Industrial Workers of the World - Seattle GMB

Seattle IWW Local 650 Day of Action Round Up Against Grassroots Campaign

IWW.org Editor — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 01:00:39 +0000

By Seattle IWW - It's Going Down, August 13, 2018

Report back on recent day of action in solidarity with Seattle IWW local 650 who are fighting against an illegal lockout by Grassroots Campaigns.

Fellow Workers from the Seattle IWW Industrial Union local 650 (IU650) at Grassroots Campaigns (GCI) are facing an illegal office closure by the GCI bosses in retaliation for an Unfair Labor Practice Strike action protesting egregious labor violations. Just under a week after the office closed, Wobblies at the Seattle GCI job branch called for a National Day of Action on Friday, August 10th. Wobblies in other GCI offices around the country are starting to face increased heat from management’s aggressive union busting. Most are fighting back – and winning. Here’s a quick roundup from each of the seven actions.

IWW Canvassers On Strike, Nationwide Actions in Support

IWW.org Editor — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 00:43:26 +0000

By Seattle IWW - It's Going Down, July 31, 2018

Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. (GCI) is a nationwide, for-profit canvassing contractor which fundraises for progressive nonprofits. GCI canvassers can be seen on countless street corners in large cities and college towns, talking to folks about groups like Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and Doctors Without Borders. Despite the company’s claims of a “progressive” platform, its record of worker abuse and union busting is extensive.

For several years now, GCI workers have attempted to organize with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Building interest has not been too much of a challenge, since idealistic folks get recruited for “organizing” and “activist” jobs, but soon find that miserable conditions lead to high turnover rates. New hires are often sympathetic to any drive to bring about change.

The larger hurdle in the past has been how to navigate GCI’s blatant disregard for labor law and the challenges of keeping a campaign going in the face of constant attrition. Past drives in Portland and Ann Arbor laid some of the groundwork for how to organize, but ultimately fell short of their goals and provided valuable insight into the company’s strategies.

The current campaign, originating in Seattle, has thus far been the most successful. Although workers there have faced countless abuses since going public in February, they have managed to expand the public presence of their IWW IU650 campaign to New Orleans and wider, while building out a network of support and solidarity across the country. A number of small victories so far, such as a $2/hr raise in New Orleans and the resignation of several abusive corporate-installed managers in Seattle, have fueled this rise.

GCI has not made the task of organizing easy. For a week-and-a-half in June, the company illegally locked out its Seattle office in retaliation for a union action demanding better training and onboarding for new hires. The lockout was broken through nationwide direct action and legal threats, but since reopening the company has waged an all-out war on its workers. Workers around the country have been faced with direct sabotage by the company and numerous illegal unilateral changes to working conditions. To top it all off, three workers in different cities were illegally fired in July amidst a cloud of blatant lies and deceptions from the company.

With this latest attack, GCI workers across the country were forced to fight back. On Friday, July 27, Seattle IU650 members kicked things off with a strike against the company’s unfair labor practices. In seven other cities, actions took place aimed at building the union’s shop-floor presence and forcing the company to do right.

IU650 members are united in demanding the rehiring of all those impacted by the company’s illegal union busting, improvements to the company’s harsh quota system, and protections in the case of bad weather, street harassment, and other issues that might force canvassers to drop shifts. In addition, they are working to fight unique local challenges ranging from lockouts to laundry.

Dispatch from the Picket Line: IWW Fights Lockouts in Seattle

IWW.org Editor — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 01:18:23 +0000

Seattle IWW - It's Going Down, July 25, 2018

The union drive at Grassroots Campaigns Incorporated (GCI) has been nothing short of profound. Throughout months of organizing we built an unparalleled culture of resistance and solidarity and a tangible sense that we don’t need bosses to get work done.

At the beginning of May we realized that something was off. May and June are typically the biggest hiring periods with the office frequently swelling to 40 or 50 canvassers by midsummer. This year, though, the interim directors sent by corporate were simply not bringing in new people.

Thanks to shop floor agitation and legal threats, we were able to force the company to begin hiring by the end of May, but we soon found ourselves with a new problem. New hires were being made Field Managers (FMs) on their fourth or fifth days. FMs are similar to shift leads at other jobs but with extra paperwork, no real power, and often no increase in pay. When new workers should have been learning the skills needed to canvass, they were instead being asked to supervise other people.

