Submitted on Wed, 08/01/2018 - 7:43pm
By Seattle IWW - It's Going Down, July 31, 2018
Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. (GCI) is a nationwide, for-profit canvassing contractor which fundraises for progressive nonprofits. GCI canvassers can be seen on countless street corners in large cities and college towns, talking to folks about groups like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and Doctors Without Borders. Despite the company’s claims of a “progressive” platform, its record of worker abuse and union busting is extensive.
For several years now, GCI workers have attempted to organize with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Building interest has not been too much of a challenge, since idealistic folks get recruited for “organizing” and “activist” jobs, but soon find that miserable conditions lead to high turnover rates. New hires are often sympathetic to any drive to bring about change.
The larger hurdle in the past has been how to navigate GCI’s blatant disregard for labor law and the challenges of keeping a campaign going in the face of constant attrition. Past drives in Portland and Ann Arbor laid some of the groundwork for how to organize, but ultimately fell short of their goals and provided valuable insight into the company’s strategies.
The current campaign, originating in Seattle, has thus far been the most successful. Although workers there have faced countless abuses since going public in February, they have managed to expand the public presence of their IWW IU650 campaign to New Orleans and wider, while building out a network of support and solidarity across the country. A number of small victories so far, such as a $2/hr raise in New Orleans and the resignation of several abusive corporate-installed managers in Seattle, have fueled this rise.
GCI has not made the task of organizing easy. For a week-and-a-half in June, the company illegally locked out its Seattle office in retaliation for a union action demanding better training and onboarding for new hires. The lockout was broken through nationwide direct action and legal threats, but since reopening the company has waged an all-out war on its workers. Workers around the country have been faced with direct sabotage by the company and numerous illegal unilateral changes to working conditions. To top it all off, three workers in different cities were illegally fired in July amidst a cloud of blatant lies and deceptions from the company.
With this latest attack, GCI workers across the country were forced to fight back. On Friday, July 27, Seattle IU650 members kicked things off with a strike against the company’s unfair labor practices. In seven other cities, actions took place aimed at building the union’s shop-floor presence and forcing the company to do right.
IU650 members are united in demanding the rehiring of all those impacted by the company’s illegal union busting, improvements to the company’s harsh quota system, and protections in the case of bad weather, street harassment, and other issues that might force canvassers to drop shifts. In addition, they are working to fight unique local challenges ranging from lockouts to laundry.