Submitted on Sat, 09/15/2007 - 5:11am
The Women Chainmakers of Cradley Heath
The main industry of Cradley Heath during the industrial revolution was iron working, specifically chain making. In ‘’The White Slaves of England’’ Robert Sherard reminds us that 1,000 tons of chain was made in the Cradley Heath District each week.
He uses the word Slave advisedly for as he tells us, ‘chronic hunger can bind tighter than any iron link’. And chronic hunger was the lot of the women chain makers of Cradley Heath. Sherard tells us of the desperation of many of these wretched women working to within a few weeks of their confinement. Many of the women were over seventy and many younger than fifteen often working twelve plus hours a day. There is also reference made to a ‘’sweater’’, a kind of overseer who has ‘’never forged a link in her life and gets a good living’’.
Submitted on Thu, 09/13/2007 - 10:53pm
By Fellow Worker Duncan
Hello Fellow Shattuck Workers,
This is the latest update on Union dealings with the Company. Last time, we mentioned that Unfair Labor Practice charges were filed against Landmark. These charges had to do with the Company review process and wage increases. While many people had gotten some reviews none had received all three reviews as shown in Landmark’s own handbook.
Because this involves money, those missed reviews add up to retroactive pay. As we pointed out before, the days after the charges were filed had the company doing a flurry of reviews. The company wants us to sign off on the back pay/raises immediately. We decided to wait and be sure every worker received a raise, back pay, or both before we agreed. Subsequently, the Company recognized during negotiations, the need to compensate missed reviews with a higher amount of wage increase not based on the point system.
Submitted on Thu, 09/13/2007 - 10:07pm
Bunny's Story
I am a 54 year old ex-Starbucks employee. I worked at Starbucks in Kansas City for over a year. I could say a lot about what I endured as a Starbucks so called PARTNER, but I will make this brief so that I can get my message out there so this will not happen to others.
I was a Shift Supervisor on the AM shift and worked around 35-38 hours per week. I stepped down from being a shift as a result of discrimination from my manager.
On one occasion my manager took me aside and said that he felt intimidated by me. I asked what he meant, and he said, that with me being 53 years old and him being only 26 years old, he had not been through all of the things in life that I had, like raising 6 children, and owning my own business, and he sometimes questioned his decisions after talking to me. He continued to say that if he feels that way that he could only imagine how I intimidated my 18-19 year old Shift Supervisors. Then he told me to forget everything I had ever learned in life and do things his way.
Submitted on Tue, 09/11/2007 - 2:09pm
By Mike H., Matt K., Steve O., and Bruce V.
The recycling collection workers at the Ecology Center's Curbside Recycling Program have long sparred with management over working conditions. The IWW has represented this shop since 1989. On Monday, September 10, 2007, the recyclers held a stop work meeting and refused to move their equipment until their demands were met.
The latest struggle occurred when the City of Berkeley added waste collection routes to their collection program. The City of Berkeley waste collection workers are employed directly by the city and represented by a SEIU 790, a "Change to Win" business union. The Ecology Center is operated as an independent non-profit which receives city money to help fund its recycling program.
Unlike many cities that outsource their municipal operations to private entities and non-profits (often to reduce operating costs and weaken labor union solidarity), the Berkeley Ecology Center has a unique relationship with the City of Berkeley. The Ecology Center created the city's curbside recycling program long before such programs were standard services.
Apparently, the contract with the city requires the Ecology Center to match their collection routes with the city's, even though the programs are mostly separate from each other. Prior to the city's change, the recyclers worked seven routes daily, three of which were duo-routes (having two workers per truck) and the remainder were solo.
Ecology Center management proposed adding an additional route, but making each of the eight routes solo routes. The Ecology Center recyclers have a route committee system, described in the union contract, though Management still has the official power to make the changes. While the union members on the route committee signed off on the changes, they were not aware of how the changes would affect the work once put into practice.
After the first week of the change, it was clear that the eight solo-route plan was universally unpopular among the union workers. The union recyclers met on Saturday, September 8, 2007, along with organizers from the Bay Area IWW branch and some rank & file workers from the city waste collection program. They agreed that they preferred to retain the duo routes.
On Monday, the crew refused to operate their trucks until Management agreed to restore the three duo routes. After it was clear that no trucks would move until the union's demands were addressed, Daniel Maher, the operations manager, agreed to consider alternatives to the new, eight-solo route plan. The union crew demanded three duo routes and five solo routes. Maher rejected this plan and asked the crew to "vote" on an alternative.
At first, Mr. Maher tried to single out shop steward, Mike Hudgins, and divide the crew, but this tactic didn't work. The crew was adamant about their demands and the strongest voices were those recyclers with the lowest seniority.
One hour later, the union crew revealed that their "vote" was to stand firm by their demands. Mr. Maher, having encouraged the crew to vote on an alternative decided that democracy was only acceptable if the outcome was acceptable to his interests and asked the crew to "vote" again! So the union crew repeated the process. One hour later, the results were still the same! It was obvious that the union wouldn't budge!
Submitted on Wed, 08/29/2007 - 4:53am
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 Mark Arsenault and Lynn Arditi - Providence Journal Staff Writers, Monday, August 27, 2007
NORTH PROVIDENCE — Clenched fists raised, close to 200 protesters yesterday denounced the North Providence police and demanded “justice” for a protester seriously injured two weeks ago while demonstrating at an Asian restaurant on Mineral Spring Avenue.
