IWW General Assembly Workers’ safety requires launches organizing dept. a culture of solidarity Delegates from across Canada Bosses’ insatiable demand for and U.S. discuss strategies for profit must be confronted to building union, solidarity 6-7 defend our lives and planet 8-9 Starbucks workers Industrial joining IWW in global fight for labor rights Picket lines are appearing at Starbucks outlets around the world, as word spreads of the coffee giant’s firing of three IWW members for union activity between July 11 Worker and August 5. Workers were illegally fired on pretexts ranging from insubordination to undermining employee morale as Starbucks grows ever more desperate to crush the union’s growing support. Official newspaper of the The German FAU union wrote Starbucks iNdustrial workers of the world August 19 to protest the firings of Charles Fostrom, Evan Winterscheidt, Daniel Gross October 2006 #1688 Vol. 103 No. 9 $1.00 / 75 p and Joe Agnis (a union supporter fired ear- Wobblies picketed the Dupont Circle Star- lier), and warning of actions at Starbucks bucks August 28, speaking to customers and outlets across Germany if they were not re- workers. They picketed the Adams Morgan N’west flight attendants strike barred instated. In Vienna, the Allegmeines Syndikat store Sept. 11, launching roving pickets at by J os h u a D e V ries Wien has leafleted all Starbucks outlets in Starbucks locations throughout the city. A United States judge has blocked flight attendants at Northwest Airlines from strik- that city, alerting customers to the company’s Boston Wobblies held a successful Soli- ing, even while allowing the company to abrogate their contract. vicious union-busting. darity Night fund-raiser Sept. 9, raising nearly The company is in bankruptcy and the bankruptcy court judge permitted the company New Zealand’s Unite union, which won $400 to assist the fired workers and spread to impose its dream contract, but even he would not block a strike since the previously a landmark fast food agreement with Res- the word about Starbucks’ assault on its work- negotiated agreement had been abrogated. However, a judge in U.S. District Court pointed taurant Brands Ltd. earlier this year, issued a ers. Musicians including Dieselhorse, Evan to the “vital role” that airlines play and issued an injunction blocking a strike. statement expressing “disgust at Starbucks’ Greer, Jake and the Infernal Machine, Clara Karen Schultz, a 21-year Northwest flight attendant and rank-and-file activist in clear discrimination against the union.” Hendricks, Bill Bumpus and Ryan Harvey Minneapolis, condemns the assaults from the company and its allies in government The Korean Teachers Union (Incheon performed, and speakers spoke about the which protect the company while ignoring the workers. “Northwest overreached in Working Group) of the KCTU also con- Starbucks campaign between sets. their quest for concessions, even while NWA’s profits are in an upswing. Solvency may demned the firings, expressing unequivocal Growing numbers of union locals have matter in the 1113 [bankruptcy] process, but ignored was the need for the solvency of support for the “IWW Starbucks Workers added their voices to the demand that Star- American families.” Union’s [right] to represent and defend the bucks reinstate the fired workers, including The judge asked both sides to report on whether further talks would be “fruitful.” rights of all Starbucks employees.” SEIU Local 707, representing 6,500 public Interim AFA-NWA Master Executive Council president Mollie Reiley responded, “We IWW members have demonstrated out- sector workers of Sonoma and Mendocino remain committed to reaching a negotiated agreement with the company regardless of side Starbucks outlets in Bradford, Leicester Counties in California; Amalgamated Lithog- the hurdles along the way. However, at this time it appears that the company is more and Manchester, England, and Edinburgh, raphers of America Local One, a Teamsters focused on their legal strategy than meaningful discussions. Until the time comes when Scotland. IWW members and supporters affiliate in New York City; and United Auto they are willing to sit down and negotiate a fair contract, it is necessary that we level the picketed the East McMillan Starbucks in Workers Local 2334, which represents sanita- playing field and exercising our right to strike does just that.” Cincinnati August 19, distributing hun- tion chemists in Detroit. Other organizations Unlike most private sector workers in the United States, airline employees are covered dreds of leaflets to alert customers to Star- calling on members to boycott Starbucks until by the Railway Labor Act, not the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act). The RLA bucks’ union-busting. In Washington, D.C., continued on page 5 was passed to punish militant rail unions. Airline management later was successful in getting their industry included under it as well. In most regards the RLA is even more pro-employer than the NLRA. For example, under the RLA unions have to ask permis- Making work safer with direct action sion from the government to strike. In organizing drives, the unit is automatically every by Da n ie l G ross & J oe T esso n e bucks management was prepared for the sur- employee in the that craft throughout the country, and every person not voting is counted For years, baristas at the Logan Square prise action. In an unprecedented move, the as a vote against the union. Starbucks in Chicago requested a steplad- store manager was joined at the store meeting However there is one advantage: intermittent strikes are permitted, unlike under der. Baristas constantly strained muscles and by the district manager, regional director and the NLRA. AFA created a trademarked strategy called CHAOS – Creating Havoc Around risked serious falls to do their job without “partner” resources manager to disparage the Our System. It involves announcing that the union will strike, but only certain flights one. Workers would hoist themselves up on union and intimidate workers. and without warning. Before a single flight has been grounded, business travelers – the shelves to reach heavy boxes of coffee beans Managers proceeded to disparage unions source of most income – start flying on other carriers. This has the advantage of cost- stacked out of reach. Toilet paper and other in general and the IWW in particular. One ing the company a lot of money without taking everyone out and draining the union’s supplies were locked in a box suspended near went so far as to say the union didn’t exist, as strike coffers. the ceiling in the store’s bathroom. if the red IWW membership cards in baristas’ The first time the strategy was used, it was very successful at Alaska Airlines in Workers were forced to balance them- pockets were figments of their imagination. 