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Welcome to the official site of the Industrial Workers of the World. Preamble to the IWW Constitution.
Updated: 1 hour 20 min ago

Bienvenue sur IWW.org

Sat, 05/22/2010 - 12:56pm

Vous êtes sur le site officiel des Travailleurs Industriels du Monde. Ici vous trouverez à peu près tout ce dont vous avez besoin pour rejoindre l'IWW et commencer à organiser vos lieux de travail et construire un grand syndicat au sein de votre communauté. La plupart des informations contenues ici traitent des Etats-unis et du Canada, mais nous avons aussi des liens vers d.autres sites IWW gérés ailleurs.

L'IWW est une organisation syndicale pour tous les travailleurs, un syndicat dédié à l'organisation des travailleurs sur leur lieu de travail, dans leurs industries et leurs communautés. Les membres des IWW organisent les travailleurs pour obtenir de meilleures conditions aujourd.hui et construisent pour demain un monde économique démocratique. Nous voulons que nos entreprises fonctionnent au profit des ouvriers et des communautés plutôt que pour une poignée de patrons et leur exécutif.

Nous sommes les Travailleurs Industriels du Monde parce que nous nous organisons industriellement. Ceci signifie que nous organisons tous les travailleurs produisant les mêmes biens ou fournissant les mêmes services dans un syndicat, plutôt que de les diviser par secteurs d.activité, ainsi nous pouvons mettre en commun notre force et faire triompher nos revendications ensemble. Depuis que l'IWW a été fondé en 1905, nous avons apporté des contributions significatives aux combats des travailleurs à travers le monde et nous sommes fiers de notre tradition visant à nous organiser indépendamment de critères sexuels, ethniques et raciaux bien avant que de telles méthodes soient courantes.

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Global Day of Action Against Starbucks - Belfast Picket

Sat, 07/05/2008 - 3:04pm

As part of the Global Day of Action against Starbucks called by the AIT/IWA and IWW Organise! and the WSM picketed Starbucks in Belfast today (5th July) to demand the reinstatement of Monica, a member of the anarcho-syndicalist member working in their central Seville outlet, and Cole Dorsey, an IWW member who was fired by Starbucks for organising in their Grand Rapids, Michican, shop.

Organise! and the WSM picketed Starbucks in Belfast city centre today from 12 to 1 pm. Despite the miserable weather around 12 people joined the picket and leafleted passers by and potential customers outside the coffee shop. At the start of the picket 3 people had gone inside to leaflet customers and staff. There was a very positive response to the picket however one person was falsely accused of assaulting a Starbuck's member of staff after leafleting staff and customers inside.

While Starbucks present themselves as a trendy, ethical corporation when it comes to their own workers they are ruthless union-busters determined to stop their employees organising. Monica was fired on the 24th of April without notice. She had worked in the central Seville branch of Starbucks for a year and a half when her manager suddenly claimed she "created problems with her workmates". She had resistged management when they made people work public holidays without extra pay. She refused to attend work meetings outside working hours where no pay or time in lieu was offered. Her sacking came after she asked about another worker who had ben fired. The store manager had told her on several occasions that she must have nothing to do with unions.

Barely a month later, in Grand Rapids, Michican, USA, Starbucks fired Cole Dorsey on June 6th. Cole had over two years of service and was active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union.

Originally posted here

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Starbucks Union Statement on Closure of 600 Stores

Sat, 07/05/2008 - 2:51pm
IWW Starbucks Workers Union, StarbucksUnion.org

July 1, 2008

Statement of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union on the Announcement of 600 Starbucks Store Closures

"The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is deeply troubled that management's numerous missteps are resulting in more serious hardships for baristas, bussers, and shift supervisors.

To ensure transparency, Starbucks should immediately disclose the locations it intends to close and outline its severance plan. Starbucks and its CEO Howard Schultz must minimize the number of layoffs, assure adequate notice to affected families, and offer severance pay which is fair. Employees and their families deserve to be able to safeguard their futures.

If Starbucks is serious about distinguishing itself from competitors like McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts, Schultz should stop prohibiting full-time status for retail hourly employees and improve a health care plan which insures a lower percentage of workers than Wal-Mart's. And the company should stop wasting millions of dollars on its union-busting lawyers and PR professionals at Akin Gump and Edelman."

