IWW

The image at the right was taken in 2004

Once again a step ahead of intermodal truckers across the US, Stockton truckers, led by the majority Sikh drivers, launched a strike over the issue of fuel prices on Monday, May 5, 2008.

While many truckers participated in various protest shutdowns on either April 1st or May 1st this year, the 300-400 Stockton truckers working out of the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railyards have shut down their industry until their demands have been met.

Rather than demand the fuel surcharges paid by shippers but often pocketed by companies rather than passed along to drivers, the Stockton truckers are asking for a dramatic increase in the rates paid in order to keep up with increases costs such as fuel.

On April 26, 2004 Stockton intermodal truckers, inspired by rumors circulating of an LA port trucker shutdown, were the first to join what became a strike of west cost port truckers on April 30, and by June had spread to most southern and eastern ports as well.

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By Reed Fujii - San Joaquin Record Staff Writer, May 06, 2008

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Disclaimer: The action described here was not organized by the IWW.

By Francine Brevetti - staff writer, inside bayarea.com, May 6, 2008

OAKLAND — About 80 striking truckers from Middle Harbor Road at the Port of Oakland were ticketed and dispersed Tuesday after some of them committed vandalism, police said.

Some drivers had damaged a truck's window while the driver was operating the rig, Sgt. Peter Lau said.

Nevertheless, the protesting truck drivers who own and operate their own rigs vowed to continue demonstrating at the port for the rest of the week. They say motor carrier firms have been underpaying them for diesel fuel.

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By Jim Crutchfield, IWW NYC GMB - Industrial Worker, May 2008

Members of the New York City IWW branch attended a rally on April 1 at a truck stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, where an estimated 300 drivers, mostly owner-operators, met to protest fuel price gouging and address the media. The rally was part of a nationwide work stoppage by truckers that reportedly shut down several major ports on the East and West Coasts and turned highways around Chicago into parking lots.

Drivers from as far away as Florida were present at the New Jersey gathering, along with many drivers’ family members and other supporters. Two Wobblies addressed the crowd and were warmly received. The union collected contact information from nearly 100 drivers, many of whom expressed great enthusiasm for continuing their agitation and solidifying their organization.

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Industrial Worker, May 2008.

On April 1, troqueros from New Jersey rallied on the New Jersey turnpike. On April 3, Houston followed. Truck drivers across the country participated in scattered actions to protest rising diesel fuel prices.

The price of diesel across the United States has risen by 21 per cent since the end of December 2007, from $3.35 to $4.05 per gallon, according to the US Energy Information Administration. A month before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the price of diesel was $1.71 per gallon.

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On May 17, join the IWW Starbucks Workers Union and allies around the world to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the union's founding in a Day of Action.

2008 is the 40th anniversary of the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., felled by a sniper's bullet as he stood in solidarity with sanitation workers striking for the right to form a labor union.

As a rabidly anti-union, poverty wage employer, Starbucks represents the unbridled greed and exploitation that King opposed. Indeed, the Starbucks Corporation demeans Dr. King's legacy by treating his federal holiday like a second-class occasion as it fails to pay the premium it pays on several other holidays on Dr. King's day. If Starbucks is really interested in "embracing diversity", it can start by respecting Dr. King's holiday.

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• Harvest Co-op fires 2 in Massachusetts
• Diesel price rally hits New Jersey turnpike
• Union rivalry leads to clash at Labor Notes conference

• No-Match letters a wedge between workers
• China coal profits cost blood and bone
• Argentina: Zanón workers took union, before factory

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By DAVID TABER - Jamaica Plain Gazette, May 2, 2008

SOUTH ST.—Two workers who were fired from the Jamaica Plain store of Harvest Co-op Markets in the last six months claim they were terminated for expressing support for union organizing efforts at the nonprofit supermarket. Harvest denies their accusations.

Diego Bencosme and Deon Furtick had both worked at Harvest for close to four years. They were both fired for failing to punch out when they went off shift—a rule they claim was rarely, if ever, enforced during their tenures.

They were fired without prior warnings, they said.

Both say they were fired because of their support for a current effort by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to organize at Harvest. Both have filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

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By By Alex Kane - The Indypendent, May 2, 2008

Brooklyn, New York—Around 150 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge with Make the Road New York and the Industrial Workers of the World NYC Branch for a May Day immigrant rights demonstration. Flanked by red and black Wobbly flags and signs that read “Opportunity for Immigrant Workers,” the demonstrators chanted slogans like “Si se puede,” and “El pueblo, unido, jamas tera vencido.”

There was a boisterous rally held before the march at Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn, with music, dancing and chanting. One song’s lyrics, roughly translated, said “we will overcome misery” and “we’ll have to break the chains.”

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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 Amy Zimmer - Metro New York, APR 4, 2008

MANHATTAN. The lawsuits against Starbucks — still steamed from a recent ruling by a California judge ordering to pay more than $100 million in tips and interests to baristas — are frothing over.

Jeana Barenboim, 22, a former barista at a Forest Hills Starbucks, filed a federal lawsuit against the coffee giant yesterday in the Southern District of New York. A similar suit was filed last week in Boston.

Like the California case, these former baristas claim they were forced to share tips with shift supervisors.

