27 miners missing after New Zealand explosion
By the CNN Wire Staff
November 19, 2010 -- Updated 0829 GMT (1629 HKT)

(CNN) -- Twenty-seven miners were missing hours after an underground explosion on New Zealand's west coast, company officials said Friday.

Two other miners had emerged from the the Pike River coal mine in Atarau, authorities said.

About three hours after the blast, police said no fatalities had been reported. Emergency workers were going into the mine, TV New Zealand said.

The two miners who had surfaced arrived at the Grey Base Hospital, an hour away, with non-life-threatening injuries, TV New Zealand said. They had moderate blast injuries, with one being treated in the emergency room and the other in a ward.

Emergency crews had interviewed the two miners, trying to determine what happened. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known, police said.

According to early accounts, an electrician went into the mine to investigate a power outage and discovered a driver who had been blown off his loader about 1,500 meters [0.9 mile] into the mine shaft.

A special mine rescue team was among the many emergency workers on the scene.

Communications underground were "terminated" when the explosion happened, Pike River CEO Peter Whittall said.

The entrance to the mine is about 2.2 kilometers along and then branches out, police said. The power outage might have compromised ventilation inside the mine.

Smoke hung outside the mine, trees were charred and a hut had been blown off a hill, TV New Zealand said.

There are two routes out of the mine, Whittall said. Unlike the Chilean mine where 33 miners were rescued in mid-October, the Pike River mine has steep terrain, and the shafts run horizontally into the hill, not vertically into the ground, he told TV New Zealand.

The remote mine is about 50 kilometers [31 miles] northeast of Greymouth, police said.

Employees that Work on Dr. King's Holiday will Receive Time-and-One-Half Holiday Pay

November 18, 2010 - Contact: Aaron Kocher, 612-220-6454

New York, NY- Starbucks baristas across the United States for the first time next year will begin receiving a time-and-one-half holiday premium for working on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The move comes after a spirited three-year initiative of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) which made public the company's second-class treatment of Dr. King's birthday and called on the coffee giant to pay the same premium that it pays workers on six other federal holidays. After Starbucks refused to change its policy, union workers and their supporters launched a determined campaign of grassroots actions in Starbucks stores and communities all across the country in support of equal treatment for MLK Day.

Starbucks Union members say this is an especially emotional victory, given that the SWU has long-cited the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a major inspiration. Dr. King, who was assassinated in Memphis while supporting the effort of striking sanitation workers to form a union, was a staunch and outspoken defender of workers' rights including the right to a living wage and the right to join a labor union.

"We're deeply moved to have been able in our modest way to increase respect for Dr. King's legacy while ensuring that Starbucks employees who work on his holiday are fairly compensated," said Anja Witek, a Starbucks barista and SWU member in Minnesota. "This is a great example of what baristas and all low-wage workers can achieve by getting organized and taking direct action in support of workplace justice issues."

While Starbucks claims to 'embrace diversity', it doggedly resisted the SWU's call for equal treatment of MLK Day for three years. The company based its refusal on the claim that its holiday policy was in line with the (abysmally low) standards of the food service sector. The SWU made the case that Starbucks' commitment to diversity was illusory, citing the disproportionate number of workers of color in the lowest-paid positions in the company and its intense exploitation of coffee farmers including the Ethiopian workers who grew some of Starbucks' most expensive beans but received just 2.2% of the retail price.

For more information and complete back story refer to: http://monroecampaign.wordpress.com/

Dear City & Monroe Park Advisory Councils,

“There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people,” states the beginning of our labor union’s preamble. We, the Richmond members of the Industrial Workers of the World, feel that the renovation plans for Monroe Park, as they currently stand, will serve to exacerbate hunger and want in Richmond. We, as concerned citizens of the Richmond area and hardened activists and organizers, will not let this issue slip by without a struggle.

These renovation plans include fencing off the entire park for several months, and up to a year, denying access to all who depend on it, including the services provided there. This translates to the homeless being forced out of the park and dispersed into the VCU and Greater Richmond community, without concern for where they might await refuge in otherwise nearby shelters or sustenance via various meal programs that congregate there.

Headlines:

• Longshoremen Wildcat Strikes Halt East Coast Shipping
• Labor Rights Violations At Jimmy John's
• Solidarity With Chilean Workers

Features:

• In November We Remember Announcements
• 2010 IWW Literature Review
• ISC Remembers Murdered Trade Unionists

Download a free PDF copy of this issue.

Jimmy Johns Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World) Contact: Emily Pzybylski, 414-477-9803.

October 22, 2010 - Sandwich Workers to Continue to Press for Improved Working Conditions.

MINNEAPOLIS – The Jimmy John's Workers Union has filed a 12-page Objection to the October 22 NLRB election at 10 Minneapolis sandwich shops, outlining a pattern of pervasive and systemic labor rights violations that prevented the possibility of a free and fair vote. The union election, a first in fast food in the US, was as close as they come, with 85 votes in favor of the union, 87 against, and 2 challenged ballots.

"Franchise owner Mike Mulligan decided to go beyond the pale. His managers asked workers to wear anti-union pins, fired pro-union workers, threatened a mass firing, implemented an illegal wage freeze, tightened policies and retaliated against union members, offered bribes, and pressured workers to vote no. He broke the law repeatedly in order to win, and he just barely won. That's not right. We are calling on the NLRB to set aside the results of this election," said worker and union member Emily Przybylsky.

In response to his employee's union campaign, franchise owner Mike Mulligan hired a third-party anti-union consulting firm, Labor Relations Inc., to prevent employees from winning an NLRB Union election. According to documents obtained from the Department of Labor, Mulligan spent over $84,500 on an anti-union campaign intended to prevent workers from unionizing.

