Submitted on Tue, 02/20/2007 - 11:09pm
By Diane Krauthamer
Yesterday, the IWW and Make the Road by Walking marched through the industrial areas of Brooklyn and Queens for hours in below-freezing conditions, demanding justice for fired workers.
Major news organizations such as Telemundo (Channel 47), News12 (video link), WBAI - "Building Bridges", and El Diario covered the event.
Submitted on Sat, 01/20/2007 - 3:51pm
This article has been removed.
The web editor neglected to check the (unedited) article for inaccuracies, and regrets that oversight.
Submitted on Thu, 01/11/2007 - 4:17am
Workers at all Landmark Theaters in California were recently given a $.75 an hour raise. This comes on top of the raise that workers received several months ago. Which occured shortly after the union election victory.
The previous raise was nationwide. The recent raise to California employees is connected to the minimum wage or so Landmark Theater Co. says. Whether or not the recent raise is connected to the minimum wage is debatable. Most likely it is connected to the presence of a union at the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley.
Further evidence of the company doling out raises and benefits to keep more workers from going union is a health care plan that is now available to some workers. Also holiday pay was restored to all shifts on Christmas and New Year after a one year absence. As contract negotiations drag on in Berkeley, the company continues to come up with money they claimed they didn’t have. Keeping the rest of their theaters union free is the likely reason for this.
Submitted on Mon, 01/08/2007 - 12:59am
Berkeley, California - IWW Curbside Recyclers at the Berkeley Ecology Center won a small, but important victory Friday, January 5, 2007 by sticking to their guns and refusing to let management violate their IWW union contract.
Currently, all Saturday work must be paid at time-and-one-half standard wages, except work performed before 8:00 AM and after 5:00 PM, which must be paid at double-time (Article VII, Section C, Part 1). The same rules apply for Sunday work. Weekend work is rare, and is usually scheduled the same week as non-working holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years' Day).
Prior to 2001, the workday began at 8 AM and ended at 5 PM. In 2001, the start time was moved up to 6:30 AM by mutual consent by Management and the Union, but the Saturday and Sunday work rules remained unchanged as an incentive to schedule weekend work as little as possible.
Submitted on Fri, 01/05/2007 - 7:22pm
By Judith Scherr - Berkeley Daily Planet, January 5, 2007
While several local long-term labor disputes ended happily for workers in 2006—Berkeley Honda, Alta Bates/Summit and Claremont Resort & Spa employees signed contracts after protracted struggles—workers at the Shattuck Cinema, Doubletree Hotel, UC Berkeley and the Woodfin Suite Hotel will continue to fight for better pay, benefits and working conditions in 2007.
Shattuck Cinema In Negotiations
While the hospitality industry becomes increasingly unionized, a movie-theater union is rare. In June, however, workers at the Shattuck Cinema, one of 56 Landmark Theaters, voted overwhelmingly to establish a union. One other Landmark Theater —the one in Cambridge, Mass.—is unionized.
But neither has successfully negotiated labor contracts.
“It’s a slow and tedious process,” said Hargitt Gill, organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World, better known as the Wobblies.
Soon after the union was voted in, the company voluntarily raised wages. Eligibility for partially-employer-paid benefits continues to be an issue, as is the question of the theater becoming a union shop, where every worker must belong to the union.
If negotiations are not successful, “we will be increasing the pressure, asking for the community to help us put more pressure on Landmark,” Gill said.