Related Stories:

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Global Day of Action Will Protest Starbucks’ Anti-Union Terminations

Mon, 06/30/2008 - 6:35pm

Coordinated Actions Across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America Could Be Largest Ever Against Coffee Chain

For Immediate Release:

IWW Starbucks Workers Union, StarbucksUnion.org

Grand Rapids , MI ( 06-30-2008 )- Union members and social activists are gearing up for what may be the largest, global coordinated action against Starbucks ever. Protesters will decry what they see as an epidemic of anti-union terminations by the world’s largest coffee chain. Starbucks and its CEO Howard Schultz have exhibited a pattern of firing outspoken union baristas ever since the advent of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union in 2004 and are demonstrating the same practice against the CNT union in Spain.

"On July 5th people around the world will show Starbucks that we, baristas along with our supporters, will have a voice and Starbucks discrimination and repression of our efforts will not go unchecked", said Cole Dorsey.

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ISC Monthly Bulletin -- July 2008

Sat, 06/28/2008 - 7:34pm
Greetings from the International Solidarity Commission (ISC) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and welcome to the third digest of our monthly international news letter. The purpose of this newsletter is to keep our allies around the world informed of our activities, solidarity campaigns, and relevant international labor struggles. It is our hope that this newsletter will contribute to building worker-to-worker solidarity through strengthened communications and exchanges of information.

If you would like to contribute story ideas or news for the bulletin, or wish to contact the ISC, you can email solidarity@iww.org.

Saludos de la Comisión de Solidaridad Internacional (ISC) de los Trabajadores Industriales del Mundo (IWW) y bienvenidos a nuestro boletín internacional mensual.

El propósito de este boletín es mantener a nuestros aliados alrededor del mundo informados de nuestras actividades, campañas de solidaridad, y luchas obreras relevantes. Esperamos que este boletín contribuya a construir solidaridad entre trabajadores reforzando las comunicaciones e intercambios de información.

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IWW GLAMROC and supporters take on Boesner art supplies chain

Thu, 06/12/2008 - 3:55pm
On June 7, Wobblies and supporters held loud and visible protest rallies at the stores of the art supplies chain Boesner in Colone, Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna and Graz. With these actions, they protested against the management of the Boesner shop in Colone, who prevented an organizing drive of the Colone IWW by harassing workers who had tried to form a works council (Betriebsrat) there.
The german labour law guarantees the formation of works councils elected by the workers in shops with 5 workers or more and prohibits management action against the election process of these institutional bodies. When members and supporters of the IWW at the Boesner shop announced the elections for a works council the management began to panik. Workers were questioned and taken under pressure in interviews at the managers office. One day before the election should take place, the management held a meeting with all workers, where they threatened to cut wages and extend working hours if a works councils would be formed. The forced the workers to vote publically in front of the managers against a works council. Rustrated by the divisions succesfully made by these illegal employers actions, the IWWs withdraw their election announcement.
A few months later the management of Boesner Colone began to implement the first measures they had threatened the workers with: the extension of working hours by opening of the stores on saturdays (which hadn?t been the case before and obviously had been intended by them anyway. But neither did they employ more workers to staff the extra shifts, nor did they pay a weekend bonus, which is not uncommon for weekend work in Germany. The shifts should have to cope the extra-load of work with more intensified stress at work.

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A Heavy Load - The ports say they have a plan for cleaner, safer trucks. But do they have a plan for the truckers?

Thu, 06/12/2008 - 3:48pm

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 Judith Lewis - LA Weekly, July 27, 2005 Before sunrise on a Monday morning, outside a sterile office park in Compton, a convoy of small, beat-up cars, none of them newer than 1995, arrives at the offices of the trucking firm Calko Speedline. One by one, the car's drivers emerge, ranchera and mariachi and est?s escuchando a Piol?n por la ma?ana! competing from their radios. They buy coffee from the taco truck that follows them in, and assemble in small groups, huddled in circles among their big rigs - hulking red, green, blue and white mammoths lined up along the curb, their diesel-burning engines grumbling into action one by one.
The drivers' day of waiting begins.
"My name's Chicho. Everybody knows me. You can ask anyone, 'Do you know Chicho?' and he'll say yes."
Chicho, born Hernan Robleto, is short, round, nearly bald and, when he speaks, energetically animated. His English is nearly indistinguishable from his Spanish; sometimes, while listening to him, it's possible to lose any conscious sense of which language he's speaking. At the Calko office, he paces among the various groups while office personnel inside quietly field calls from terminal operators at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach about ship traffic and schedules; later, they'll give each of the men directions to their first load of the day, a container of goods destined for an intermediate shipping facility somewhere inland or farther down the coast, where it will be transported still farther, to distribution centers all over the country, by truck or train.