1993. Just the threat of CHAOS action led to contract improvements at United and US selves on the toilet bowl and stand on tiptoes The bosses also handed out the preamble to Airways a few years later. However, all this was before 9/11 and the wave of airlines using to maneuver the key into the lock and remove the IWW constitution thinking it would scare bankruptcy as a strategy to break union contracts and force concessions. the needed bathroom products. Workers did off workers. The preamble outlines a humane Under the RLA, it is unclear whether unions have the legal right to strike when the a similar balancing act standing on cafe tables society where workers live in harmony with contract is abrogated by the courts. That issue has never been tested. The Northwest flight to clean the ceiling and change light bulbs. the Earth and are free from oppression – a attendants and their union, the Association of Flight At- Northwest: continued page 8 In addition to the clear health risks society unlike the one Starbucks inhabits stemming from musculo-skeletal strain and where its Chairman Howard Schultz is worth the possibility of serious falls, baristas were close to a billion dollars and Chicago baristas East End Food Co-op Workers Defeated 3 Debating Palestine Solidarity 4 downright annoyed and outraged that Star- start at $7.50 per hour with no guaranteed Oct. 24 is Take Back Your Time Day 9 Reclaiming Workers’ Culture 10 bucks, a $23 billion company and the world’s number of work hours each week. largest coffee chain, refused to purchase a Wobblies are known for good humor in Industrial Worker Periodicals Postage simple stepladder that workers needed. An- the struggle for industrial freedom. But one PO Box 13476 PAID noyed but not surprised. After years of insult thing the IWW doesn’t joke around about Philadelphia, PA 19101 Philadelphia, PA and injury on safety and many other issues, is health and safety. You only get one body ISSN 0019-8870 and additional workers at Logan Square decided to join the and one mind in this life, and the boss sure mailing offices IWW Starbucks Workers Union. isn’t going to take care of you. After years of ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED The night of April 29, baristas at the needless strain and balancing acts because Logan Square Starbucks chose a store meet- the coffee giant was too cheap to buy a simple ing to declare that they had joined the union stepladder, baristas found themselves in a and present their demands for a living wage, new workplace dynamic. Instead of individu- secure work hours, reinstatement of the New als requesting a ladder and being denied again York City baristas illegally fired for union and again, the workers could fight union. activity, respect for the right to organize, and Direct Action entails doing what it takes health and safety improvements including the to make things right. For example, faced stepladder. IWW baristas now had a union with employer opposition to the eight-hour presence at seven Starbucks stores. day, Wobbly timber workers began blowing Subscribers: The number (top line) reflects the last issue due on your subscription Through its surveillance of workers, Star- continued on page 8 Page  • Industrial Worker • October 2006 The Other Campaign and established in part to amend Mexico's In the September edition, the Industrial Constitution – the members of the IWW do Farewell, Fellow Workers Worker ran a story by FW Dean Dempsey of not sponsor this paper as a venue for me to the Bay Area GMB about the Other Campaign air my opinions. Rather, it is the members’ Steve Lindenmeyer old friend, Fred Thompson, whose Finnish- launched by the Zapatista’s in Mexico. paper, and the members should have wide FW Steve Lindenmeyer of the Portland American wife Aino had recently passed away. The real question is why was this latitude to air their views in it. IWW was killed August 22, apparently hit by Thompson was a well-known figure in IWW published in our union’s There was similarly a train while hiking. He was 53 years old. history as an organizer, labor historian and newspaper, for it is an much online controver- Steve was an active Wobbly, serving as the educator, and as an editor and writer. In the internal matter. Because sy over FW Lee’s column Industrial District Committee’s representative 1930s, he had been a director and teacher at Dean advocated for policy, last issue, although no to Jobs with Justice. Steve was passionately Work Peoples College, after classes at that in- I feel the editor should letters were received at involved in a wide array of progressive causes stitution began to be conducted in English. not have published the press time. I disagree throughout the region. Chances are that if you After Fred Thompson died in 1987 at s t o r y. A r t i c l e s w h e r e with FW Lee’s views on attended a protest, strike, rally, or teach-in age 87, Jenny moved to Springfield, Mis- opinions on items for referenda are expressed the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and the Gaza around Portland, Steve was there either as an souri, to be near a niece. Later she moved should be marked “For the Gob.” Strip, even if some of the response to his views organizer or an active participant. to Tucson where she had a brother and his Jason Krpan, Chicago was intemperate and contained groundless Portland Wobs held a memorial meeting family, and where she lived for the remainder Editor’s Note: It is my policy to give as wide a accusations which reflect more on those who Sept. 10 at the union’s new Liberty Hall. of her life. scope as possible to members to discuss labor level such charges without the slightest basis — Harry Siitonen issues and struggles in the pages of the IW. in fact than on their target. Jenny (Lahti) Velsek New ngwf In the case of the two articles on the Other strike fund — Official Notices — Jenny (Lahti) Velsek, 93, passed away Campaign, it was my view that these were April 18 in a nursing home at Tucson, Ari- assessment primarily about the campaign itself, which Referenda ballots in field zona. She was born March 4, 1913, at Eagle The Upstate NY is of much interest to Wobblies and other General Headquarters will issue ballots to River, Wisconsin, the fifth of seven surviving Regional GMB is of- rebel workers. all members on the books in good standing children of Finnish immigrant parents. fering this new $5 While I personally do not bellieve the Oct. 15. Members whose dues are in arrears Her parents were part of the Finnish- assessment stamp IWW should “adhere” to the Other Campaign are urged to bring themselves current, and all American labor movement, active with the to support a request – I am not quite certain what this means delegates and branch secretaries should file Finnish clubs associated with the Industrial from Bangladesh’s National Garment Workers in practice, but at minimum it is open to reports as promptly as possible. Workers of the World. Jenny described her Federation to help create a strike fund for the misinterpretation and it might constitute a Members wishing to submit arguments father as an avid reader of Industrialisti, the many struggles they engage in with the global formal alliance with a political movement on the referenda (dues increase, new branches Finnish-language IWW newspaper. garment bosses. Help build the bridge from including members of the employing class to approve ByLaws before being chartered, As a young woman, Jenny attended the floor of the global sweatshop to workers’ adhere to Other Campaign) for the ballot classes at Tyovaen Opisto (Work Peoples rights. This assessment came about through In November We Remember General Organization Bulletin should submit College), the Finnish IWW school for labor the work of the IWW’s International Solidar- The November IW remembers the these to GHQ no later than Oct. 10 activists near Duluth. struggles of those who have come before us ity Commission and our union’s participation Most of her life she lived in Chicago. She – in particular of Wobblies imprisoned and Correction to IW numbering in ongoing Solidarity Baseball measures. was married to Charles Velsek, secretary of murdered by the bosses in their efforts to Both the July/August and September Order yours today from IWW delegate the Czech branch of the IWW, who died in crush the IWW. Members wishing to place issues were labeled whole number 1686. Greg Giorgio, P.O. Box 74, Altamont NY 1979. Jenny then became a companion to an greeting ads in that issue should submit them September was actually #1687. 12009, [email protected]. no later than Oct. 12. Suggested do- nation levels are $10 for a 1 inch tall ad (1 column wide); $35 for 4 inches IWW directory by 4 7/8 inches (2 columns); or $80 Australia 1758. 602-254-4057. Aaron Rothenburger, del., Maryland 282-7348. [email protected] IWW Regional Organising Committee 480-303-9580. Baltimore IWW: c/o Red Emma’s, 800 St. for a quarter page. Oregon M. Payne, Secretary, PO Box 1866, Albany W.A. Paul St., 21202, 410-230-0450, iww@redem- Arkansas Portland Industrial District Council: 311 N. [email protected], www.iww.org.au mas.org. Fayetteville: PO Box 283, 72702. 479-200- Ivy St., 97227, 503-231-5488. pdxiwwhall@ Industrial Worker Sydney: PO Box 241, Surry Hills. sydney@ 1859, [email protected]. Massachusetts riseup.net iww.org.au Boston Area GMB: PO Box 391724, Cam- California Pennsylvania The Voice of Revolutionary Melbourne: PO Box 145, Moreland 3058. bridge 02139. 617-469-5162. Los Angeles GMB: PO Box 65822, 90065. Lancaster GMB: PO Box 796, 17608. Industrial Unionism [email protected] Western Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: North Coast GMB: PO Box 844, Eureka [email protected], http:// IWW, Po Box 1581, Northampton 01061. LancasterIWW.org H Organization British Isles 95502-0844. 707-725-8090. BST Angie Hart: IWW Regional Organising Committee: [email protected] Western Massachusetts GMB: 43 Taylor Hill Philadelphia GMB: PO Box 42777, 19101. Rd., Montague 01351. 413-367-9356. H Education PO Box 1158, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE99 4XL San Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and 215-222-1905. [email protected] Union Hall: 4530 Baltimore Ave., 19143. H Emancipation UK, [email protected], www.iww.org.uk Buyback IU 670 Recycling Shops; Stonemoun- Michigan IWW London: c/o Freedom Press, 84b tain IU 660 Job Shop) PO Box 11412, Berkeley Detroit GMB: PO Box 08161, 48208. detroit@ South Street Workers Union /Workers Rights Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. 94712. 510-845-0540. Meetings first Thursdays iww.org Hotline 215-990-8250. [email protected] Official newspaper of the Paper Crane Press IU 450 Job Shop: paper- [email protected] at 7 p.m. (2022 Blake St., Berkeley) Grand Rapids GMB: PO Box 6629, 49516. [email protected], 610-358-9496. Industrial Workers Leicestershire: PO Box 7903, LE3 0WT. klas- San Jose: Adam Welch, del. 408-795-9672. Chuck Neller, Secretary.; Cole Dorsey (del.) of the World [email protected] www.leicestershire-iww.org.uk email: [email protected] 616-881-5263. [email protected] Pittsburgh GMB / Education Workers Or- ganizing Committee: PO Box 90315, 15224. P. O. Box 23085 Manchester: www.iww-manchester.org.uk Santa Barbara GMB: PO Box 23008, 93121. Central Michigan: David Finet, 5007 W. [email protected] 805-689-3086, [email protected] Columbia Rd., Mason 48854. 517-676-9446, Cincinnati, OH 45223 Scotland [email protected] Texas Clydeside GMB: iwwclydeside.mahost.org. Colorado USA, 513-591-1905 Austin GMB: PO Box 650011, 78765. Denver GMB: c/o P&L Printing Job Shop: 2298 Minnesota email: [email protected] Edinburgh IWW: c/o 17 W. Montgomery 512-320-8427, waterloowob@ Clay, Denver 80211. 303-433-1852. Duluth: Laverne Capan, 1522 N 8th Ave E, Place, EH7 SHA. monkeywrenchbooks.org http://www.iww.org Four Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT): delegate: 55805-1115. 218-724-2647. Canada Utah General Secretary-Treasurer: 970-903-8721. [email protected] Twin Cities GMB: PO Box 14111, Minneapolis Alberta 55414. 