Submitted on Tue, 01/29/2008 - 1:10pm
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. The image pictured to the right did not appear in the original article, we have added it here to provide a visual perspective. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
By Dave - originally posted to anarkismo.net, January 27, 2008
(Dave interviewed Ottawa anarchist Andrew Nellis for Linchpin. Andrew is an organizer with the Ottawa Panhandlers Union.)
Q. What is the Ottawa Panhandlers Union and how was it started?
A. The Ottawa Panhandlers Union is a shop of the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW). It's a real union. What we do is run by the
panhandlers themselves. The IWW has one paid member for the entire
union. It's entirely member run. The idea is to empower people on the
street to fight for themselves.
Ideally despite coming in as an outside organizer I'll be able to step
out of the picture once the organization is up and running and there's
a structure in place to ensure that the organization continues. I was
on the street myself. I'm not on the street now. So I do know something
about the milieu in which I'm working.
Submitted on Thu, 01/24/2008 - 9:29pm
The Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) recently confirmed that it has ceased buying seafood from Wild Edibles, a seafood company that
has been accused of violating several labor laws. The announcement comes just
a week after La Goulue decided to drop Wild Edibles, making the USHG the
third restaurant group to drop the company. Pastis and its associated
restaurants were the first group to do so, back in September.
Submitted on Thu, 01/24/2008 - 7:23pm
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. The image pictured to the right did not appear in the original article, we have added it here to provide a visual perspective. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
By COLIN MOYNIHAN, New York Times - January 22, 2008
The dramatic battles of the American labor movement were often fought
in hazardous settings like the coal fields of Kentucky or the textile
mills of Massachusetts.
In recent times, though, a different type of labor dispute has
become familiar in New York, focused on the retail outlets that keep
upscale customers fed and caffeinated.
And so it was that a crowd of about 50 people wrapped in scarves and
bandannas against the cold gathered Monday morning outside a Starbucks
at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 33rd Street.
As their breath steamed the air, they chanted and sang. They carried
long banners bearing the logo of the Industrial Workers of the World, a
union founded in 1905 that has been trying to organize Starbucks
workers since 2004.
Submitted on Tue, 01/22/2008 - 10:14pm
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. The image pictured to the right did not appear in the original article, we have added it here to provide a visual perspective. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
By DANIEL GROSS - Counterpunch, January 19 / 20, 2008
In the watered-down version of what
passes for history these days, what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. was doing when he was assassinated is left out. In
the current atmosphere of unbridled hostility to labor organizing,
it's worthwhile to recall those final days of his life.
Dr. King traveled to Memphis
in support of a watershed strike of mostly black city sanitation
workers. The workers initiated their historic work stoppage
to vindicate the basic right of free association in the form
of a labor union. The government deemed their efforts illegal
and worked aggressively to defeat them.
While wages and working conditions
including health and safety were critical issues, there's no
doubt that the strike was also about human dignity itself. Indeed,
many of the workers and their community supporters carried picket
signs reading simply, "I AM A MAN."
Submitted on Fri, 01/18/2008 - 9:21pm
By Stephanie Basile, January 15, 2008
An NLRB judge recently ruled in favor of the IWW in the case of
13 workers who were terminated from EZ Supply last winter. The workers
were ordered to be reinstated and paid backwages. The amount of
backwages is to be determined at a compliance hearing that will take
place in the near future.
Throughout 2006, the IWW had multiple bargaining sessions with
EZ Supply Corp. In December of that year, the company changed its name
to Sunrise Plus and fired the IWW members from the shop. The judge’s
decision concluded that Sunrise Plus was an alter ego EZ Supply and
that the workers were fired due to union activity.