These new hires felt like they were being pressured to quit by being given such responsibilities so quickly. They joined the union to do something about it. We sympathized with their issue and decided to March on the Boss on Friday, June 8 to demand that new hires get at least two weeks on the job before being asked to take on FM responsibilities. We reasonably expected the current director would accede to our demand on the spot, but, because of the company’s consistent and blatant lawbreaking practices, we wanted to have the agreement in writing, which was something the company was incredibly averse to.

Ten of us, including all of the recent new hires, entered the director’s office shortly before our morning circle. We delivered our demand and, as expected, she agreed verbally. She stated that she would get us something in writing by the end of the day but that she needed to talk to Laurie Owen (the company’s General Counsel and chief union buster) to find out exactly what she was allowed to write. She agreed that one of our members could stay a bit late while she waited for approval.

Most of the office went out to canvass, and the hours ticked by. By noon it was starting to become clear that Laurie wouldn’t give us anything. The director was told to write nothing down, although she was assured she had discretion over the policy to ensure all new hires have at least two weeks on the job before taking on FM responsibilities. At lunchtime, one union member pointed out that because we had received a promise to have something in writing by the end of the day, the day couldn’t be over until we had it. We all agreed and decided that if we didn’t have something by the time we returned from canvassing we would remain on the clock discussing workplace conditions with our manager until she gave us what she had promised.

After the afternoon debriefs, seven people found themselves in the director’s office. For the next four and a half hours, there was continuous discussion about workplace conditions with the manager interspersed with songs and teach-ins. We were told repeatedly that no one would have to leave or be forced to clock out. At 9:45pm, we finally received a written notice from the manager that she could not commit policy to writing. Having forced a response that would greatly aid in future legal matters, we left feeling elated at the power of direct action.

In IU650, the 9th of the month has become something of a harbinger of major events. On March 9, we voted 15-2 in an NLRB election for federal recognition of our existing union. On April 9, our contract was signed. On May 9, we held a March on the Boss regarding holiday pay that coincided with the New Orleans office filing for an NLRB election. June 9, the day after our sit-in, proved equally momentous as it turned out to be the first day of our lockout.

We had been preparing for a lockout for the better part of a month. While its immediate arrival was somewhat of a surprise, we were more than prepared to meet it head on. The very first day we received calls from corporate stating that the Seattle office was suspended, but we showed we were more than capable of working even without an open office. This act struck existential fear into management, who now knew we could do our jobs without them. We also had a solid legal case against them, thanks to their admission that the lockout was retaliation for the June 8 action.

Typical companies might obscure retaliatory actions behind a thin smoke screen. GCI, though, has been so blatant and consistent with its lawbreaking that even the NLRB can’t help but find sympathy with our arguments.

We continued rolling out a campaign of direct action and workplace self-organization. On June 14th, we launched a phone zap against the corporate office with the aim of getting hundreds, if not thousands, to call GCI’s headquarters and demand they end the lockout. Coinciding with this, we began running our own autonomous canvass in the streets of Seattle designed to build support for the union and get people to join in on the phone zap. This powerful collective action gave us a profound sense of what it means to work for ourselves on our own terms and in control of our own labor.

Picketing started that same day. On Thursday and Friday we held spirited informational pickets outside our locked office in Fremont. We drew attention around the neighborhood and the community. Our numbers swelled from 30 attendees the first day to over 50 on the second. Simultaneously, we received solidarity from around the country with pickets at GCI offices in Denver, Raleigh-Durham, Philadelphia, and at the HQ in Boston. Taking to the streets was both a means of catharsis and community building and, when placed in a national context, had the potential to put serious pressure on GCI’s business.

We continued to organize over the next few days. We fleshed out our plans for a direct action escalation campaign. Fortunately, those plans became unnecessary on Wednesday, June 20, when almost everyone in the office received a new set of phone calls from corporate: the office would reopen on Thursday. The lockout was over. We had won.

