Submitted on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 12:38am
Jimmy Johns Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World) Contact: Rikki Olsen, 612-750-9924; Matt Miranda 651-788-5192
MINNEAPOLIS- Spirits were high and the air full of song on picket lines outside Jimmy Johns this afternoon as over 100 workers and supporters brought business to a near standstill. The picket was prompted by the refusal of Mike and Rob Mulligan, owners of the Miklin Enterprise franchise, to meet with their employees to discuss improvements in wages and working conditions.
Union members say they are undiscouraged by the owners' absence from the negotiating table. "We'll be out here until the Mulligans realize that workers can't make it on these poverty wages. We need consistent scheduling and more respect on the job. We need sick days. We need change. We're fired up and we're not going away until we see the changes we want," said Rikki Olsen, a union member at the Block E Jimmy Johns.
So far, the only response from the company has been a craigslist post advertising openings at all locations, with starting pay at $7.50, 25 cents more than current workers make.
Workers walked off the kitchen floor and presented demands this morning at all nine Miklin franchise locations, declaring their membership in the IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Union.
Submitted on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 12:15am
Fast Food Chain Rocked by Work Stoppages in Sign of Mounting Economic Frustration among US Workers
MINNEAPOLIS- Service was anything but 'freaky fast' at Jimmy Johns today as workers walked off the kitchen floor in an unprecedented move to demand improved wages and working conditions at nine Minneapolis franchise locations. Announcing the formation of the IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Union, the workers are seeking a pay increase to above minimum wage, consistent scheduling and minimum shift lengths, regularly scheduled breaks, sick days, no-nonsense workers compensation for job-related injuries, an end to sexual harassment at work, and basic fairness on the job.
"I have been working at Jimmy Johns for over two years and they still pay me minimum wage and schedule me one-hour shifts," said Rikki Olsen, a union member at the Block E location. "I'm working my way through school and can barely make ends meet. I'd get another job, but things are just as bad across the service industry. Companies like Jimmy John's are profitable and growing, they need to provide quality jobs for the community."
The Minneapolis franchise, owned and operated by Miklin Enterprises, Inc., pays the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr, offers no benefits, and has no full-time positions outside of management. Jimmy Johns corporate website lists $264,270 as the average yearly net profit for operating a franchise. Union members estimate that Rob and Mike Mulligan, owners of Miklin, Inc. made an annual profit of at minimum $2.3 million in the last year alone. The Miklin franchise plans to open four new locations this year at an estimated cost of over $1.2 million.
Jake Foucault, a delivery driver at the Riverside store, said, "If Mike and Rob Mulligan have the money to open four new stores, then they have the money to pay us more than minimum wage. We hope Rob and Mike do the right thing and come to the negotiating table."
Submitted on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 12:03am
By: David Bacon, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed, Friday 27 August 2010
Hashmeya Muhsin, head of the electrical workers union, talks with other union leaders at a meeting in Basra. (Photos by David Bacon)
Early in the morning of July 21, police stormed the offices of the Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union in Basra, the poverty-stricken capital of Iraq's oil-rich south. A shamefaced officer told Hashmeya Muhsin, the first woman to head a national union in Iraq, that they'd come to carry out the orders of Electricity Minister Hussain al-Shahristani to shut the union down. As more police arrived, they took the membership records, the files documenting often-atrocious working conditions, the leaflets for demonstrations protesting Basra's agonizing power outages, the computers and the phones. Finally, Muhsin and her coworkers were pushed out and the doors locked.
Shahristani's order prohibits all trade union activity in the plants operated by the ministry, closes union offices, and seizes control of union assets from bank accounts to furniture. The order says the ministry will determine what rights have been given to union officers, and take them all away. Anyone who protests, it says, will be arrested under Iraq's Anti-Terrorism Act of 2005.
So ended seven years in which workers in the region's power plants have fought for the right to organize a legal union, to bargain with the electrical ministry, and to stop the contracting-out and privatization schemes that have threatened their jobs.
Submitted on Sun, 08/15/2010 - 11:53am
Sign the National Labor Committee’s petition demanding that apparel licensers step and facilitate an agreement that results in Bangladeshi workers be paid 41 cents an hour -
link.
Sign the SweatFree Communities petition demanding the immediate release of Kalpona Akter - link.
YES! We need you to talk about sweatshop on Roberto Clemente Bridge on Saturday August 21! See you there at 5 PM.
YES! We need help following up on every aspect of the letter to Pittsburgh City Council posted below:
Kenneth Miller
Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance
c/o Thomas Merton Center
5129 Penn Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
412-867-9213
[email protected]
Submitted on Sat, 08/07/2010 - 2:53am
The following Resolution was adopted by a unanimous voice vote at its August 2010 General Membership Branch Meeting held Thursday, August 5, 2010:
[Begin]
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) acknowledge that police violence is a tragic yet common occurrence in working class communities and for people of color. A notable example took place January 1, 2009, when BART police officer Johannes Mehserle brutality shot and killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant without justification. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and will be sentenced November 5, 2010.
The IWW firmly rejects police violence and stands beside the family and friends of Oscar Grant. In recognizing that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’ the IWW is in solidarity with organized labor and members of the Bay Area community who seek justice for Oscar Grant and jail for Johannes Mehserle.
Furthermore, the IWW strongly supports the planned demonstration by labor and community groups Saturday October 23, 2010 at Oakland City Hall and joins in the call to ‘jail killer cops.’
[End]
Note: The original call out was made by ILWU Local 10,
AFL-CIO
