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INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD STATEMENT ON WISCONSIN SB 11 AND THE DEMONSTRATION IN MADISON

The Industrial Workers of the World stands in solidarity with all public and private sector workers in the state of Wisconsin during this trying time.

Right now in Wisconsin public workers from across the state, supported by private sector workers, students young and old, retirees, labor activists and more, are holding unprecedented protests in Madison against the utterly dictatorial move by Governor Scott Walker to gut their collective bargaining rights.

After giving $140 million to special interest groups in January, many of whom donated to Republican campaigns and to the Governor himself, Walker is now attempting to strip Wisconsin's state workers of their hard-won right to collectively bargain over the conditions of their labor under the guise of filling a claimed $137 million budget shortfall.

A similar bill has been introduced in Ohio, and Republican Sen. Jane Cunningham in Missouri has also introduced a bill to strip state law of all Child Labor protections.

In light of these increasing attacks on the working class, We, the Steering Committee and Central Secretary Treasurer of the General Defense Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World, stand firmly behind all workers fighting back. We extend Solidarity to all workers, union or non-union, fighting back against the Capitalist class trying to return us to conditions not found since the Industrial Revolution.

As our primary mission is to offer solidarity and defense help to any workers imprisoned, arrested, attacked, or punished by the State in any way in fighting the class war, the GDC of the IWW is here to offer any and all help we can during these times, and during all labor struggles.An injury to one is an injury to ALL!

Solidarity Forever!
Signed,

Central Secretary-Treasurer:
Steven Ayers

Steering Committee:
Chuck Bailey
Eric Zenke
Marie Mason.

Madison, Wisconsin - Industrial Workers of the World
Emergency Mid-West Meeting
Madison Labor Temple
1602 South Park Street
Madison, WI 53715
2:30pm - 2nd Floor

At present, people are on the streets and in the Capital 24/7. The Tea Party will be at the capital on Saturday February 19 from noon-3pm. The Democrats have fled the state and a stalemate is ensuring.

Please consider coming this weekend and giving public workers the support they need. We will be making best use of the time that the Democrats have given us by holding an emergency meeting. We are expecting this situation to continue, allowing time for a deeper analysis. We are asking members to understand that we are working with the militant tendencies with-in the existing unions and asserting our perspectives when appropriate. This may be the half way point but it may also be the beginning. The situation is developing steady by itself but we need to direct it towards empowering the rank-n-filers. We will be developing short term strategies to push this forward and long term plans for support.

This will be a chaired meeting that is open to the public but you must have your red card to vote or pass motions. Delegates will be on hand to sign people up and pay dues up. There is a parking lot at the Labor Temple and the room can fit 70 people. We'll have a couple of guest speakers to brief the membership and bring them up to speed on the current events.

For those who can not come please consider supporting the Madison IWW financially.
Check:
Madison GMB Mail - PO Box 2442, Madison, WI 53703
Right now we are working on housing and logistical issues. Please contact Marty for housing at: mjk-333@att.net


Thank You,
Madison IWW secretary
Anthony
I.U. #330
Madison@iww.org

I will not expound on the details here but the last few days have seen a massive upsurge of rank-n-file activity. At this very moment the public schools are closed and huge demonstrations are occurring. This energy is directly concerned with stopping anti-union legislation. However, it looks as if the bill may go through ( in do time) but may also be piecemealed out in the next 6 months.

Fellow Workers,

Some workers and wobblies in Portland, OR could really use some solidarity in the form of some phone calls.

The Portland branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), workers at Streetlight and Porchlight youth shelters, and workers form Harry's Mother (two Janus non-profit programs) began picketing in front of Janus Youth Program's main office at 707 NE Couch on February 7th. We are doing so because Janus is in contract negotiations with these two different IWW-represented shops, and in both of those contacts, there is an employee review panel which has been in place for a decade which gives workers the right to contest firings and have a no-cost review of those management decisions. Janus is now claiming they will not sign the contacts with those time-honored panels, and is refusing to give workers their pay increases, until workers accept binding arbitration instead of the peer review panel, which would cost the workers and the union potentially thousands of dollars they don't have.

More info and a press release are available at portlandiww.org

Please call this week (2/14-2/19) in the morning between 9am and 11am west coast time.

Call Janus's Main office, request to speak with Dennis Morrow. (503) 233-6090.

Email the executive director at dmorrow@janusyouth.org

And. their negotiating team which consists of a program director and a lawyer kdonegan@janusyouth.org, andrew@portlandemploymentlaw.com

We are looking to set a tone that is both polite and firm.

Here is a sample script,

Hello,

This is ________________________. I am calling in support of the union workers at Janus Youth. They deserve both the peer review panel and a decent wage. Do not deny the democratic oversight provided by the peer review panel and replace with a process that could cost workers and the program thousands of dollars. As a non-profit, you should use your money to help youth, not fight workers.