Fundraiser to Support Members of IU650

IWW.org Editor — Tue, 17 Jul 2018 23:16:57 +0000

We’ve received an incredible outpouring of solidarity during and since the end of out lockout. While we may be able to win back the lost two weeks of wages through court battles down the line, many of our workers may have trouble making rent and paying other vital bills this month with the short paychecks. Any support you can give will go a long way towards helping those folks out and making sure we can stand strong as we continue our campaign.

Click here to donate to IU650’s hardship fund, which will directly benefit our fellow workers who experience financial hardship as a result of GCI’s illegal and immoral lockout.

Statement from IU650

We are not the first canvassing shop to threaten to Unionize. We aren’t even the first canvassing shop to follow up on that threat with an NLRB election.

But in a canvassing shop when you go down that path you always hear the same threat. The Bosses will close down your shop. Thats illegal, so they whisper it, they tell it through innuendo, they imply it with stories about other offices that tried.

On June 11th IU 650 Seattle was informed that operations were suspended at the office. We were locked out in response to legally protected concerted action and they were, you know, basically closing the shop.

We launched into action. We took legal recourse. We reached out to our friends and supporters asking them to help with our call in campaign. We reminded Grassroots Campaigns that we work in the street. You can’t lock us out of the street. We organize for a living, they cannot expect us not to organize.

We picketed. Wobblies in multiple cities, from Seattle to Boston took direct action on picket lines. Our IU 650 friends in the Deep South stood up for us.

And people called. Eventually they heard us.

The Seattle office of Grassroots Campaigns reopened its doors on June 21st and the members of IU 650 have returned to work. The terms are still under negotiation, many workers have been forced to change campaigns and it has of course provided cover for yet another round of unilateral changes.

But that office is open.

If you are a canvasser. If you organize folks for a living and your boss tells you that you will be punished for organizing with your coworkers. If they subtly imply that canvassing shops get closed down for organizing.

Seattle says they can’t.

Thank you so much for all of your help.

Seattle, WA: August 13th Solidarity Against Hate Reportback

IWW.org Editor — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 00:24:51 +0000

By the IWW Greater Seattle General Defense Committee Local 24 - It's Going Down, August 18, 2017

The IWW Greater Seattle General Defense Committee (GDC) put a wide-reaching public call-out to amass a significant contingent of individuals and organizations to confront yet another hateful “Freedom” rally by Joey Gibson and Patriot Prayer scheduled for August 13th. Sure enough, the rally was attended by white supremacist groups like Cascade Legion, the self-proclaimed “Western-chauvinist” Proud Boys, Anthony Parish the homophobic street preacher, and many other far-right bigots marching in the name of “free speech”.

This was the third time this year that Joey’s crew descended upon our city to espouse their reactionary prejudices and ethno-nationalist, extreme-right fascist politics in our public space. This is the same crew that rallied with the likes of Jeremy Christian; he is the one who, this May, stabbed three people on a Portland MAX train (murdering two) for standing up against his Islamophobic tirade against two young women.

For this counter-protest, we intended to meet their rally in Westlake Park and confront them where they stood, stop their march, shame them, and disrupt their event. We assigned marshal roles to a small coalition of the GDC and other chosen leftist organizations in order to keep our march safe from outside threats and ensure smooth coordination throughout. Our marshals were specifically trained and practiced for this role.

We didn’t know what our numbers would be, which made it difficult to prepare in advance. We set several tactical goals, planning for numbers as high as 200, but we made fallback plans for fewer. The terrorist attack in Charlottesville on Saturday changed everything, and overnight, the number of attendees for our Sunday march grew exponentially. We suddenly found ourselves side by side with hundreds of people who didn’t necessarily share our objectives and who had a very different understanding of what confronting fascism means.

We marched, because that seemed like the right thing to do. As we got within a two block radius of Westlake Park, The Seattle Police Department, along with Bellevue PD, Tukwila PD, and Renton PD, flanked us and barred our path at every turn towards the direction of the rally. The bloc and other various brave attendees made a break down an alley to cut through, but were met by SPD at the other end – who relentlessly hosed the charge down with pepper spray and stole their banners. The SPD would later re-tweet photos of a seized banner and picket sign handles, calling them “weapons”. One was arrested.

