Submitted on Tue, 09/09/2014 - 2:27pm
By the IWW Freshii Workers Union
http://www.tinyurl.com/FreshiiWorkers
Last month, Freshii workers at 200 w Randolph in Chicago marched on their boss to demand the return of nearly $2,000 in stolen wages and union recognition. Of the two demands, the stolen wages were returned to the workers. While the fight for union recognition continues, Heather Sprigler has been illegally fired in retaliation for her role in the organizing efforts. Last week, Alison Olhava fell ill and her boss, Peter Irie, cut her hours from a normal 35 a week to a dismal 8. Peter has refused to meet with Alison and her IWW representatives to discuss this change in scheduling.
Submitted on Sun, 09/26/2010 - 1:44pm
Originally posted here.
Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood has been without accessible bus service for over a decade. The CTA’s 31st st. bus route was eliminated as a ‘cost-cutting measure’ in 1998, leaving schools, businesses, and residents isolated from the city’s expansive transit network. The Little Village community, LVLHS, and the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization spent years mounting an unsuccessful campaign to reopen/expand the CTA’s 31st St. route; as of the recent cuts in bus service throughout Chicago, which have resulted in the loss of nine express routes and over 1,000 transit jobs, it has become clear that progress is impossible unless members of the community take control of their transit options.
Submitted on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 2:32pm
Originally posted here
To friends and comrades in Greece,
On Thursday, May 13 a dozen of us held a demonstration against the Greek Consulate in Chicago. We want to remind you that even in the most difficult times, you have the active solidarity of uncounted others around the world. A vast subversive project is still taking shape everywhere, however slowly, and your struggle is one node among many.
Repression may be raging against you there, and our numbers here might be small, but the important thing to remember is that you've found your resonance. This resonance spreads around the world, laying foundations for real connections and the deepening of struggles.
Submitted on Sat, 04/18/2009 - 12:13am
Franklin Rosemont, celebrated poet, artist, historian, street speaker,
and surrealist activist, died Sunday, April 12 in Chicago.
He was 65 years old. With his partner and comrade, Penelope Rosemont, and lifelong friend Paul Garon, he co-founded the Chicago Surrealist Group,
an enduring and adventuresome collection of characters that would make
the city a center for the reemergence of that movement of artistic and
political revolt. Over the course of the following four decades,
Franklin and his Chicago comrades produced a body of work, of
declarations, manifestos, poetry, collage, hidden histories, and other
interventions that has, without doubt, inspired an entirely new
generation of revolution in the service of the marvelous.
Franklin Rosemont was born in Chicago on October 2, 1943 to two of
the area’s more significant rank-and-file labor activists, the printer
Henry Rosemont and the jazz musician Sally Rosemont. Dropping out of
Maywood schools after his third year of high school (and instead
spending countless hours in the Art Institute of Chicago’s library
learning about surrealism), he managed nonetheless to enter Roosevelt
University in 1962. Already radicalized through family tradition, and
his own investigation of political comics, the Freedom Rides, and the
Cuban Revolution, Franklin was immediately drawn into the stormy
student movement at Roosevelt.
Submitted on Fri, 03/20/2009 - 4:35pm
Chicago, IL (03-19-2009)- The Starbucks Coffee Co. informed outspoken union
member and barista, Joe Tessone, yesterday that it was laying him off, just two
weeks after he confronted CEO Howard Schultz over the company's squeezing of
employees. Mr. Tessone's blog post on the encounter entitled, "Howard the
Coward: The Day My Boss Ran Away" quickly became an Internet hit among fast food
workers and their supporters (online at:
http://www.iww.org/en/node/4618).
"When I heard Howard Schultz was in town, I knew had to get to the store
and make my voice heard as a barista and union member," said Tessone, a 4-year
veteran of the company with an excellent performance record. "He said he'd speak
to me after his interview with the Wall Street Journal only to scurry through
the emergency exit the first chance he got. I told Schultz that it was time to
dialogue with union baristas and that too many of us we're living in poverty but
he showed nothing but cowardice."
Shortly after his exchange with Schultz, Tessone was ordered into a
one-on-one meeting with a Starbucks Regional Director rather than the store
manager who would normally administer discipline. The director warned Tessone
that he was out of compliance with Starbucks' new "Optimal Scheduling" policy
which pries open baristas' availability to work without guaranteeing any work
hours. The problem with the director's rationale: Tessone's availability was
indeed in complete compliance with Optimal Scheduling requirements which are
laid out in a written policy. The same rationale was erroneously deployed by
Tessone's store manager yesterday when he was laid off.
