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Recent articles by Ed Olsen
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Recent Articles about North America / Mexico Workplace strugglesProfessor Power! Educators Sock It To Anti-Union Retailer Oct 30 14 Days After Settlement, Pickets Return to Insomnia Cookies Mar 16 14 From a Plow Driver: An Open Letter To Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I personally make just over $17 an hour, while the average wage of a plow driver is $38,000 a year. And yet you have made it clear that you will not tax the wealthy (like yourself) who can afford it to cover the budget gap which you created. But I do not expect you to necessarily understand the hardships you are asking us to suffer, as I am told you are personally worth ten million dollars. Maybe you don’t understand that taking $36 a paycheck out of my wages (which on average you are proposing for all plow drivers) is the difference between making or missing a mortgage payment, a utility bill, or buying a pair of shoes for the kids. Maybe you cannot understand. An Open Letter To Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin-Democrat; |
Front pageFlora Tristán: precursora del feminismo y de la emancipación proletaria Bil'in - 10 years of persistent joint struggle In solidarity with the NO TAV struggle Wave of arrests in Ireland as state tries to break water charges movement Não se intimidar, não desmobilizar! Toda nossa solidariedade ao companheiro Vicente! After the election of Syriza in Greece - Power is not in Parliament [Chile] Movimiento Estudiantil: ¿En dónde debemos enfocar nuestros esfuerzos? México en llamas: raíces y perspectivas de una lucha que avanza y la crisis de un sistema político No to Golden Dawn in Australia! Abusos y arbitrariedad - retención de JOSÉ A. GUTIÉRREZ, en el bajo Caguán, Caquetá Could a Revolution Happen in the US? An Anarchist Communist Reply to ‘Rojava: An Anarcho-Syndicalist Perspective’ In the Rubble of US Imperialism Elementos da Conjuntura Eleitoral 2014 The experiment of West Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan) has proved that people can make changes [Chile] EL FTEM promueve una serie de “jornadas de debate sindical” Ukraine: Interview with a Donetsk anarchist Prisões e mais criminalização marcam o final da Copa do Mundo no Brasil North America / Mexico | Workplace struggles | en Sun 15 Mar, 07:02
Picket lines have returned to Insomnia Cookies, less than two weeks after the company settled with four workers who struck in August of 2013. On Friday March 14, two dozen union members and supporters rallied in front of the Boston location of Insomnia Cookies, demanding the reinstatement with back pay of union organizer and bicycle delivery “driver,” Tasia Edmonds. On March 9 the company suspended Edmonds without pay for a month, alleging insubordination, while the union maintains she was disciplined for her union-building efforts. Dylan's Candy Bar workers staged a lively rally outside the store's flagship location Wednesday night. Here is a look at the new campaign of the Portland Solidarity Network, and how their organizing format provides a new avenue for alternative labor. The IWW and members of Common Cause Toronto have been hitting the picket lines in support of striking refuelers employed by Porter Fixed Base Operations (FBO) at the Toronto Island airport. The strike has been bravely fought by a mere 22 workers fed up with unsafe working conditions and low wages.
I started the day feeling pessimistic about what would happen and even though on the whole, people came, yelled and then went home, I was a lot more encouraged by the days events than I thought I’d be. September 15, 2012 north american Day of Solidarity with Aussie Dominos Pizza Drivers. Arizona state employees’ unions were caught off guard this week with news that the state’s Republican-controlled Senate was passing a series of bills which, amongst other provisions, would completely ban unions from engaging in any negotiation which affects the terms of a person's employment with State, county or city government. [Italiano] W.S.A. Labor Commission US Labor Day Statement Workers report widespread illegal activity by company
Since January 2010, construction workers in Quebec have been working without a contract . Nevertheless , as many bosses as unions had announced in October 2009 , exemplary negotiations that would be settled by the due date of collective agreements. Practically nine months later , workers in shipyards have yet signed agreements and the situation is becoming increasingly tense.
This is an interesting interview with our comrade Miriam (M1 Detroit) on her history of “Industrialization” with her organization at the time the Revolutionary Socialist League. “Industrialization” was the term that the Left used to describe the strategy of getting mainly University and counter-culture youth activists to commit to point-of-production organizing in factories as part of the working-class. It was different than what is today known as “salting” – as “Industrialization” was not usually seen as a short-term stint around a specific campaign, but rather a long-term commitment to building a revolutionary presence in the class.
Direct action and workplace organization rather than legislation will end inequality
It has been over a month since the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) held their one-day protest of the provincial Liberal Party leadership convention, mobilizing some 15,000 people on the streets of Toronto and then sending them all home again around 4:00 PM. The protest was part of the trade union response to Bill 115, which enabled the provincial government to circumvent collective bargaining and mandate the terms of new “collective agreements”. [Italiano]
This is a report written by two IWW organizers from out of state on the activities of the union during the height of the protests in Madison and Wisconsin. The version is slightly modified from a text sent to the 2011 Delegate Convention and reflects the opinion of the authors.
When a revolutionary begins organizing in a shop, the first step is typically to agitate one's coworkers. In our minds we see a step-by-step process wherein our agitation leads to other opportunities, recruitment, committee building, until we have power and an organization. The problem is that for most workplaces, this way of thinking gives the wrong impression. In some workplaces, particularly in production, there's a state of constant agitation and actions burst out before committees ever get built. In other workplaces agitation just never seems to take hold. What do we do in these situations? What do we do when agitation takes years without much visible result, or in places where workers are clearly in the retreat or a passive state? more >>
Dylan's Candy Bar workers staged a lively rally outside the store's flagship location Wednesday night.
September 15, 2012 north american Day of Solidarity with Aussie Dominos Pizza Drivers.
W.S.A. Labor Commission US Labor Day Statement
Workers report widespread illegal activity by company
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