Treated by medics and reconsolidated with the main contingent of the march, we continued together again. Road by road, riot police wielding batons, pepper spray, and grenade launchers lined every intersection’s only entry towards Westlake. We eventually stopped. We waited and amassed before the police. SPD, seemingly threatened after being covered in harmless silly string, responded with pepper spray and even launched blast balls directly into the center of the densely crowded intersection. Another marcher was arrested. One person with a head wound had to be evacuated to Harborview hospital, and many others were treated by medics on the spot. Despite this, SPD officially claimed to the press that there were no injuries.

A call went out that the Westlake rally was over, and that we had won. This call was a miscommunication on our end that ultimately resulted from faulty intelligence that indicated a dispersal order was given at Westlake – and before it could be confirmed, the word eventually morphed down the chain into a story that the fascists left the park early. Nonetheless, the call was given and acted upon. We were turned back to Denny Park. Smaller groups of the bloc attempted to divert down other roads towards Westlake again, only to be stopped. Another arrest was made. Meanwhile, many gleeful activists returned to Denny Park to call it a victory. We do not feel that there was a victory.

While Gibson cancelled the Patriot Prayer march, we weren’t able to confront the fascists at their rally. We were turned away from the only objective we had left. We achieved a goal of not letting them march, but at the cost of the safety of our people. The trust of the committed antifascists who were there that day was betrayed. We were glad to hear that many folks nonetheless managed to make it into Westlake for a confrontation, but only by doing so separately from the larger group. We commend all of their initiative and dedication.

The action attracted people who had no interest in confronting fascism, or any concept of what it means. They wanted a parade. They wanted a parade that obeyed police direction and showed off their 200-foot-long constitution banner. They believed that this was antifascist. It’s almost funny. Fascists love parades, the constitution, and cops.

We failed to plan for the numbers that showed up on Sunday. We chose a tactic that was ineffective. We put people in danger by failing to create a separation between the parade group and the actual antifascist action. We didn’t even understand what was happening until it was too late. We worked with groups that didn’t share the same objectives. We worked with groups that could never possibly share our objectives. We will be much more mindful about this in the future.

Our primary goal was not met. Our people were put in harm’s way. Our marshals were spread thin – straddling two masses at times, doing our very best to ensure that the perimeter was covered adequately. Our marshals and medics were continually distracted from their duties by the loud demands of paraders to police and suppress the antifascists for whom the march was organized. Not only did this compromise the safety of everyone, it created needless conflict between committed antifascists and those who were in over their heads. The actions of those who came for a parade sabotaged the goals of the antifascists and enabled the likes of Patriot Prayer.

We fucked up. It won’t be the last time, but we learned a lot from our mistakes. Over the next few weeks and months we’ll be thinking a lot about what happened and working on ways to improve our strategies.

It Took Direct Action to Make This Boss Pay Seattle’s New Minimum Wage

x344543 — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 01:07:23 +0000

By Chelsea Harris - Labor Notes, July 23, 2015

“I don’t know who you people are!” barked Joe Walker, the owner of Pandora’s Adult Cabaret, a Seattle-area strip club, to the workers gathered in his office. “Why don’t you all go flip burgers!”

But despite this confrontational language—typical of how he often spoke to employees—within hours Walker would give in to their demand for the back pay he owed them.

As a boss, Walker is abhorrent, showing no respect for or concern for the safety of his club’s servers or dancers. Employees had horror stories of working around bodily fluids and other filth with no safety procedures, frequent illness with no health benefits or sick leave, and dancers being stalked and sexually assaulted at the club.

Add to this abusive language and shady bookkeeping. Managers had told bartenders and servers not to report tips. Instead, managers were reporting employee tips as $5 a week.

On April 1 the Seattle minimum wage went up to $11 per hour (the first step in a process towards a $15 per hour minimum wage, which won’t go into effect for two to six years).

But two weeks later, Walker was still paying his servers the old minimum wage of $9.47. When Alyssa, a server at the club, asked when they could expect a wage increase, she was fired.

Lindsay, another server fed up with Walker’s hostility whenever she asked about wages, put in her two weeks’ notice—but was promptly fired too. “You’re beneath this job,” he told her.

Unfortunately for him, Lindsay is in a union: the Seattle branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (the “Wobblies”), which anyone can join, except people with the power to hire and fire. After meeting with the union’s Seattle general organizing committee, Lindsay and Alyssa began an escalation plan.