612-339-4418. [email protected] Salt Lake City GMB: PO Box 520835, 84152- Florida Mark Damron Edmonton GMB: PO Box 75175, T6E 6K1. 0835. [email protected]. Gainesville GMB: 1021 W. University, 32601. Missouri [email protected], http://edmonton. General Executive Board: 352-246-2240, [email protected] Kansas City GMB: c/o 5506 Holmes St., 64110. Washington iww.ca. Bellingham: P.O. Box 1793, 98227. Belling- E. Wolfson (chair), Patrick Pensacola GMB: 610 E Wright St., 32501. 816-523-3995. British Columbia [email protected] 360-920-6240. 850-429-0336. www.angelfire.com/fl5/iww Montana Brenner, Jeannette Gysbers, Vancouver IWW: PO Box 4755, Stn. Terminal, Industrial Transportation Project: Arthur J [email protected] Construction Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, Adam Lincoln, Ted Nebus, V6B 4A4. 604-682-3269 x8493. gmb-van@ Miller, PO Box 5464, Tacoma 98415-0464. Hobe Sound: Peter Shultz, 8274 SE Pine Circle, del. 406-490-3869, [email protected] Scott Satterwhite and iww.ca http://vancouver.iww.ca. 33455-6608, 772-545-9591, okiedogg2002@ Olympia GMB: PO Box 2775, 98507. New Jersey Richard Seymour Manitoba yahoo.com 360-956-9256. [email protected] Central New Jersey GMB: PO Box: 10021, Winnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, PO Box 1, Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142, 98122-3934. Georgia New Brunswick 08904. 732-979-9973 Editor: Jon Bekken R3C 2G1. [email protected]. Garth 877-815-5684, www.seattleiww.org, seattle@ Atlanta: Keith Mercer, del., 404-992-7240, [email protected] iww.org. John Persak, General Distribution 4530 Baltimore Avenue Hardy, del., [email protected]. [email protected] Northern New Jersey GMB: 60 Martha Ave. IU660: [email protected]. Philadelphia PA 19143 Ontario Apt. 3, Elmwood Park 07407. 201-873-6215. Hawai’i Spokane: Tim Hill, 509-218-9622. email: [email protected] Ottawa-Outaouais GMB: PO Box 52003, Honolulu: Tony Donnes, del., 808-547-2042. [email protected] 298 Dalhousie St. K1N 1S0, (613) 241-0382. [email protected] Wisconsin ISSN 0019-8870 Periodicals [email protected] French-language del: New Mexico Madison GMB: PO Box 2442, 53703-2442. Albuquerque: 202 Harvard SE, 87106-5505. postage paid Philadelphia PA. Mathieu Brúle [email protected]. Illinois www.madisoniww.info. Lakeside Press IU 450 505-331-6132, [email protected]. Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, Chicago GMB & General Defense Committee Job Shop: 1334 Williamson, 53703. 608-255- Postmaster: Send address K9H 3L7, 705-749-9694, [email protected] Local 3: PO Box 18387, 3750 N. Kedzie, 60618. New York 1800. www.lakesidepress.org. Madison Infos- phone: 312-638-9155. changes to: Industrial Worker, Toronto GMB: c/o Libra Knowledge & Infor- NYC GMB: PO Box 7430, JAF Station, New hop Job Shop: 1019 Williamson St. #B, 53703. POB 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223 mation Svcs Co-op, PO Box 353 Stn. A, M5W Carbondale: Jason Leonard, Southern Illinois York City 10116, [email protected]. 608-262-9036. Two Degrees Coffeeshop Job 1C2. 416-925-7250. [email protected] delegate. [email protected]. Jim Crutchfield, I.U. 650, [email protected]. Shop: 307 W. Johnson St., 53703. 608-257- Individual Subscriptions: $15 Champaign: David Johnson, 217-356-8247. Upstate NY GMB: PO Box 235, Albany 12207, 7888. Just Coffee Job Shop: www.justcoffee. Finland Library Subs: $20/year Waukegan IWW: PO Box 274, 60079. waukeg- 518-833-6853 or 861-5627. www.upstate-ny- net. General Defense Committee Local #4: Helsinki: Reko Ravela, Otto Brandtintie 11 B P.O. Box 811, 53701. 608-262-9036. (Member sub included in dues) [email protected] iww.org. [email protected], Ro- 25, 00650. [email protected] chelle Semel, del, PO Box 172, Fly Creek 13337, Railroad Workers IU 520: Ron Kaminkow, Published eleven times per year; Iowa PO Box 3010, Madison 53704, 608-358-5771. Germany 607-293-6489, [email protected]. Indexed by Alternative Press Center Cedar Rapids: Drew Robertson, del., 206-290- [email protected]. IWW Kontakts: Lutz Getzschmann, IWW c/o 9072. Ohio RMB-Infoladen, Hamburger Allee 35, 60486 Milwaukee GMB: PO Box 070632, 53207. Articles not so designated do not Iowa City: Seamus Mulryan, del., 319-248- Ohio Valley GMB: PO Box 42233, Cincinnati Frankfurt am Main. [email protected] 414-481-3557. reflect the official position of the 3589. [email protected] 45242. IU 660: PO Box 317741, Cincinnati 45231, [email protected]. IWW. Contributions welcome. United States Maine — MOVING? — Norumbega: Barry Rodrigue, del., PO Box 57, Oklahoma Press Date: Sept. 18, 2006 Arizona Please get us your new address asap Phoenix GMB: 1205 E. Hubbell St., 85006- Bath 04530. Tulsa: Karl Howeth, 4510 W. Archer, 74127. 918- October 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page  East End Food Co-op workers lose close NLRB election Organizing today for the One Big Union tomorrow By a razor-slim margin (22-21), workers B y D ea n D e m psey – B ay A rea bra n c h at the East End Food Co-op in Pittsburgh I m m igra n t O u treac h C o m m ittee failed in their attempt to force managers to To take part in the national day of action for immigrant recognize the IWW as their union. and worker rights, the Bay Area IWW joined the march and On August 30 Co-op workers partici- rally in San Francisco, where several thousand turned out pated in a union recognition election con- for the largest Labor Day celebration in years. ducted by the National Labor Relations Board The IWW was one of the larger labor bodies there, with after management refused to accept union over 30 Wobblies. The half-mile march began at the Embar- authorization cards signed by a majority of cadero, concluding at the San Francisco Civic Center. Nation- workers. U.S. labor law compels an employer ally, actions were also held in Alabama, Saint Paul, Phoenix, to recognize a union for the purpose of col- Chicago, and many other cities around the country. lective bargaining if a majority of employees In San Francisco, the event was organized by the Regional vote for the union in a secret-ballot election Unity Coalition, consisting of various immigrant-rights and run by the NLRB. grassroots organizations. The theme was, “Stop attacks on The current Co-op organizing campaign our communities,” not only in a global context but locally is the second attempt by workers to win as well, encompassing the