Industrial Workers of the World - Municipal Transportation Workers Industrial Union 540

Striking back at bosses: solidarity networks and sexual assault

IWW.org Editor — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 03:48:31 +0000

By Juan Conatz - The Organizer, June 8, 2012

In the IWW, we sometimes have to deal with two different problems: How do we approach situations where we have left our job (but still have a problem with our employer) and how do we deal with harassment and assault in the workplace?

Wobblies in Seattle have taken on the first question. Wanting to build organizing skills and fight back against bosses and landlords in their area, they started the Seattle Solidarity Network (‘SeaSol’).

SeaSol is a network of volunteers, open to workers both employed and unemployed, that takes on workplace and housing fights through a strategy of escalation of tactics. For instance, a tenant is denied their security deposit. Attempts to contact the landlord are ignored or delayed. SeaSol will march in with 30 people and hand the landlord a demand letter telling them to give the renter their deposit in a certain amount of time or else. If the landlord doesn’t give in, pickets will follow, and so on.

Harassment and assault in the workplace is something that has been less thought about by union organizers or the left in general, even less than the fights SeaSol typically takes on. Some of us in the union have briefly addressed sexual harassment on shopfloor, but it’s still an ongoing conversation. Seemingly not talked about at all is the issue of assault, sexual or otherwise. During the 1990s (the latest period with statistics I could easily find), there was an average of 35,000 incidents of workplace sexual assault each year.

What should be our response when this happens? What can our response be? In the following situation, these two problems intersected, and Wobblies came up with a way to address it.

Please support fired CUPW Steward & IWW Organizer

IWW.org Editor — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:39:24 +0000

(Also available on Facebook if you’d rather.)

Reinstate postal worker shop steward.

Edmonton CUPW Shop Steward and IWW organizer Nick Drieger has been fired after many years of service at Canada Post. He was fired due to honking his horn at an action near Occupy Edmonton, who were not allowed on the university campus at the time.

His termination was based on

Attitude towards police.
A ticket for stunting (honking his horn).
Being out of his delivery area.
Activity on a wild cat strike when he was on vacation.

The plan for Tuesday February 14th is to fill their managers emails with letters of outrage over the conduct of firing this worker based on these charges.Thank you, solidarity, and lets fight to win. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Please begin sending emails and letters to the following people in response to Nick Driedger’s termination.

Wesam Haymour
Title:SPT TRANSPORTATION
Location: 9808 103 A AVE, T5J 2T6
Edmonton Alberta
Email: [email protected]">[email protected]

Brenda Young
Title MGR SHIFT
Location:12135 149 ST, T5L 5H2
Edmonton Alberta
Email: [email protected]">[email protected]

Robert Mccutcheon
Title DIR PLANT OPERATIONS
Location: 12135 149 ST T5L 5H2
Edmonton Alberta
Email: [email protected]">[email protected]

Azam Bacchus
Title: OFFICER OF LABOUR RELATIONS
Location: 12135- 149 ST T5L 5H2
Edmonton Alberta
Email: [email protected]">[email protected]

SAMPLE LETTER:

To: ________________

I am writing out of concern over the treatment of Shop Steward Nick Driedger, who has recently been dismissed. It is my understanding that Mr Nick Driedger advances the welfare and safety of his fellow workers in this role. It is hard to believe that someone as honest, positive, and hard working as Nick should be dismissed, especially in light of the charge discussed below.

Mr Nick Driedger has been accused of stunting, a charge of which he has not been found guilty. According to eyewitness testimony, he was merely honking his horn, which could only make him more visible as he drove through an area with many police and protestors. Also, according to eyewitnesses, he ceased after hearing shouting from the officers in question. The eyewitness testimony in his favour is substantial, and it is disturbing that Canada Post Corporation would find Nick Driedger guilty in advance of the verdict of a court of law.

I, ____________________ request that Nick Driedger be reinstated as a full time mail service courier with no harm to his seniority. I also request that any targeting of him due to his activities as a CUPW shop steward come to an immediate end.

IWW Couriers Union Demands Living Wage for Workers at Speedway Delivery and Messenger Service

x361943 — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:47:38 +0000

Couriers Launch Campaign to Improve Conditions Industry-Wide

SAN FRANCISCO – Friday, August 12, The IWW Couriers Union Organizing Committee publicly asserts the right of workers at Speedway Delivery and Messenger Service, and throughout the courier industry, to a living wage.