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To the Comrades of IWW

We would like to introduce ourselves to you; we are the Freeters'* Union. We are a Tokyo-based general union, established recently in the face of the out-of-control global situation that the neo-liberal capitalism is running rampant. As precarious workers suffering from working conditions that are becoming more and more fluid and amorphous, we are intensifying our struggles for freedom and survival.

At this moment one of our new campaigns is to organize the "Gas Station Union" to confront Kanto Toyu Co., LTD. – a Japanese member of the Shell Oil Group – that has begun to lay off an increasing number of part-time workers on the pretext of the rise of oil prices and financial instability. It is a necessity to fight gas station chain and the oil driven conglomerate which forcibly lays off its employees in order to make even bigger profits. We will continue to inform you about this campaign, so please keep an eye on our efforts.

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Headlines:

• Puerto Rican teachers defy government
• Scottish college sacks Unison steward, cuts jobs
• Maquila workers denounce NAFTA

Featured Articles:

• Metro Lighting a scab business
• Green unionism
• Review: End of America offers no alternatives, ignores unions

Download a free PDF copy of this issue.

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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.

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To truckers and media:

Our members and organizers in the trucking industry have been hearing about the called for April 1, 2008 trucker shut down.

The IWW is not organizing or calling for this shutdown, but supports all truckers taking action to improve their lives and protest the skyrocketing fuel, low pay, unpaid waits and all the other conditions that grow worse by the day.

Truckers unite! Only through organizing a union across the transportation industry can we begin to change this.

The IWW is committed to building a democratic, fighting union in the trucking industry whether you are an independent contractor driver or company driver, intermodal, LTL or over-the-road. Please contact us if you and your co-workers need support or are interested in making trucking a job worth keeping.

Motor Transport Workers IU 530 contacts:

• Pat Tresca- Midwest (224) 381-4088
• Billy Randel- New York (646) 645-6284

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Wild Edibles Continues to Lose Millions of Dollars Over Mistreatment of Workers

New York, NY- Large seafood wholesaler and retailer, Wild Edibles, is seeing its customer base rapidly erode with Sushi Samba, one of the nation's hottest sushi restaurants, cutting off purchases from the company until an employment dispute with workers is fairly resolved. Sushi Samba Park and Sushi Samba 7 join leading New York restaurants like Pastis, Union Square Cafe, La Goulue, and Mermaid Inn that have previously pulled out of Wild Edibles over concern for the treatment of employees there.

"We are very pleased that Sushi Samba has chosen to support the legal rights of workers at Wild Edibles," said Daniel Gross, the founding director of Brandworkers International, a non-profit workers' rights organization providing legal and advocacy assistance to the employees. "Wild Edibles' remaining customers would do well to consider playing a similarly positive role."

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Finally on 17 March, staff receive an email from Head of Adult Skills and Learning, Chris Minter, who is “pleased to announce” certain details of the privatisation of Leicester Adult Education College.

Minter tells us that this is “an exciting new opportunity to diversify the use of the college's facilities and income streams and will provide an excellent resource that fits well with our strategic priorities around employability.” In this new multi-agency initiative, Highcross Development Employment Hub is IN, Art and Design is OUT! Art and Design staff will be moved to inappropriate accommodation, some of these workers may well lose their jobs. So, non-vocational education gets the boot, while the kind of jobs training and advice which can be placed literally anywhere in the city gets prime position at the college.

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You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that something rotten is going on at Leicester Adult Education College. With job losses; staff being re-located; skilled people disappearing; restructuring, with staff having to do more than one job; people who’ve left not being replaced� it all adds up to one thing - Leicester Adult Education College is being set up to fail.

The Incredible Shrinking College

We’ve seen courses being streamlined, other courses disappearing. We’ve already seen the closure and privatisation of the Creative Writing School. The Art Department is visibly shrinking with the loss of one of its three rooms, and now the loss of yet another.

Saatchi & Saatchi, it isn’t!

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• Sustaining your Solidarity Union;
• Militancy in contracted shops;
• Race, gender, and sexuality in organizing;
• Success and failure in recent IWW campaigns;
• Industrial organizing beyond the GMB;
• Targeting producer market businesses; and
• The IWW's future in the present.

• Food Workers (iu460),
• Retail Workers (iu660),
• Education Workers (iu620),
• Health Care and Social Service Workers (iu610),
• Transportation Workers (dept 500),
• Construction Workers (dept 300), and more!

Hosted by one of the IWW's most dynamic branches, the Toronto IWW anticipates a blow out 2008 Organzing Summit with IWWs from all overthe continent and farther afield.

Download a registration form

For more details contact - iwwtoronto [at] gmail.com

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From - starbucksunion.org

Seattle, WA- As shareholders arrive at the Starbucks Annual Meeting today, members of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union and their supporters will greet them with leaflets highlighting the economic hardships faced by workers at the company and offering the workers' perspective on how to fix the recent plunge in its stock price.

"Maintaining a long-term, well-paid workforce is the key to lasting success at Starbucks," said Lucas Carter, a member of the IWW in Seattle. "If workers don't get enough work hours every week and they are struggling to pay the bills, how can management expect them to serve coffee with a smile?"

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