struggles of our own city, such as union protection. In June the Co-op’s Board the displacement of working people of color would also acknowledge that such alliances to fight, however in action, we find our of Directors refused to voluntarily recognize in Bay View/Hunters Point. between the IWW and minority communi- words come short. Our efforts in these fields the union through the card-check procedure. The largest union present was most likely ties doesn’t exist to the extent it should. As certainly are not nonexistent, but are rather In July the union verified through the impar- UNITE HERE. The theme of San Francisco’s a labor union which seeks to create the “new works in progress with a lot more organiz- tial Thomas Merton Center that a majority Labor Day action was centered around the society within the shell of the old,” we have to ing to do. of Co-op workers did in fact want IWW renewed efforts to better the lives and work- collectively determine what our role can be in Undoubtedly, we must continue and ex- representation. ing conditions of hotel workers in the UNITE the new movement for immigrant and worker pand our current organizing, but also make Unable to persuade the Co-op to accept- HERE “Hotel Workers Rising” campaign. rights, and how we go about organizing with the conscious effort to further diversify our ing such evidence, the IWW then tried to This campaign represents thousands of hotel such communities. union. As IWW contingent organizer, Sarah negotiate with management over terms for a workers demanding wage increases, decent Participating as contingents is one step in Zesmer says, “I think it is important to keep non-NLRB election. Workers unsuccessfully pensions, a right to choose a union, and, in demonstrating our support. It is also enables our focus on organizing workers through tried to establish a number of agreements light of the fact that hotel workers have a 40 people to dialogue and learn what the One solidarity and direct action unionism, but to over a basic meeting protocol, employer percent higher injury rate than other workers Big Union stands for and the world we envi- continually develop in building ourselves in neutrality, and the Co-op’s use of anti-union in the service sector, affordable health care sion. On the march, IWW member and im- a context of other issues as part of a bigger, consultants. Additionally, management was and workplace protection. migrant organizer Patricia Nuño says, “I was global, socioeconomic movement by and for unfairly favoring attempts to form a company In August, hotel workers in Local 2 voted approached by folks curious about our bright working people.” union. Given management’s intransigence, overwhelmingly at 93% to authorize another red flags with the black IWW globe on them. As we have learned before, forming these the union finally petitioned the NLRB to strike, if need be. That is well over 2,000 It was a great opportunity to share IWW his- contingents is nothing short of useful and facilitate a recognition election. workers, most of whom are immigrants, tory and ideals, and inform them on actions beneficial to us as a union. But we must also The union’s narrow loss means that the women and people of color. (A union contract we are currently engaged in. It was also a explore other ways, particularly workplace Co-op is not legally obligated to recognize the was reached shortly after Labor Day) chance to significantly participate in solidar- organizing, to welcome and include more union. Despite this setback, the IWW Work- This intolerance has built from the 2004 ity with immigrants and their families.” women, immigrants, and people of color ers Committee plans to continue organizing contract expiration and consequent lock- The immigrant rights movement is play- into the Industrial Workers of the World, at the Co-op and to work on behalf of its out of 4,300 hotel employees from over a ing a fundamental role in United States labor, diversifying our membership and reviving members for improved wages, better health dozen San Francisco hotels. Two years later, with many workers willing to fight, boycott the Wobbly tradition of multi-lingual, ethnic care coverage, and job security. some 8,000 hotel workers are still without and, as May 1st demonstrated, even strike in and gendered representation. If the effort isn’t “As long as the East End Food Co-op a contract and 13 local hotels remain under the belief that a worker knows no border and made, and the space for this isn’t created, we continues to be yet another low-wage, high- boycott, totaling $100 million in losses, ac- deserves the equal rights and privileges that will find ourselves left behind in the sweeping turnover employer in this city,” said IWW cording to union officials. only some workers have. movement we see today, the movement for organizer Kevin Farkas, “the union is com- Although many IWW members support In theory, the IWW would be at the unconditional empowerment and self-deter- mitted to helping workers organize.” the efforts in “Hotel Workers Rising,” most forefront of such discontent and readiness mination of every worker. “The East End Food Co-op is typical of most employers in the consumer food co- Preamble to the operative industry,” Farkas added. Join the IWW Today IWW Constitution he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the “Despite their rhetoric of social con- The working class and the employing class job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions sciousness and so-called alternative business have nothing in common. There can be no today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and practices, these are not the same grass-roots, peace so long as hunger and want are found T distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire popula- collectively owned and operated co-opera- among millions of working people and the few, tion, not merely a handful of exploiters. tives of the 1960s and ’70s; today’s Co-ops who make up the employing class, have all the We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially – that are sophisticated businesses increasingly good things of life. concerned with profit-making and complete Between these two classes a struggle must is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than dividing workers managerial