For many years workers in the courier industry have been subjected to shamefully low or wildly fluctuating compensation from employers. Couriers work day in and day out – working in trucks, on bikes, or on foot – in extremely dangerous conditions, under intense pressure to deliver parcels on time. While most couriers fulfill their ominous task dutifully, few find that their compensation fulfills the task of making ends meet. Living hand to mouth is the norm for the people on whose backs our metropolises thrive.

At San Francisco-based Speedway Delivery and Messenger Service, conditions are no better. In fact, they’re much worse. Bought by current owners Lori O’Rourke and Charlie Lutge in the 1980s from former owners who refused to deal with then-emerging unionizing efforts, Speedway has pushed working conditions below even non-union standards. Their couriers endure harassment and disrespectful treatment from management, are extorted for equipment replacements, and to top it off, make an insultingly low commission of about 35% per delivery (most companies pay 50%), or as little as $8.00 an hour. That’s almost 20% less than the prevailing San Francisco minimum wage of $9.92 an hour, which is still far too low for most Bay Area workers to live on.

'GRTC Transit Study Task Force': A Richmond Transit Riders Union Open Letter

x370724 — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:27:57 +0000

Richmond Transit Riders Union
220 West Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23220
[email protected]

Dear Mayor Dwight C. Jones, Council Persons and CEO John M. Lewis Jr.,

In regards to Councilpersons Tyler & Conner's paper calling for a 'GRTC Transit Study Task Force' [Ord. No. 2010-173], the Richmond Transit Riders Union understands that a similar study has already been presented. We are concerned that another such study would be redundant.

The Greater Richmond Transit Company's 387 page 'Comprehensive Operations Analysis' [ http://ridegrtc.com/images/GRTC_Final_COA.pdf ] was conducted over a three year period from 2004 – 2007 outlining many strategies, trends, regional demographics, and grievances taken directly from the ridership.

Councilperson Tyler stated during the September 23, 2010 'Governmental Operations Committee' meeting that he had not yet read this analysis.

GRTC's study already contains valuable information and suggestions, even possible solutions that would help to increase ridership and move GRTC towards a more equitable and efficient public transportation system.

31st Street Transit Co-operative

x344543 — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:44:59 +0000

Originally posted here.

Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood has been without accessible bus service for over a decade. The CTA’s 31st st. bus route was eliminated as a ‘cost-cutting measure’ in 1998, leaving schools, businesses, and residents isolated from the city’s expansive transit network. The Little Village community, LVLHS, and the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization spent years mounting an unsuccessful campaign to reopen/expand the CTA’s 31^st St. route; as of the recent cuts in bus service throughout Chicago, which have resulted in the loss of nine express routes and over 1,000 transit jobs, it has become clear that progress is impossible unless members of the community take control of their transit options.

Public bus users fight increasing fares, route cuts

x370724 — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:19:49 +0000

Orginally Published for RVAnews [ http://rvanews.com/news/public-bus-users-fight-increasing-fares-route-cuts/28781 ]

Public bus users fight increasing fares, route cuts
by Erica Terrini
June 8, 2010

.Rushing down East Broad Street on a Wednesday morning, 19-year-old Laura McWilliams dons her work uniform and a smile as she talks about her son, who she supports with her job on Virginia Commonwealth University’s MCV Campus.

As a life-long rider, McWilliams says she relies on the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) to get to work every day, traveling approximately 20 minutes from her apartment in Henrico Country to Downtown Richmond.

The roaring engine of the GRTC bus can be heard almost as soon as it becomes visible, and for many riders like McWilliams, the far off sound is as routine as their morning cup of coffee. However, with proposals of increasing fare prices and inaccessibility by cutting routes, public transportation is taking a back seat when it comes to funding, and commuters are beginning to notice.

San Francisco Bay Area IWW statement on Oscar Grant (executed by BART police)

x344543 — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:15:59 +0000

The cameraphone videos which have surfaced on YouTube seem like a scene out of some futuristic movie. But the cold-blooded murder is all-too real, and is one more tragic body in the capitalist carnage that is already hundreds of years old.

