Submitted on Wed, 11/02/2005 - 5:32am
By Friends of NEFAC, MONTREAL - Industrial Worker, October 2005
The Confederation des Syndicats Nationaux has reached agreements at 18 Montreal hotels, and is now negotiating for similar agreements at other CSN-represented hotels across the province.
The first weeks of July were a time of intense mobilisation for some 4,000 hotel workers in Montreal. Contracts ended June 30 and workers responded with a week of disruption that began with informational picket lines during extended lunch breaks and culminated July 8 with a 24-hour strike. Sheraton settled with the union an hour before its 400 workers joined the strike; the Hilton reached an identical agreement the next day, while the Omni responded by locking out its 200 workers for nine weeks.
On July 12 a mass meeting set July 15 as the deadline to reach agreements with the remaining hotels. In the end, only the workers at the Plaza Metro Center had to go on strike to force an agreement matching the agreements with the Sheraton and Hilton.
The agreement involves wage increases of 11 percent over three years and abolishes the "wage ladder." After 30 days, everyone working the same job gets the same pay, promoting equality among workers. Instead, workers with more seniority will get more vacation time. Workers will now be entitled to 4 weeks' holiday after seven years on the job, and older workers can choose a three- or four-day work week. Health and pension benefits were also improved.
Submitted on Fri, 10/28/2005 - 4:02pm
Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.
Wade Rathke, ACORN CEO and union buster is up to his old tricks again. Recall that ACORN engaged in union busting against the IWW four years ago. Now he's attacking a New Orleans based grassroots union Community Labor United. The IWW is publishing this letter in solidarity with CLU:
An Open Letter to the Labor Movement Regarding Katrina: October 19, 2005
Brothers and Sisters,
The crisis for the working class (whether employed or not, waged or not) continues to grow. Even as the nation, and especially the poor and Black working class of the Gulf states and New Orleans in particular, tries to pick up the pieces after Katrina's (and Rita's) devastation, the assault by capital and their partners in the government grows more intense - the suspension of Davis Bacon and OHSA safeguards, plans to defund the safety net to finance business interests in the reconstruction of the region, little thought to how those left behind will find a home in the reconstruction process and its outcome. The Democrats have failed to articulate a credible alternative to this plan or address this crisis in any significant way.
Submitted on Wed, 08/03/2005 - 4:50pm
The former Pizza Time workers met with owner Heath Flores to discuss thereinstatement of four workers who lost their jobs in February. Floresbroke off negotiations on Tuesday by flatly refusing all six terms of thewritten proposal. We had hoped Flores would work with us to reach anagreement. We offered to draw up a new proposal with Flores' input, butthat idea was refused as well. Flores final offer was the same as hisfirstwe could turn in applications and may be hired and fired at will. We feel Flores is not taking the negotiations seriously and never intendedto consider our position.
History of Negotiations with Heath Flores
The former Pizza Time workers tried to arrange a meeting three timesbefore the store re-opened, but were met with closed minds on eachoccasion. On July 20th we returned to the corner of 4th and Jefferson tohold picket signs and share our story. At this point Flores agreed tomeet and discuss the terms for reinstatement in writing.At the first two negotiation meetings on July 29th and August 1st, we madeit clear that there was no animosity against Flores personally; what wewanted was resolution for the injustices served to us by former ownersShane Bloking and Richard Kelley. We asked Flores to recognize that theworkers unity and the communitys stand for justice ultimately droveShane Bloking out of the state, and gave Flores the opportunity to ownOlympia Pizza Time.
Submitted on Tue, 07/26/2005 - 11:53pm
Disclaimer - This is not an official campaign of the IWW, but Olympia IWW members have been supporting this struggle from the beginning, and they have requested we cover this struggle, and in the interests of solidarity, we cover it here.
In the past few days the owners of Pizza Time have agreed to meet with the Pizza Time workers to discuss reinstatement, and to negotiate a written agreement to protect basic worker's rights. The picket line has been suspended as a show of good faith and to show the owners that we can work together. We hope to begin negotiations this week, and we need help from everyone who supports our cause. We look forward to working with the new owners. More details will come soon.
One Day Only - Thursday, July 28th: Buy Pizza Time Pizza to Support the Workers!!!
We are asking community members to buy a Pizza Time Pizza Thursday, July 28th to show the owners that the community would support Pizza Time if they became socially responsible. Please call (360) 956-9020 to order a pizza on Thursday only.
**** Tell Pizza Time you are ordering a Pizza because you support the workers and want them rehired with protection for their rights in writing.****
If you don’t live in Olympia, call them and tell them you would order a pizza if you were in the area.
We need your support more than ever at this critical time as negotiations officially begin. This is a One Day Only event.
Submitted on Wed, 07/20/2005 - 2:44am
In February of 2005, all nine Pizza Time workers in Olympia WA and theirmanager Alex Wentz went on strike to take a stand against racism and tostand up for their rights as workers. Shane Bloking, a previous managerat Pizza Time, bought into the business and immediately fired twocompetent employees. Shane has a history of uttering racist comments andit came to no surprise when Abara, the stores only African-Americanemployee, was the first to be fired Shanes second day. Shane started toreplace the workers with his incompetent brother and his friends.
Instead of watching our co-workers get fired for no good reasonone-by-one, we held a meeting at Alexs house that night. The remainingworkers didnt want to work at Pizza Time under these conditions. Wechose to take a stand on Feb 11th. We drafted a list of basic demandsthat night that had to be unconditionally met or we would stop making anddelivering pizza and go on strike. The demands were:
- 1) Abara and John get their jobs back Jeff Bloking (the owner's brother)has to go.
- 2) No workers are fired without Just Cause and without warning
- 3) No more racial slurs
- 4) A friendly, clean and safe work environment
- 5) Standardized breaks
- 6) Respect our right to unionize
The next day all the workers rode down to the shop in the bright orangepizza van. We gave each other high fives the whole way down to the shop. Shane arrived at work over 7 hours late and found his entire staff waitingfor him, except for Jesus who was out on delivery. Once he walked throughthe door we confronted him with our list of demands.