Submitted on Mon, 11/13/2006 - 2:19am
Headlines:
- International support for Starbucks workers
- Garment strike closes Bangladeshi sweatshops
- Talkin’ Union - By Nick Driedger
Featured Articles:
- NLRB strips more workers of labor rights Working “supervisors” lose right to unionize, engaged in concerted activity on job.
- In November We Remember workers’ history & martyrs IWW founder William Trautmann, Brotherhood of Timber Workers, Victor Miners’ Hall, and more.
Also - The IWW in the history books.
Download a free PDF Copy of this issue.
Submitted on Sat, 11/11/2006 - 2:05pm
The Shattuck Cinema Workers are releasing the following statements to Landmark Cinema Workers and Patrons:
Dear Cinema Workers:
Greetings from the Shattuck Cinema Workers in Berkeley.
Today with the help of local IWW members we are contacting Landmark Cinema customers at your theater.
At this time it is important that we inform Landmark customers of our efforts to unionize and ask for support.
Why we Unionize:
- Better pay
- More control over job conditions
- Respect
- Solidarity with our co-workers
- Bargaining power
Starting wage has already been raised and hourly wage increases with union approval. This is no coincidence.
Submitted on Sat, 11/11/2006 - 12:54pm
Last month, one dozen recyling drivers and loaders at the Ecology Center (in Berkeley California), approved their latest IWW Union contract. The recyclers are part of Municipal and Utility Service Workers Industrial Union 670, and the shop has been part of the IWW since 1989. Next door, the Berkeley Community Conservation Center's Buyback Recycling Shop has been with the union since 2000.
The new contract includes several modest gains, including:
- a 3% Across the Board increase in hourly wages, retroactive to January 1, 2006 and an additional 3% ATB wage increase effective January 1, 2007.
- All recyclers, including loaders, receive a guaranteed 8-hours pay for each shift worked. Previously only drivers received that benefit.
- All recyclers, including loaders, shall receive reassignment bonuses. Previously only drivers received that benefit.
- Confusing language regarding employee status with numerous conflicting categories, such as "probationary", "temporary", "full time", "part time", and "short hour" has been replaced with clear, solid language with three well defined categories of "regular", "on call", and "probationary".
- New, probationary employees recieve "peer review" from their fellow workers, removing some of the hiring power from management.
- Recyclers receive a modest increase in periodic work boot allowances.
- All regular employees who work a minimum number of shifts receive full health care & dental coverage.
- Now teams can receive weight bonuses whereas previously only solo drivers received bonuses.
The contract also has no significant concessions. The biggest concession demanded by management was an increase in individual Health Care co-payments from $5 to $35 per visit and/or prescription. The Union managed to fight that demand.
Submitted on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 3:16am
Friends:
Eric Larson, an IWW member and long-time supporter of the SWU, is in grave danger along with many indigenous workers in a home in Oaxaca. Eric and his companeros could be seriously wounded or worse tonight and they're asking for help immediately. Eric is a thoughtful, kind, and generous unionist and his comrades are remarkable activists as well. I know you receive many e-mail pleas but I implore you to take the time to respond to this one immediately. The ruling party could lay siege to their home any minute now. We don't need anymore martyrs ripped from their families and friends in Oaxaca. The call for help from Oaxaca follows.
In Solidarity,
Daniel Gross
Please forward widely:
Submitted on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 3:12am
Sister Worker Isis Saenz was fired today by Starbucks for participating in a protest Thursday evening against the company's union-busting [http://starbucksunion.org/node/1094].
The company claims that Isis acted inappropriately towards Regional Director Jim McDermott at the protest. Isis's principled stand for the right to join a union free of coercion apparently didn't comport with Starbucks' "guiding principles"
As in the case of Daniel Gross, Starbucks has fired an IWW barista for engaging in a union protest. Clearly, Starbucks is attacking the heart of the SWU's Direct Action strategy.