control over operations and go on until the workers of the world organize by trade, so that we can pool our strength to fight the bosses together. staff. The industry as a whole, in part guided as a class, take possession of the means of pro- Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a truly by specialized anti-union consultants such duction, abolish the wage system, and live in international union movement in order to confront the global power of the bosses and as the one used by the East End Food Co-op harmony with the earth. in order to strengthen workers’ ability to stand in solidarity with our fellow workers during this campaign, is simply opposed to We find that the centering of the manage- no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. unionization.” ment of industries into fewer and fewer hands We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to have rep- Management’s unfair labor practices mean makes the trade unions unable to cope with resentation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recognizing that the IWW has solid grounds to contest the the ever-growing power of the employing class. that unionism is not about government certification or employer recognition but about NLRB election. If upheld, a challenge could The trade unions foster a state of affairs which workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimes this means result in an order to management to cease its allows one set of workers to be pitted against striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with an unsafe unlawful activities and a new election. another set of workers in the same industry, machine or following the bosses’ orders so literally that nothing gets done. Sometimes thereby helping defeat one another in wage it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specific workplace, or Boston GMB marches to end wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the em- across an industry. firing of Harvard custodian ploying class to mislead the workers into the Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what issues to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved. B y m ar k wo l ff belief that the working class have interests in On August 22, members of the Bos- common with their employers. TO JOIN: Mail this form with a check or money order for initiation and your first ton GMB marched with 75 other workers, These conditions can be changed and the month’s dues to: IWW, Post Office Box 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223, USA. students, and Harvard faculty members to interest of the working class upheld only by an Initiation is the same as one month’s dues. Our dues are calculated according to protest the July 3 firing of custodian Sain- organization formed in such a way that all its your income. If your monthly income is under $1,000, dues are $6 a month. If your tely Paul by Harvard’s Facilities Maintenance members in any one industry, or all industries monthly income is between $1,000 - $2,000, dues are $12 a month. If your monthly Operations. if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus income is over $2,000 a month, dues are $18 a month. Paul was fired by a supervisor who claims making an injury to one an injury to all. he was sleeping on the job. Paul, feeling ill o I affirm that I am a worker, and that I am not an employer Instead of the conservative motto, “A fair on the 11th floor of William James Hall at o I agree to abide by the IWW constitution day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we must in- Harvard, sat on the couch and fainted. See- scribe on our banner the revolutionary watch- o I will study its principles and make myself acquainted with its purposes. ing him the supervisor took his picture and word, “Abolition of the wage system.” fired him three days later. Despite his clean Name:______It is the historic mission of the working work record of six and half years, and a note Address:______class to do away with capitalism. The army of from his doctor concerning diagnostic tests, production must be organized, not only for the City, State, Zip:______Harvard management refuses to believe he everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to Occupation:______fainted the previous week and that he was not carry on production when capitalism shall have Phone:______E-mail:______sleeping when he fainted a second time. been overthrown. By organizing industrially we Amount Enclosed:______Faculty and researchers at William James are forming the structure of the new society Hall where Paul worked have signed petitions within the shell of the old. Membership includes a subscription to the Industrial Worker. on his behalf. Page  • Industrial Worker • October 2006 The storms that a resolution can cause Israel, unions & democratic debate B y m A R C B . Y o u n g ians. In short, the CGT resolutions will cause the room was still full of delegates On September 1, 2006, the Spanish little grief or controversy within its ranks. on Saturday morning, when this and post office put into circulation 600,000 78- Across the Atlantic the story is of course other resolutions were dealt with, (Euro)cent stamps celebrating the 20th anni- different. Readers of the Industrial Worker will members were probably thinking versary of the establishment of diplomatic re- be aware of a recent controversy within the about going home. It was the last lations between Israel and Spain. Some weeks IWW itself stemming from the blog writings day of the meeting, after all. In before, apprised of the plan, the General of regular columnist Eric Lee. Lee, in his other words, workers’ minds weren’t Confederation of Labour (CGT) wrote to the “extra-IWW” compositions, does not hide focused on debate. head of the publicly owned corporation, as his sympathies for Israel. In last month’s IW, In any event, the torrent of ob- well as to two relevant government ministers, he also outlined his views on how the IWW jections to Resolution 50 began soon asking that the plan be put on hold, insofar as should tolerate a diversity of political opin- after the convention doors closed. it seemed to members of the country’s third- ions … while members agree on a particular Phone calls poured into the offices largest labour central that it was “entirely sort of