Request Email Alias

Posted Sat, 07/30/2011 - 4:42pm by IWW.org Editor

 IWW.org offers Email Aliases to its members.  If you would like an email alias, please fill out the form below.  

Email aliases are email addresses which forward to another email account.  Example: x123456@iww.org forwards to x123456@gmail.com.  The user receives emails sent to x123456@iww.org, but are viewed from their Gmail account.

A tutorial on how to send email from a Gmail account as an alias is here: Gmail Alias Tutorial

Wobbly Flyering Squad Hits San Francisco Starbucks

Posted Mon, 08/01/2011 - 5:37pm by IWW.org Editor

San Francisco--On Friday, July 29th members of the Bay Area Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) introduced San Francisco's financial district to the global action campaign against Starbucks union busting and the inspiring militancy of Starbucks union workers on strike in Chile.

The Wobbly flyering squad spoke to more than 50 downtown Starbucks workers and over 500 hundred customers. Both workers and customers were appalled to learn of the miserable working conditions of baristas in Chile and recent union-busting by Starbucks in New York. They were also shocked, yet excited to know that, in addition to the El Sindicato de Trabajadores de Starbucks en Chile (Starbucks Workers Union in Chile), Starbucks baristas in North America have organized with the IWW, where workers continue to inspire shop floor solidarity and to fight for better working conditions at Starbucks everywhere.

After becoming aware of the recent firing of Starbucks union barista Tiffany White-Thomas and the terrible treatment of Chilean workers, several customers made it clear they would no longer buy coffee from Starbucks. Many customers also said they intend to call Starbucks to tell them that their recent union-busting is unacceptable, and to inform the company that they support the Starbucks workers'?struggle here in the U.S. and abroad.

IWW Cleaners Score Victory in Guildhall Dispute

Posted Mon, 08/01/2011 - 1:42pm by IWW.org Editor

Cleaners at the Corporation of London, Guildhall have achieved a significant victory in a dispute with their sub-contractor Ocean Contract Cleaning London Ltd. Organised in the London IWW Cleaners and Allied Industries Branch (IU 640) this has been a major achievement for the workers and the IWW as a whole.

The Guildhall was built between 1411 and 1440 as a symbol of the English ruling elite – many of its labour policies remain stuck in its medieval past. The workers who maintain the splendour of the Guildhall are on a miserable £5.93 per hour, they receive no sick pay or pension. They are hired through Ocean Contract Cleaning. A company also with a long history worthy of a medieval establishment - in 2006 London Citizens uncovered that workers employed by Ocean at a London University were being commonly under-paid or not paid at all. Those cleaners recovered £50,000 in unpaid wages.

At the Guildhall the cleaners found themselves in a similar situation of being repeatedly underpaid in their wages going back months. Some waited two to three months to get wages they were owed. They even had the Public Holiday for the Royal Wedding deducted from their holiday leave. To add insult to injury the workers who are overwhelmingly migrants, from Latin America, Asia and Africa are subjected to management abuses now common place in the cleaning industry, petty bullying, and disciplinaries for next to nothing. If you are five minutes late you are sent home, if you are late again you are fired. IWW members have reported being threatened with dismissal for being two-minutes late.

IWW Starbucks Workers Union Declares Global Week of Action against Starbucks Union Busting in Solidarity with the Chilean Starbucks Strikers

Posted Sat, 07/23/2011 - 1:08pm by IWW.org Editor

Liberté Locke (IWW, NYC) 917-693-7742, liberte.angrybarista [at] gmail.com (English Only)

Andrés Giordano (President of El Sindicato de Trabajadores de Starbucks en Santiago, Chile) 011-569-918-19467, sindicatosbux [at] gmail.com (English and Spanish Speaking)

July 22. 2011

Union Seeks to Hold Starbucks Accountable for their Union Busting at Home and Abroad

NEW YORK – Monday, July 25th, the IWW Starbucks Workers Union will launch a Global Week of Action in support of their separate but sister union El Sindicato de Trabajadores de Starbucks en Chile (Starbucks Workers Union in Chile). 

