IWW

Starbucks fires another barista for union activity

Cole Dorsey

Grand Rapids firing comes in the midst of Unfair Labor Practice charges being investigated by the NLRB against Starbucks.

Grand Rapids, MI (06/06/2008) - Starbucks terminated a barista active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union today as part of its ongoing effort to combat a growing movement of employees pushing for a living wage and secure work hours. The barista, Cole Dorsey, was fired after two years of service while he was coordinating a union recruitment drive at Starbucks stores in Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids Starbucks Union and Spanish CNT announce global day of action

Starbucks workers hold press conference on May 1st 2008.

Grand Rapids Starbucks Union and the Seville local of the Spanish CNT have announced a Global Day of Action against Starbucks July 5th.

Day to protest recent firing of CNT member in Spain and continuing anti-union discrimination in Grand Rapids

Twenty New York IWW members fired

Twenty IWW members have been fired from a food distributing warehouse in New York.

May 28, 2008

Flaum Appetizing, a kosher food distributor, terminated 20 IWW members last week. The IWW had a strong presence at Flaum, with about two-thirds of the warehouse being union members. Workers had been struggling for respect from the boss for almost a year before the firings occurred.

IWW Launches Second Phase of National Campaign

Save Our NBS

A press release from the IWW outining its plans to organise the UK's National Blood Service.

IWW launches second phase of fight against blood service centralisation plans.

The IWW is fighting the closure of 10 blood processing centres across England. This is the largest campaign yet attempted by the IWW in the UK (the BIROC), and has led to large scale regional mobilisations, and the distribution of 55,000 leaflets and 5000 targeted workplace bulletins.

Calgary 1919: The Birth of the OBU and the General Strike - Eugene Plawiuk

One Big Union: Miners in 1919

Eugene Plawiuk's history of the Calgary general strike of 1919, which started off as a sympathy strike for the Winnipeg general strike and soon escalated into their own struggle for union recognition.

The One Big Union was founded a mere two months before it was baptized by the Winnipeg General Strike. The founding Convention was held in the Calgary Labour Temple (which still stands today, though it has been converted into a Chinese Restaurant).

The Edmonton General Strike of 1919 - Eugene Plawiuk

Workers on the streets of Winnipeg, 1919

Eugene Plawiuk's account of the Edmonton general strike of 1919 which was sparked off in solidarity with the general strike in Winnipeg,

In May of 1919 a heat wave crossed the province. Edmonton had reached temperatures of 85 degrees. Like the heat wave a mood of union militancy was in the air across Alberta, indeed across Western Canada. A strike wave would soon erupt sweeping the West like a prairie fire.

The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia - Ian Bedford

A short critical, but generally sympathetic, assessment of the Australian Wobblies.

From; Labour History no. 13, (Journal of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History), Nov. 1967.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD IN AUSTRALIA
IAN BEDFORD

Memoirs of the I.W.W. [Australia] - Bill Beattie

Recollections of struggles in the years around the First World War - by a former Australian Wobbly.

From; Labour History no. 13, (Journal of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History), Nov. 1967.

MEMOIRS OF THE I.W.W. [Australia]
Bill Beattie

Glasgow and the Wobblies

Workers' riot in George Square, centre of Glasgow, 1919

The Industrial Workers of the World's influence in Glasgow is not so well known, but it had considerable influence on the shop stewards movement in the period around the First World War:

"It was perhaps a natural development that one of the strongest branches of the Advocates of Industrial Unionism should be in the Singer Sewing Machine Works at Kilbowie, Clydebank, which employed some 12,000 workers. Singers was primarily an American firm, but it had established itself in Europe, and exerted an effective monopoly in the manufacture of sewing machines.

Anarchy, precarity, and the revenge of the IWW: An interview with Starbucks union organiser Daniel Gross

Interview with IWW organizer Daniel Gross where he discusses 'solidarity unionism,' the innovative organizing model that has made gains for Starbucks workers where bureaucratic unions have failed.