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Grand Rapids Starbucks Union and Spanish CNT Announce a Global Day of Action!

Thu, 06/12/2008 - 3:38pm

The Union of Comerical and Hotel workers CNT-AIT in Sevilla, Spain along with the Grand Rapids Starbucks Workers Union (IWW) have announced a Global Day of Action scheduled for July 5th. The two groups are asking social organizations, unions, and individuals from around the world to promote and participate in this day of action.

On April 24th, 2008 a barista named Monica was fired for her union activity from a Starbucks in Sevilla, Spain. She was a member of the Union of Commercial and Hotel Workers of the Confederacion Nacional de Trabajadores (CNT). Now with the support of all CNT affiliates, the International Workers Association, and the Starbucks Workers Union (IWW) they are demanding justice for Monica.

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Starbucks Fires Outspoken Barista Over Union Activity

Fri, 06/06/2008 - 2:54pm
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. Starbucks' pretext for the illegal anti-union firing was that Dorsey was guilty of some months-old attendance infractions. "Today I joined the growing number of baristas that Starbucks has fired in its relentless union-busting campaign," said Cole Dorsey. "Starbucks' disrespect for the right to join a union is appalling and absolutely will not stop our efforts to have a voice at work."

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E-Z Supply Ordered to Pay IWWs $1 Million: An IU 460 Legal Update

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 11:57pm
From Industrial Worker, June 2008

Since the IWW Industrial Union 460 began organizing in foodstuffs warehouses 3 years ago, we’ve organized in ten workplaces with varying degrees of success. One issue at every shop has been the employer’s failure to comply with wage and hour laws.

Many companies have retaliated by firing workers for their union activity. Workers have fought back through strikes, pickets, demonstrations, and selective legal action, among other tactics. We find legal action to be most effective when combined with these other methods, and when viewed as a means and not an end. This is a report on our legal status, but readers should understand that legal action is one of many tools workers are using to win their demands.

About a year and a half after we began utilizing legal action, several favorable rulings have recently come down and several settlements have been reached. Since the rulings have just came down, companies have not yet begun making payments.

Handyfat Trading (now called HDF Trading)

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Industrial Worker - Issue #1706, June 2008

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 2:42am
Headlines:
  • Transport workers take action
  • Zimbabwe arrests unionists, opposition
  • E-Z Supply ordered to pay IWWs $1 million
Featured Articles:
  • Haiti IWW delegation travel diary
  • Militant, independent, all-Cambodian union
  • Staughton Lynd: Another world is possible

Download a free PDF copy of this issue. (Coming Soon)

ISC Monthly Updates Bulletin - June 2008

Sun, 06/01/2008 - 7:26pm
Greetings from the International Solidarity Commission (ISC) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and welcome to the second digest of our monthly international news letter.

The purpose of this newsletter is to keep our allies around the world informed of our activities, solidarity campaigns, and relevant international labor struggles. It is our hope that this newsletter will contribute to building worker-to-worker solidarity through strengthened communications and exchanges of information.

If you would like to contribute story ideas or news for the bulletin, or wish to contact the ISC, you can email solidarity@iww.org.

In this digest:

1. ISC News and Activities
2. IWW News

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20 Fired from Flaum in NYC

Fri, 05/30/2008 - 3:44pm
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.
The chain of events began last Thursday when the boss fired a woman known for being a strong union member. When her fellow workers decided to confront the boss about her termination, they were all fired on the spot.
The IWW is putting up daily picket lines this week and will fight the terminations through direct action, media pressure, and legal action.
Supporters can write letters to management at:
Flaum Appetizing 288 Sholes Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206

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Folksinger, Storyteller, Railroad Tramp Utah Phillips Dead at 73

Mon, 05/26/2008 - 2:27pm
The offical Obituary as provided by the family, May 24, 2008.   Nevada City, California - Utah Phillips, a seminal figure in American folk music who performed extensively and tirelessly for audiences on two continents for 38 years, died Friday of congestive heart failure in Nevada City, California a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains where he lived for the last 21 years with his wife, Joanna Robinson, a freelance editor.

Born Bruce Duncan Phillips on May 15, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio, he was the son of labor organizers. Whether through this early influence or an early life that was not always tranquil or easy, by his twenties Phillips demonstrated a lifelong concern with the living conditions of working people. He was a proud member of the Industrial Workers of the World, popularly known as "the Wobblies," an organizational artifact of early twentieth-century labor struggles that has seen renewed interest and growth in membership in the last decade, not in small part due to his efforts to popularize it.