Police brutality and racism are just as much parts of capitalism as the real estate brutality that we are all facing. The ruthlessness and seeming irrationality of the BART murder is no different that that of a broker who evicts a family that can't pay their mortgage. Capitalism is the only social system that sees overproduction as a problem -- when too many people have homes, they must be evicted until houses become profitable again. It is the same with us the workers, who have to sell our labor to live and can only live as long as we can sell our labor. Capitalism has always seen us, not as human beings, but just as one more thing to be bought and sold. This is why it has been starving the workers, especially those from ethnic minorities, in all the industrial cities of America for the last thirty years. It is the same kind of "market adjustment" that is happening with houses right now. They are both done with the same ruthlessness and they both require armed thugs called police.

The capitalist media will claim that this is a case of particularly bad cops, just as they claim that the economic crisis comes from bad bankers. But bad cops and bad bankers will always exist as long as there are cops and bankers, and there will always be cops and bankers as long as we allow ourselves to be robbed at work, as long as those who rob us need men in ties to invest their stolen wealth and thugs to protect it. Also, since our exploiters are only a tiny minority of society, they must divide up the majority. In the US, this , this means racism first and foremost. As Malcolm X said, "You can;'t have capitalism without racism."

To get rid of a system that relies on murderers, the workers of Oakland and the entire world have to develop a revolutionary form of unionism, one that recognizes the inherent opposition between workers and bosses and which wants to end exploitation. The Oakland General Strike of 1946, and the workers occupation of Republic Windows in 2008 both give us a glimpse of how powerful we really are.

We want to express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Oscar Grant, and on the issue of this police execution, we call for the immediate arrest of the police involved on charges of first-degree murder.

IWW statement for March 6 Day of Action

x344543 — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:00:15 +0000

Statement for March 6 International Day of Action in Solidarity with the Workers of Iran

The International Solidarity Commission of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an international rank-and-file labor union, warmly extends our solidarity with the workers of Iran, on this, the occasion of the March 6th Global Day of Action. Reflecting on the 100+ year history of our own union, we in the IWW recognize that real victories for workers have never come without struggle, hardship, and--all too often--repression. For years now, the Iranian workers have bravely faced down brutal opposition from government forces, right-wing clerics and their supporters, and of course, the bosses themselves. They have paid a terrible price for their efforts to bring about justice in the workplace and in society. We know that workers, organizers and activists have been harassed, threatened, beaten, fined, fired, whipped, jailed and worse, simply for exercising their right to organize.

Wobbly Cat!

x357537 — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 02:20:00 +0000

Hey everyone

IWW General Assembly is coming up. After two days of debating and a rally at the Shattuck Cinema, you can get a little bay area sun and exercise at the WobblyCat! This is going to be a great IWW themed bike race for local bike messengers and Wobblies coming from around the country.

The way it works is like this. We will all be meeting at a designated spot in San Francisco, where you will get a manifest listing all the stops you need to make around the city. (Out of towners won't have to make as many stops as locals, don't worry). We'll be visiting places like Dashiell Hammett's house (the Pinkertons tried to pay him $5000 to kill

Quicksilver Messengers submit their demands. It was almost TOO easy.

x357537 — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 22:26:00 +0000

What happens when you have four dues paying wobblies, plus one treasurer of the SF Bike Messenger Association, plus one old wob from the 70’s, and a boss that could care less about the messenger division, all in one shop? In the case of Quicksilver Messenger in San Francisco—anything you want—and it was very easy.

We have just gone from being one of the worst messenger companies in the industry, to one of the best (and legal companies don’t count, since they charge their clients an arm and a leg). Actually, we haven’t gotten the paycheck to prove it yet, but it should be coming shortly.

We wanted our rates to be increased. We also wanted to change the zone map, because it was just not worth it to go to certain places. The fact that a delivery to Van Ness and Market gets you the same amount of money as a delivery to California and Divisadero is (I mean—was) completely ridiculous. And to add insult to injury, we were not even getting the 49% commission rate we thought we were getting because the company would first subtract a booking charge, making our rate more like 35-40%. That is illegal by the way, but we are going to let bygones be bygones, since from now on, we are going to be getting a straight 49% commission.