Tim Louris, of Minneapolis labor firm Miller O'Brien Cummins, is assisting the union pro-bono in navigating the tricky waters of labor law. Union spokespeople say the written objection to the election results will be available to the public within a few days.

While filing with the NLRB to have the election results nullified, the workers also plan to mount a campaign to win their demands without union recognition.

"85 yes votes, in spite of 6 weeks of vicious union-busting, is a mandate for change," said "There are a thousand ways we can put pressure on Jimmy John's to win our demands for fair wages, sick days, consistent hours, and respect. We're fired up, this fight is just beginning," said Ayo Collins, another worker and union member.

The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is the first fast food union in the nation, and is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.

When miners get tired of being buried alive for them, the few.

When keyboard pounders get tired of wearing their hands out for them, the few.

When the truckers get tired of the weariness of driving endlessly for them, the few.

When fast food workers get tired of producing large quantities of food quickly at near starvation wages for them, the few.

When women workers get tired of being paid less and used as sex objects for them, the few.

When farm workers get tired of picking the food for all to eat while being poisoned and not having enough to eat themselves for them, the few.

When workers of color get tired of racism and having to labor in the worst jobs for them, the few.

When hospital workers get tired of working for the profit of the bosses, caring for the sick and injured for long hours for them, the few.

When construction workers get tired of building the homes and buildings of society under dangerous conditions for them, the few.

When child workers get tired of producing the latest fashion statements of the rich while having their childhoods robbed by them, the few.

When ship workers get tired of long hours in hot, miserable conditions and having to be far from home for them, the few.

By: Kenneth Yates x370724

A place called Shockoe Bottom in Richmond, Virginia was once the center of the African slave trade in North America. However if you were to visit this area you would never know it. Beneath the night clubs, condominiums, office buildings, and streets lies a history grossly repressed by capitalist appetites for commercial development.

One hidden piece of history in particular lies beneath a parking lot publicly owned and utilized by the Virginia Commonwealth University & Medical College of Virginia staff and students.

In 1992 local historian and author Elizabeth Cann Kambourian, while researching for a book about a local slave rebellion leader named Gabriel, discovered something. Around 1800, inspired by the Haitian Revolution which was in full swing at the time, Gabriel plotted one of the most organized slave revolts in United States history. The plan was for hundreds of enslaved Africans, free Blacks and a few whites to to enter the city of Richmond, take the governor hostage and demand the abolition of slavery in Virginia. The revolt, however, was crushed after an intense 100 year storm flooded the area, making it impossible for Gabriel and his army to enter the city.

With information given by one of Gabriel's collaborators, the then Richmond Governor James Monroe formed a militia to hunt down Gabriel and his co-conspirators. Gabriel was eventually captured, tried and, on Oct. 10, 1800, executed at the town gallows, located in what was then called the Burial Ground for Negroes. At least 25 of his comrades met the same fate, either at the same site or in surrounding areas.

The burial ground was retired sometime around 1810, after hundreds, perhaps thousands of enslaved Africans had been buried there. The exact number is unknown. Before long the burial ground itself fell into obscurity, eventually buried beneath 10-20 feet of filler as the land took on many other uses over the years.

Kambourian discovered an old Richmond City map placing the African Burial Ground just north of 15th & Broad Street. That area is now partially covered by Interstate 95, with the remaining portion of the Burial Ground buried beneath a parking lot utilized by both VCU & MCV staff and students. The exact boundaries are yet to be determined.

The Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality have been fighting to reclaim this sacred ground from its present desecration. VCU & the City of Richmond have been aware of the history surrounding the Burial Ground since its discovery in 1992, however they have to this day done nothing to preserve and respect the dead residing there.

The Defenders have initiated an on-line letter writing campaign directed at VCU President Michael Rao, Richmond City Mayor Dwight C. Jones, & Virginia Governor Bob McDonell, demanding that they "End VCU / MCV Parking on Richmond's African Burial Ground."

Please visit http://tinyurl.com/275kzuj and sign or edit the following letter. If you are sending the e-mail on behalf of an organization, please also include your position in the group.

Jimmy Johns Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World) Contact: Erik Forman, 612-598-6205, Ayo Collins 612-281-0882

MINNEAPOLIS – Workers at 10 Jimmy John’s franchise locations in Minneapolis are crying foul after a near tie in a union certification election marred by misconduct by owner MikLin enterprises. 85 workers voted in favor of unionization and 87 against, with two unknown contested ballots. Under the National Labor Relations Act, a tie goes to the employer.

Workers reported strong evidence of several violations of the National Labor Relations Act on and before election day, including attempted bribes of workers, management asking workers to wear anti-union pins, threats of mass firings, and anti-union firings. MikLin Enterprises currently stands charged with 22 alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act.

“We are extremely disappointed with the company’s conduct in this matter; rather then letting simply letting us vote, management chose to break the law repeatedly during the last six weeks. They spent over $84,500 on a vicious anti-union smear campaign, that's over $1000 per vote. We do not recognize these election results as legitimate and will continue to fight for our demands,” said Erik Forman, a worker at Jimmy John’s and a union member.

Ayo Collins, a delivery driver, says the union “hasn’t put all their eggs in one basket” and has multiple avenues of action still open to them. He says the union is considering taking legal action against the company over their misconduct in the runup to the election.

"In a company with turnover approaching 50% each month, a majority at any given moment only means so much. We have a mandate- more than 85 of us are committed to continuing the fight for decent wages, consistent scheduling, sick days, and the basic respect and dignity that all workers deserve. This is just the beginning of the fight," said Collins.

The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is the first fast food union in the nation, and is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.