Submitted on Wed, 03/19/2008 - 4:14pm
By Maria Rodriguez Gil - March 16, 2008
From the Anarcho Syndicalist Review:
Although the Industrial Workers of the World pioneered
industrial unionism 100 years ago, it hasn’t seen a significant
organizing drive in the United States for decades—until a recent drive
among short-haul truckers on the West Coast and an ongoing campaign by
the IWW Food and Allied Workers Union, New York Local I.U. 460/640, to
organize food industry workers (the vast majority of them undocumented
immigrants) in New York City.
The two-year-old organizing drive has reached about 500
workers in dozens of food industry companies and has significantly
improved, directly and indirectly, wages and working conditions across
the industry in the New York City area.
Proving wrong those who claim that you can’t build a union
with undocumented workers, the IWW has succeeded where traditional
unions failed, becoming the only union in the country with 90%
undocumented members (more than 70 have joined Local I.U. 460/640).
Submitted on Wed, 03/19/2008 - 3:44pm
Bay Area IWW members are involved in the following struggle:
Originally posted to indybay.org
Our first day on strike was extremely successful, despite the owner’s
attempts at intimidation by video taping us. Only two out of nine
day-time teachers went to work. The school succeeded in hiring one
replacement worker, but after we talked with him, he decided not to
return! This shows the tremendous potential for support that exists
throughout the ESL community.
Dozens of students stayed
out also, many of them joining us on our picket line and several of
them spoke at our rally. We should note that while they were speaking,
the school's six-figure Executive Director was snickering and laughing
– showing his contempt not only for his employees, but also for his
“customers” – the students who pay the freight at SFIE.
Other workers – union and non-union alike came out to our first picket, and we have the commitment of others to continue.
PLEASE SUPPORT US
Spread the word!
Join our picket line!
Donate to our strike fund!
SFIEteachers [at] yahoo.com
Submitted on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 12:38am
Bay Area IWW members are involved in the following struggle:
On Monday, March 17, at 8:30 a.m. a strike will begin at San Francisco
Institute of English (3301 Balboa, corner of 34th Avenue in SF's Outer
Richmond District) and will continue until the following demands are
met:
- Return of fully-paid health care that was removed in
2004 with the promise of its return when financial conditions improve,
which they have -- in addition, this past week SFIE sold another school
property that had been on the market for $1,395,000.
- An
across-the-board 30% increase in wages, with automatic future
cost-of-living-adjustments because there have been none for over 12
years.
Please join our picket line in front of the school
building, as well as contribute to our strike fund (e-mail back for
details).
Submitted on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 11:30am
IWW to picket Handyfat Trading in celebration of jury award for 6 fired workers of $360,000 in back pay!
Workers from Handyfat Trading founded IWW Industrial Union 460 in December 2005. They were instrumental and active in organizing all the other food service shops that have joined IU 460 since then (ten shops). In addition, these workers along with the workers from EZ Supply/Sunrise Plus achieved the first collective bargaining agreements in this segment of the food industry.
In December 2006 and January 2007, all union members from both Handyfat and EZ Supply were fired. After winning orders of reinstatement and back wages at the NLRB, the workers now begin to win the court battles for their stolen backwages.
The IWW will be holding a picket and press conference this Saturday at Handyfat.
Saturday - March 15th, 2008 at 10am
Submitted on Tue, 03/11/2008 - 2:36pm
By Mike Pesa
Mexican factory workers from the Coalition for Justice in the
Maquiladoras (CJM) are on an IWW-cosponsored truth-telling tour
through North America, sharing their first-hand perspective on the
effects of NAFTA and their struggle for justice in the factories and
slums of northern Mexico. The tour is focused around a March 13 day
of
action in Detroit against automotive parts manufacturer Key Safety
Systems and its corporate customers, including Ford, General Motors,
and Hyundai. The tour kicked off in Philadelphia on March 4th where
the IWW hosted worker-organizers Israel Monroy and Perla Cruz. In
February, Cruz was illegally fired from Key Safety Systems' plant in
Valle Hermoso, Mexico (near the Texas border) for organizing a
workers' committee.
On Wednesday, March 5th Monroy and Cruz went to New York City for a
day to meet with IWW members and allies there. While in New York they
participated in the NYC branch's protest of Panera Bread, which is
being targeted for its unfair labor practices and union busting.
They
were accompanied by Justin Vitiello of the Philadelphia branch, who
acted as their translator throughout the week. Returning to
Philadelphia, the visitors attended an IWW-sponsored protest at
Springfield Hyundai, where the manager accepted a letter urging
Hyundai to put pressure on Key Safety Systems. The protest was joined
by Irish activist Andrew Flood who was on a speaking tour of his own.
Following the protest, Monroy and Cruz spoke to a class at Temple
University. Interest was so great that students' questions had to be
cut off at one point.