In this wide-ranging interview with IWW organizer Daniel Gross conducted by the UK-based Now or Never!, Gross discusses the innovative worker-controlled organizing model, known as solidarity unionism, that has made gains for Starbucks workers where the bureaucratic union model has failed.

Mobilising educators

Greek university occupation: The education sector has recently become an important arena of struggle both in the UK and abroad

A conference on education could bring together three out of the four major class struggle federations in the UK under one house this June, to discuss plans for organising across the UK.

This June looks likely to see a resurgence in organising for the education sector, with an anarchist networking meeting involving three federations and individuals from around the country.

Super Size My Pay - Fast food workers in New Zealand organise for better pay and conditions, 2005-6

Super-size my pay!

In New Zealand, hundreds of fast food workers waged an innovative campaign called Super-Size My Pay during 2005-06. This is one worker's overview and analysis of the campaign.

This text is taken from the December 2006 issue of the Industrial Workers of the World Australia's newsletter, Direct Action.

Direct action victory on health and safety at Starbucks, 2006

Making work safer through direct action - Daniel Gross and Joe Tessone recount the actions of workers winning a small but significant victory on health and safety at a Chicago Starbucks outlet in 2006.

Requests have been routinely made and ignored for the purchase of a stepladder. It is vital for our safety that we have a stepladder available to use for such tasks as changing light bulbs, reaching boxes on high shelves, and cleaning ceiling tiles. Currently, we are forced to balance ourselves on unstable café tables to accomplish tasks in hard to reach places.

Class collaboration - old and new, and Open letter to the CNT, 1937

"Class collaboration - old and new", a timely reminder of working class political experience by Joseph Wagner, and A. Shapiro’s Open letter to the CNT which criticised its actions during the Spanish Civil War.

Published in the IWW's One Big Union Monthly, August, 1937

IWW warehouse workers branch sacked

Members of the Industrial Workers of the World, organises at New York warehouses were sacked over the festive period, in retaliation for their successful unionising drive.

On January 2nd 2007 at 5:00AM workers from the Food Industry and Allied Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World, I.U. 460/640) and supporters will bring in the New Year with a march and picket line.

The 2005 Northwest Airlines strike

A short history, account and analysis of the 2005 strike of mechanics and cleaners at Northwest Airlines against cuts in jobs, wages and benefits, and the lessons it holds for workers in future.

Our perspective... was simple: “What will it take to win this strike?”

Interview with IWW UK members and Freedom, 2006

"Why I'm a wobbly" - Three members of the Industrial Workers of the World, from different political and working backgrounds, explain why they joined the IWW, and how they see their union.

1913: Wheatland Hop Riot

Wheatland Hop Riot commemorative plaque

A brief history of the riot that occured at Wheatland in Northern California after a meeting of farm labourers of the radical union the IWW was broken up by police.

Agricultural labour in the hop fields of California was amongst the most strenuous, badly paid and time consuming labour that a worker could undertake in early 20th century America. The situation of the hop pickers who worked at the Durst Ranch, the single largest employer of agricultural workers in the state, near the Northern California town of Wheatland in 1913, was no different.

1927: Colorado miners strike and Columbine Mine massacre

Short history of a strike by miners in Colorado in 1927 and the massacre of strikers at the Columbine mine by the state militia. The strike lead to an almost complete shut down of the mining industry in the state.

For the fifty years prior to 1927, the struggles in the Colorado mines had been a flashpoint for labour relations throughout the mining industry and had been marked by many strikes, aborted uprisings and confrontations between miners and mine owners, and the state militia.

Starbucks gets Wobbly - Embattled baristas turn to IWW

Starbucks Wobblies and their supporters at an IWW rally

The IWW continue to organise Starbucks baristas in the USA.

By Mischa Gaus - In These Times, October 4, 2006

When Joe Tessone and his fellow Starbucks baristas walked into a pep rally with management at their store in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood in August, the bosses were ready.

Syndicate content