhere. Workers across the planet are connected by their common struggle for justice, a living wage, reasonable hours, and a decent work place.

If we do nothing, our employers will continue to exploit us. Real wages will continue to decline. Our employers will demand more from us while paying less. The corporate CEOs, the managers, and the corporate investors on Wall Street will continue to prey upon us. Workers must have more self respect than to allow this trend to continue. We have only our chains to lose.

Coffee Giant Has Lower Percentage of Insured Workers Than Wal-Mart

New York, NY- The myth of a socially responsible Starbucks is steadily unraveling with an admission by the coffe chain that less than half of its employees are covered by company health care. The revelation is all the more remarkable since the company has long promoted itself as a leader in employee health care while the actual percentage of Starbucks workers covered is less than that of Wal-Mart, a corporation notorious for the burden it places on taxpayers via uninsured workers.

"The Starbucks socially responsible image is all smoke and mirrors. Customers always ask, 'you get company health care, right?'" said Pete Montalbano, an IWW barista. "Starbucks employees, many of whom are uninsured or on Medicaid, knew the answer to that all along. Only now, so does everyone else."

By "Free Radical" - Originally posted at Chicago Indymedia.  

On January 14, 2005, members of the Chicago General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union (IWW) called for an informational picket to boycott the Ideal Hand Car Wash in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood after the managers and owners of the business refused to pay Neal Rysdahl, a longtime member of the IWW, the $227.50 he was owed for over 45 hours of work he preformed for them.

The highly visible protest began at 8 AM, with a small but dedicated group of picketers banging bucket drums, shaking noisemakers, passing out leaflets, and carrying signs reading, “Ideal Car Wash Cheats Workers,” and “An Injury to One is an Injury to All!” Notably, one picketer dressed in a clown costume held a sign reading, “Ideal Bosses Are Bozos!” to mock the clown Ideal usually uses to attract customers.

Well the results are in.  Although disappointing that the IWW didn't win the competition for its centenary year, it is notable that the IWW beat all AFL-CIO union sites hands down.  

In this year's competition, 6,848 votes were cast for hundreds of trade union websites around the world. 5,578 (81%) of these confirmed their choice by email and only those votes are counted in this year's competition -- the first time we have ever undertaken this precaution.

This year, among the top 10 websites we have four from Canada, two from the USA, and one each from South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. These ten websites come from unions representing a total of nearly 3,000,000 workers. The winning site this year received more votes than any other site ever received in one of our annual competitions.

By Coley Ward - creativeloafing.com, December 28, 2005

Tabby Chase works nights as a dancer at the Clermont Lounge, so she was asleep the morning of Thurs., March 17, when she says FBI Special Agent Dante Jones called her.

Chase says she didn't know what the FBI wanted. When she awoke, it was late afternoon, and she had five messages from three numbers. She says each was from Jones, telling her the FBI needed to ask some questions.

Chase is tall and thin, with hair buzzed to about a quarter-inch, except for long blond bangs that routinely fall in her face. She describes herself as a flaky anarchist, somebody who has an inherent distrust of government and big business but who is "terrible at outreach" and "not involved in any organizing."

Fellow workers,

A European strike is organized dying 16 -17 of January 2006 by maritime and dockworkers. The strike will be held in 29 ports of 10 countries throughout Europe. The strikers are against the new European direction, regarding the free sea trade. Greek marine transport workers, along with the solidarity of the antiauthoritarian movement, ship builders union of Perama and Greek Wobblies, will participate in the forthcoming strike by closing the ports in Piraeus, Patra & Thessaloniki.           

In the heat of this new battle, European & Greek dockworkers call the maritime unions around the world to awake and support their strike by sending a solidarity statement or organise an action in their local work places. This strike is an attempt to reignite militancy and to underscore the necessity of international workers’ organisation for a revolutionary industrial unionism in today’s global economy.