Over 200 baristas and shift supervisors that work in the 32 Chilean Starbucks locations went on strike on July 7th.  They are striking in an effort to have their demands met.  Their most crucial demand is earning a higher wage.  Currently baristas at Starbucks in Chile make $2.50/hr. while the drinks are still sold for US prices, and they haven’t received raises in 8 years.  The baristas are also asking for a lunch stipend in order to eat during their shifts, this is something managers in Chile are provided.

Two weeks, to the day, after the strike began a New York City barista and mother of two young children was fired for announcing her membership in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union.  The company gave no official reason for her termination but did fire her when she refused to meet with higher ups without her attorney and union representative present, which was a previous agreement between the union and management.  Tiffany White-Thomas has worked at the Canal/Broadway Starbucks for over two years. She was up for a promotion when her store manager, Rafael Fox, told her that, being a mother, she would not have the time necessary to dedicate to the company so he would not be promoting her.  A letter given to Tiffany’s managers made reference to the collective efforts of the IWW Starbucks Union and the Chilean Strikers.  Both unions feel that that this solidarity across borders  is seen as a threat to the company and is, in part, what led to Tiffany’s termination.

In New York City, the first solidarity action will be a press conference and picket in front of the Canal and Broadway Starbucks location, 405 Broadway between Walker and Canal St., starting at 12pm on Monday, July 25th.  The IWW is demanding full reinstatement of Tiffany White-Thomas and that Starbucks negotiate in good faith with their brothers and sisters of El Sindicato de Trabajadores de Starbucks en Chile.

Similar actions in support of the Chilean Strikers are expected in various cities throughout the US and the world throughout next week.

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is a grassroots organization composed entirely of current and former Starbucks employees who have fought for respect, security, affordable health care and a living wage since 2004. Working together, SWU members have improved working conditions for Starbucks employees and won legal victories against unfair labor practices.

The Railroad Industry & the Need for One Big Union

Posted Fri, 07/22/2011 - 2:19pm by IWW.org Editor

By X341189

Since the mid-1990s, the major U.S. railroads (“Class Is”) have been hiring new trainmen to staff the nation’s freight trains. Passenger carriers such as Amtrak together with various metropolitan commuter railroads in cities like New York, Boston, L.A. and Chicago are also regularly seeking employees. This offers an invaluable opportunity for young activists to hire out in an industrial setting and make some money, all the while:

  • learning about the transportation industry;
  • working under and understanding a union contract;
  • becoming familiar with the great history of the class struggle on the railway;
  • taking part in the rank-and-file movement of railroad workers; and
  • joining with your fellow workers to build the One Big Union in a key sector of the economy.

The recession has eased and nearly all furloughed railroaders have been called back to work. The railroads are once again hiring in terminals all across the U.S. and Canada. Their websites are flush with job openings in all the crafts, especially in train & engine service. Since everything to do with personnel on the railroad is seniority driven, NOW is the time to hire out so you don’t get left behind and have to follow a crowd of others for your entire career.

For those who would hire out in “Transportation” the new hire usually begins work as a “brakeman” or “conductor trainee”. After a specified period of time and the requisite tests, the new hire is promoted to Conductor. Then at some point in the future, depending upon seniority and the “needs of the carrier”, the conductor will be selected to attend engine school. Following an extended (6 months- to-a-year) on-the-job training, s/he will be promoted to licensed locomotive engineer. (If “train and engine” is not your scene, the railroads are also hiring -- although not as regularly -- track maintainers, train dispatchers, signal maintainers, car inspectors, clerks, electricians, machinists, laborers and others in the shop crafts).

All “train and engine” (T&E) jobs are union jobs, paying between $30,000 and $100,000 per year with full benefits. Union membership is obligatory upon successful completion of a probationary period of usually 60-90 days upon “marking up”. The T&E employee has a choice of joining the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (descendent of the oldest craft union in the U.S.) or the United Transportation Union (UTU), an amalgamation of four old craft unions that merged in 1969 – the Switchmen (SUNA), Trainmen (BRT), Conductors (OCA) and Firemen (BLF). Dues usually range between $70 and $120 per month. Most Locals (UTU) and Divisions (BLET) hold regular monthly membership meetings.