democratic, membership-driven of Local 79, Ontario’s largest CUPE local. revealed the views of a left-leaning subset inopportune… to be celebrating anything labour organization. Articles and letters appeared on web sites and within the pro-Israeli camp that almost cer- with the state of Israel” as it was bombing But the most controversial and probably in newspapers. Trade unionists (members of tainly merit, in the interests of union democ- workers in Lebanon and Palestine. instructive debate about the Middle East CUPE and not) as well as Israel supporters racy and clarity, some consideration. Naturally, the post office didn’t listen. – and labour’s proper position on the politics from outside the labour movement weighed Canadian Autoworkers president Basil The anarcho-syndicalist CGT has a member- of that region – doubtless occurred in a much in, as did angry editorialists. CUPE was in (Buzz) Hargrove, a supporter of a two-state ship approaching 70,000 and a workplace larger, “mainstream” Canadian union – the the news. If it had shut down hospitals with solution in the Middle East, criticized CUPE presence that affects the lives of hundreds Ontario division of the Canadian Union of a wildcat strike the union might not have in a June letter, essentially on the grounds of thousands of Spanish workers, but it is Public Employees. obtained this much press. that its Resolution 50 doesn’t give Israel obviously far from big enough to change the As reported in a brief item in the Sep- credit for making “progress” on the matter of minds of politicians and bureaucrats on the tember IW, CUPE Ontario, at its May 2006 Evaluating the fallout Palestinian rights. It is unclear why Hargrove strength of a letter. convention, approved a resolution calling Some months later, it has become pos- thinks progress has been made, beyond his So on September 5, the union called on for a boycott of Israel that would include “an sible to place the objections to Resolution 50 suggestion that the Israeli elite has come to Spaniards to boycott the stamps. Some days educational campaign about the apartheid into two broad categories. Certainly, many of the view that Palestinians require a state, and before, objecting to the details of the UN nature of the Israeli state and the political and the complaints were Zionist in inspiration; his naive (or disingenuous) claim that a with- resolution setting the conditions under which economic support of Canada for these prac- that is, they made the case, with varying drawal from Gaza has occurred. His refusal international forces will act in Lebanese ter- tices.” The resolution, apparently more am- degrees of sophistication, that the resolution to address the matter of the wall (central to ritory in the wake of Israel’s retreat, the CGT bitious than the CGT suggestion, noted that was unfair to liberal democratic Israel. The the CUPE resolution) and the way in which had also called for an end to the weapons requests for such a divestment strategy ema- other sort were basically business unionist this construction serves to consolidate Israeli trade with the “occupying power.” It also nate from popular organizations and unions criticisms. For example, the president of control over choice West Bank and Jerusalem demanded that the European Union suspend inside Palestine. The campaign, prompted by Local 79, Ann Dembinski, addressed a letter territory arguably disqualifies his missive as a its preferential trade agreement with Israel. the construction of Israel’s wall of separation to the national and Ontario leaders of her serious contribution to the discussion. Within the union’s membership, these (deemed illegal by the International Court of union emphasizing the supposedly negative But the reader needs some context to demands will not cause much controversy. Justice) and advanced prior to the invasion fashion in which fallout from the contro- understand (or be further baffled by) Har- Workers who support the CGT include of Lebanon, would seek to pressure Israel to versy had affected the day-to-day business of grove: He has sold his union’s recent break many apolitical men and women who back “recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable CUPE life (bargaining, addressing grievances, with the social democratic NDP as a move to their union because it promotes grassroots right to self-determination.” fighting privatization, etc.). She argued that the left – even as he has embraced a strategy democracy and fights concessions in the of- Curiously, given the sort of passions “avoidable division” among members had of concessions to the car companies coupled fice and factory, something that often can’t be matters pertaining to Israel provoke in North been sown and that the resolution had dis- with a cap-in-hand lobby at the govern- said for the social democratic labour federa- American gatherings, Resolution 50, as it is credited CUPE with the public. Dembinski’s mental level, designed to boost private auto tions. These workers know that with their now widely referred to, passed unanimously only purely political quarrel with Resolution investment with taxpayer money. While his “membership package” comes an inevitable on May 27 at the CUPE convention. David 50 was that it failed an unexplained test of attack on CUPE can be explained as part of association with anti-war and anti-imperial- Kidd, from all accounts the only member “even-handedness” and “fairness.” She also a general courting of the establishment, his ist causes. Other members, in keeping with to speak to the motion from the floor, has raised questions about its consistency with poorly argued stance probably deserves atten- Spanish anarchism’s traditional opposition some thoughts on why this was the case. He past CUPE resolutions. tion simply because 1) his union has been a to religion, consciously identify more with suggested in an interview that “We probably As far as David Kidd is concerned, the backer of Palestinian rights in the past and 2) relatively secular Israeli life than with what- didn’t have the Jewish membership in atten- “practical” concerns raised by Dembinski’s his words, frequently recorded by reporters ever Hezbollah and Hamas might plan for dance that we might have” had Zionists been letter were exaggerations. Complaints were because of their flamboyant