Submitted on Thu, 02/09/2006 - 4:36am
By John Davisson - Columbia Spectator Staff Writer, February 08, 2006 As if ordering a cup of coffee wasn’t complicated enough these days, things could get even muckier if federal labor law weighs in.
Since 2004, a group of baristas known as the Starbucks Workers Union has sought collective bargaining rights for the chain’s employees citywide, citing a need for improved pay and healthier working conditions.
While SWU has been unable to gain recognition from Starbucks or the National Labor Relations Board, the federal body that mediates labor disputes in the private sector, members are hoping that a recent wave of unfair labor allegations against the company might reverse its fortunes.
Submitted on Sun, 02/05/2006 - 3:54pm
By John Kalwaic - Anarcho-Syndicalist Review #42-3, Winter 2006
The latest attack on workers' rights around the world is now hitting the people who make public transportation possible in many of the world's metro areas. Tehran and New York City are both in states that are bitterly opposed to one another but share the similarity of not allowing public transportation workers to organize and fight back against the attacks by local transportation companies. In both Tehran and New York City, local or national governments have deliberately tried to hamper the efforts of striking workers who want their unions to defend workers' rights.
Submitted on Fri, 02/03/2006 - 3:36am
By New York city MTA Train Operator Harry Harrington - Industrial Worker, February 2006
The drama of the New York City transit strike began three years ago during the last contract struggle. The president of the subway and bus workers union local 100 of the Transport Workers Union went down to the deadline with threats of a strike but no preparation until, the day after the contract deadline, he accepted what members considered a terrible deal. It called for no raises in the first year of the contract, with givebacks in health benefits, discipline and job security – the future of hundreds of bus drivers and support personnel – by accepting little input in the MTA’s bus consolidation plans.
Submitted on Fri, 02/03/2006 - 3:17am
Industrial Worker - February 2006
A majority of the 15 workers at Handyfat Trading, Inc., a food wholesaler in Brooklyn that serves the Chinese food industry, have joined the IWW, and will have an NLRB election on Jan. 17. The boss has circulated a letter to Spanish-speaking warehouse workers warning that they will be replaced if they vote union and try to “interfere” with how he runs the business.
The New York IWW’s organizing in the food and warehouse industries led to an article in the Jan. 4 New York Sun, which quoted a New York City Central Labor Council official saying they are following IWW organizing closely.
“If they are now declaring themselves to have a better way to organize, I hope they’re right,” said public policy director Ed Ott. “The labor movement needs new ideas.”
Submitted on Fri, 02/03/2006 - 2:55am
Industrial Worker - February 2006
Deep in the gritty, industrial district of North Brooklyn/Queens, 15 workers of EZ Supply started the new year right by marching to their workplace and demanding that their highly abusive boss sign a petition recognizing the IWW as their union.
Little over a month earlier they had come to the workers’ night at Make The Road by Walking, and told of working long hours without being paid overtime, which ultimately amounted to being paid less than minimum wage. Sometimes the trucks would finally be loaded to the top at 3 p.m., and the workers would be told that all 25 stops in Manhattan had to be made. And they did something rarely heard of: they collectively forced their boss to rehire a fired worker, who had been fired because he hadn’t made all the stops that day.