Take action: http://www.citizenspeak.org/node/2128

Dear Friends,

Almost two years ago MPG(Media Planning Group), a global ad agency, began a massive layoff operation with the arrival of a new CEO, Shaun Holliday. Included in the severance contract were two anti-employee provisions. The first took away the employee's right to sue if MPG were to violate any portion of the agreement while the company reserved its right to sue if the employee were to violate the agreement. The second provision restricts the employee from saying anything bad about MPG and at the same time the company can badmouth the employee with impunity. When one of their former employees, Joseph Sanchez, refused to sign the lopsided agreement MPG refused to negotiate a fair severance agreement. To this date the major ad agency hasn't paid a cent to Joseph even though the parent company, Havas, continues to increase its profits.

In less than a year MPG sacked CEO Shaun Holliday. Please take a moment and let MPG know that they haven't finished correcting their mistakes until they make a fair and equitable severance agreement with their employees. Click here to send an e-mail to the CEO and EVP of HR of MPG.

Thank you for your continued support ensuring that working people are respected.

Solidarity,
IWW NYC GMB

For more info on this campaign: False Advertising? MPG Lays Off Workers While Profits Grow

The Nebraska Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the newly-formed Open Harvest Workers' Union have been engaged in a month long struggle to improve treatment and compensation of workers at Open Harvest Cooperative Grocery in Lincoln. On Monday, January 3rd, the Nebraska IWW met with the Open Harvest board of directors. We presented a list of 5 demands, which the board agreed to address. In fact, we left the meeting feeling somewhat optimistic, as the board declared at that meeting that the current grievance policy was not compliant with their policies on fair treatment of workers.

Subsequently the board ruled that the general manager was to formulate a new, compliant grievance policy. We considered this to be a small victory as one of our demands was the complete overhaul of the grievance procedure. We previously stated that the existing grievance policy was unfair and intimidating because it forced the worker, who may very well have a grievance with management, to address part of management - the general manager - with any grievance and the general manager is given the power to throw out any grievance he or she felt was without merit, instead of passing it on to a board of directors committee for review. We argued that a fair grievance policy should bypass management altogether and go to a "grievance committee", a committee which should include members of the board and at least one democratically-elected peer (a non-management worker).

Our impression following the meeting was that most of the board members were sympathetic to this proposal and the rest of our demands (in fact a couple even stated so in private to us after the meeting). Our other demands are as follows: the reinstatement of IWW member Andrew Losh until his grievance is reviewed by a grievance committee; that board positions be made available to workers (a growing trend with progressive co-ops); wage increases for workers (workers currently start out at minimum wage and are given little opportunity for advancement, our goal is a living wage and benefits for all co-op workers); and full-time hours/benefits made available to non-management workers (currently only management receive full-time hours and insurance benefits). For more on this meeting see this article: http://www.iww.org/en/node/5312

Unfortunately our optimism soon began to fade. All demands, except the first one, were not given a concrete deadline, all we asked was that progress be made; but we did set a one week deadline for our first demand - the reinstatement of IWW member, Andrew Losh. This deadline (Jan. 1, 2011) came and went, so we announced our intent to picket the co-op in order to further expose the problems at the co-op and to encourage swifter action from the co-op bureaucracy.

On Monday, January 17, 2011, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, while baristas at the Astor Place Starbucks in Manhattan were declaring their membership in the IWW, members of the IWW and supporters descended on Starbucks throughout the United States to wish baristas a happy Martin Luther King day. As part of these greetings, IWW organizers informed baristas of the recent victory won by IWW Starbucks baristas in securing time-and-one-half holiday premium for working on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

The victory came 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. (For more information, see related article: Starbucks Baristas Win Equal Treatment for MLK Day After Three Year Union Fight.

IWW members visited Starbucks and talked with baristas in hundreds of cities throughout the US.

All in all, the effort was a huge success. Workers were positive and appreciative, and it shows that solidarity unionism and international solidarity is still a very effective strategy.

The Industrial Workers of the World union effort at Starbucks is the first time a labor organization in the United States has succeeded in building a base of organized baristas at the company. With over 300 worker-organizers across the country and growing, the SWU has consistently chalked up victories at Starbucks including across-the-board raises, more secure work hours, and respectful treatment from previously abusive managers whose conduct improved due to union pressure campaigns. The SWU has repeatedly prevailed against Starbucks in the legal arena across multiple cities including in a lengthy New York City trial over pervasive illegal union-busting, the first time the company had to square off against baristas in open court regarding unfair labor practices.

The IWW Starbucks campaign is just beginning. If you are a barista at Starbucks, or if you are a worker at any unorganized workplace, including especially a major chain or fastfood franchise, we want to hear from you. Contact us by visiting any of the links listed at the end of this article.