Submitted on Mon, 06/27/2005 - 8:59am
Fellow workers,
Below is the text of a short paper that I wrote on IHS issues for bicycle messengers. With the demise of the AFL's health and safety department, it resolves on us to once again pick up where they are falling behind. With that idea in mind, I present the first in what I hope to make a series of articles about Health & Safety in active IWW campaigns. It is a short paper on Industrial Health and Safety issues for one of the most dangerous jobs being performed every day in our cities, the bicycle messenger. I realize on rereading it that I neglected to write about shoulder injuries from heavy bags, which would of course be an issue under the ergonomics section and is probably quite similar to the high injury rate for mail carriers that use shoulder bags.
I would like to write more articles like this, so if you have a particularly hazardous job or an interesting environmental, health, or safety issue, contact me and I'll see what I can do. Especially if you think that it will be useful in your organizing.
Submitted on Mon, 06/27/2005 - 12:48am
In late March & late April of this year, an NLRB Administrative Law Judge heard testimony on the Nutraceutical / Fresh Organics dba The Real Food Co. case. A decision on the various unfair labor practices charges filed against Nutraceutical prior and subsequent to the abrupt closure of Real Foods/24th St. is expected imminently. Here are some details on the case culled from the hearing transcript. (Although not identified in this trannscript, the IWW is the union discussed herein)
By [email protected] - Sunday, Jun. 26, 2005
A SUMMARY OF THE RECENT NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ADMINISTRATIVE LAW HEARING CONCERNING CHARGES OF UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES FILED AGAINST FRESH ORGANICS, INC. DBA THE REAL FOOD COMPANY, A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF NUTRACEUTICAL CORP.
The source for this summary was primarily the transcript from the NLRB hearing. In certain instances, hearing exhibits were also relied upon to provide details. Following the hearing, fifteen or more citizens who'd attended sessions of the hearing met to compare notes and discuss salient aspects of the testimony. This meeting was helpful in terms of later culling material from the hearing transcript, creating a hearing outline, and arranging the material thematically.
Submitted on Sat, 06/25/2005 - 9:19pm
By CIMC - DR
On June 27, 1905, 186 labor visionaries, including Lucy Parsons, Eugene V. Debs, Mary "Mother" Jones, William Trautmann, Vincent Saint John, and Ralph Chaplin gathered at Brand's Hall in Chicago to hear Western Federation of Miners organizer William D. "Big Bill" Haywood open the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World with the following words: "Fellow workers...this is the Continental Congress of the working class. We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class from the slave bondage of capitalism". Some speech. Some union. The American labor movement would never be the same.
Nicknamed the Wobblies, the IWW sought to recruit unskilled and exploited immigrants, people of color, women and migrant farm workers who were excluded from craft unions of skilled workers organized by the AFL. Seeking to build the "One Big Union" across industrial lines, the IWW enthusiastically promoted the concept of working class solidarity by adopting the motto "An injury to One is an Injury to All", and the revolutionary tactics of direct action - which included sit down strikes, chain picketing, flying pickets, car caravans, and other organizing inovations. IWW organizing stretched from coast to coast - in factories, mills, mines, logging camps, agricultural fields, and shipping docks across the continent. Confronted with brutal attacks from both employers and the State, including the the murder of Wobbly activists [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] the union led "free speech" fights to defend the right of workers everywhere to organize, speak out and dissent. The IWW's vocal opposition to WWI also led to the arrest and imprisonment of 165 IWW organizers. In the decades that followed, the Wobblies continued to organize among marginalized workers - frequently ignored by mainstream business unions - and their vision of a militant, radical and democratic labor movement continues to inspire new organizing efforts to this day. An IWW Chronology
Now, one hundred years later, the IWW is gathering once again in Chicago to celebrate a rich legacy of struggle for the rights of working people. Read More
Submitted on Tue, 06/21/2005 - 12:08pm
By Diane Krauthamer, June 21, 2005.
StarbucksGeneral Distribution Workers Industrial Union 660
Submitted on Thu, 06/16/2005 - 10:46am
Saturday, June 18 - 12:00pm to 3:00pm:
IWW and Friends Return to the 17th St. and 1st Ave. in Manhattan Starbucks: Get an Organizer Her Damn Job Back!
Join a rowdy moving picket in front of the starbucks at 17th St and 1st Ave in New York City. Bring friends, drums, whistles, and spirit. If you stop in, tip but don't buy.
Sarah Bender was "separated" for allegedly mishandling six dollars. This happened one week after store manager Noura Glenn was overheard discussing her plans to fire Sarah for union activity.
So join us as we demand the unconditional reinstatement of Sarah Bender and an end to illegal union busting! An injury to one is an injury to all.
4:00pm to 7:00pm - Support the Union
The picket relocates. Celebrate the starbucks workers at 2nd Avenue and 9th St. who proudly went public as an IWW union on May 27th 2005! Show your support.
http://www.starbucksunion.org