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Some Thoughts on Utah Phillips

Mon, 05/26/2008 - 2:23pm

By David Rovics - May 25th, 2008

I wouldn't want to elevate anybody to inappropriately high heights, but for me, Utah Phillips was a legend.

I first became familiar with the Utah Phillips phenomenon in the late 80's, when I was in my early twenties, working part-time as a prep cook at Morningtown in Seattle. I had recently read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, and had been particularly enthralled by the early 20th Century section, the stories of the Industrial Workers of the World. So it was with great interest that I first discovered a greasy cassette there in the kitchen by the stereo, Utah Phillips Sings the Songs and Tells the Stories of the Industrial Workers of the World.

As a young radical, I had heard lots about the 1960's. There were (and are) plenty of veterans of the struggles of the 60's alive and well today. But the wildly tumultuous era of the first two decades of the 20th century is now (and pretty well was then) a thing entirely of history, with no one living anymore to tell the stories. And while long after the 60's there will be millions of hours of audio and video recorded for posterity, of the massive turn-of-the-century movement of the industrial working class there will be virtually none of that.

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Stockton Truckers Call Out the Industry with 400 on Strike

Tue, 05/20/2008 - 5:09am

By: J. Pierce with Adam Welch

Independent truckers in California's San Joaquin Valley shut down their rigs on Friday, May 2nd declaring an open-ended strike. At $4.80 a gallon, sky-rocketing diesel prices top the list of grievances. As their main demand, drivers insist on doubling the rates paid for hauling a container. The second biggest demand is a fuel surcharge of upwards of 55%. The brokers currently pay surcharges varying from 30-40%. If drivers can keep the trucking bosses from stealing it, the increased surcharge would help place the burden back on those who can afford it.

"We're fighting for survival." That's how Gerardo Cordoba explains the struggle. He's been driving for 10 years and raises a seven year-old on what he brings home after costs. The rates haven't seen an increase in a decade and most truckers bring home less than $30,000 year. In fact, when asked how much an average driver earns, Dewey Obtinalla, a Filipino driver who regularly does long haul up the coast, replied, "If you're making $30,000, that's good, very good... With fuel, insurance, and registration, I don't know a lot of people who are doing that well." Brave strikers don't need to look far for others willing to fight.

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Grand Rapids GMB announces a Spring Offensive against Starbucks (SOS)

Sat, 05/10/2008 - 3:39pm

In March 2008 the Grand Rapids GMB of the IWW and the Grand Rapids Starbucks Workers Union announced the beginning of a 'Spring Offensive against Starbucks (SOS)' to increase local pressure on the coffee giant on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Starbucks Union founding, and in support of the new Unfair Labor Practice charges filed against Starbucks in Grand Rapids. Wobblies described S.O.S. as a 'multi-pronged' offensive where union members: would increase engagement with costumers about Starbucks' union-busting and 'fair tade' policies, increase contact with local baristas about the demands of the SWU as well as invitations to social gatherings, and an increase in publicity and community exposure.

IWW baristas honored MayDay 2008 with a press conference and celebration. At 4:00pm GMB members Jackie Wood and Chuck Neller posted in front of the Starbucks store in East Grand Rapids, with the branch banner, in preparation of the press conference. Union baristas then addressed the media with statements expressing solidarity with others struggling on the job, and announced a renewed commitment to fight Starbucks repression.

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Stockton Truckers strike once again with the help of IWW Organizers

Thu, 05/08/2008 - 5:33am

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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Truckers park rigs in protest freight rates, diesel prices fuel strike

Thu, 05/08/2008 - 5:13am

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

For the second time in four years, hundreds of independent truck drivers went on strike Monday against companies that hire them to haul cargo containers out of railroad terminals near Stockton.
And again, as in 2004, the issue was the failure of freight rates to keep up with rapidly rising fuel prices.
Ajit Gill of Stockton, a truck owner-operator and a spokesman for strikers, said the truckers face fuel costs that have more than doubled since 2004, as well as higher costs for insurance, stiffer inspection fees and more. But freight rates have not kept pace.
"There is nothing raised," he said Monday by cell phone.
The drivers would prefer to keep working, if it was practical.
"Unfortunately, we have to stop," Gill said. "Nobody can afford $4.35 diesel."

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Police disperse striking truckers after vandalism at port

Thu, 05/08/2008 - 4:59am

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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