shape, are taken the societies in which they operate. But these more active in the union, but he dismissed received but union business was hardly seriously by at least some on the left. pro-Palestinian trade unionists are unlikely to right–wing commentators’ argument that paralysed. The leader of CUPE’s Ontario Inside the IWW, Eric Lee is also an articu- confuse a love of secularism with support for the Sabbath had something to do with the hospital employees, Michael Hurley, goes a late spokesperson for a sort of pro-Israeli pos- the bombing and oppression of Muslim civil- critics’ initial silence. Kidd added that while little further; he stated that while local leaders ture, and is doubtless a more principled figure certainly received negative calls, the content than Hargrove. In a recent conversation, Lee Skypecasts – Great new tool of telephone communications after the con- presented his views on the Middle East while for union meetings online Online vention was mixed, with members also phon- expressing frustration with criticism he has by E ric l E E ing in to support the adopted position. received from fellow workers. “There is,” he In an ideal world, trade unionists would Picket In brief, controversy was provoked but observed, “a strong current of support for be able to gather for meetings whenever we Eric there seems little evidence that the sky fell Israel in the trade union movement [gener- wanted, anywhere on the planet. Just like Lee – or that, in the words of the Local 79 letter, ally],” a fact he thinks should spur Wobblies corporations do. Line an “unprecedented crisis” had taken hold. to greater “openness” on the question. Lee We’d have no shortage of funds (and tion. This is starting to sound a lot like a Normal business was proceeding. is by no means an advocate of economist ap- time) to fly ourselves around the globe, and meeting in the real world, with the major Of course, resolution backers like Kidd proaches to unionism, describing himself as working together at these frequent meetings, difference being that you can’t actually see object to suggestions that unions should place a socialist and an admirer of Spain’s historic we’d build the kind of global trade union who’s talking. contracts, grievances and arbitrations over CNT. He believes the IWW should pronounce movement we can only dream of today. This already sounds good and here’s the questions of war and peace in their priori- more frequently and in greater depth on ques- That world is probably never going to best part: it’s free. ties list. Nor does he like the suggestion that tions of war and peace. The union, he said, happen, even if the costs of air travel have Skype, the pioneers of free online tele- international issues, so-called, are removed should discuss and debate the Middle East come down in recent years. In reality, we tend phone calls, have begun offering what they from workers’ daily lives. “I walked into a vigorously but in an “informed” fashion, a to rely on tools like email, online discussion call Skypecasts. Anyone can sign up, so Toronto workplace [right after the attacks qualifier he is eager to add. forums, and good old-fashioned phone calls long as you use Skype. As Skype currently on the twin towers] five years ago and found The frustrating thing about Lee’s take – none of which are able to do what a well- has 113 million users, it is likely that many eight members crying. They weren’t crying – and what makes it difficult to either organized, face-to-face event can do. trade unionists already use the service. Those out of sympathy for those killed but for fear constructively tackle or denounce him – is There is always the option of confer- who do not, but who have Internet access, that their children and husbands would be precisely his willingness to give ground on ence calls using the phone network, which should be encouraged to do so. All you need sent off to war.” In other words, global con- almost any particular criticism of the Israeli are enormously expensive, especially when is a computer, a (fast) Internet connection, flict is, more than ever, a bread and butter state. By his own admission, were a debater done internationally. This is not an option headphones, and a microphone (ideally a issue. And all bread and butter issues merit to make ten charges against Israeli actions, for unions with limited resources. headset) and Skype’s free software. serious treatment. it is quite likely Lee “would agree with all of But now a technology has come along At any given time, there are currently them.” He believes that “pressing the Israeli which offers unions the possibility to hold only about 100 Skypecasts taking place. What some Zionists say government is a good thing.” Israel’s invasion international meetings in which up to 100 When I looked, not a single one was being More numerous of course are those crit- of Lebanon in the 1980s was a “crime.” He people can participate. These meetings take hosted by a union. The number of Skypecasts ics who objected (and continue to object) to has worked for years, he noted, to defend place online and they do not involve typing is low because this software is in its “preview” Resolution 50 on the very political grounds Palestinian rights. – they are like conference phone calls where stage – you can use it, but Skype’s not heavily that it targets Israel. Some such voices, at least But his firmest principle in matters people get the chance to speak. promoting it. Yet. in a newspaper like IW, can be discounted Middle Eastern appears to be that Israel has Not everyone can speak at once, and a To learn more about Skypecasting, go on the grounds that they arise automatically the right to defend itself. And so, in the case moderator (the “host”) gives speaking rights here: https://skypecasts.skype.com/skype- in defence of the Zionist state regardless of of this Lebanese invasion, the initial killing to anyone who wishes to make a contribu- casts/home its behaviour. But recent debates have also and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers plus the October 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page  Bradford IWWs Seattle Starbucks faces discrimination complaint stand up for fired The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed suit against Starbucks, Starbucks unionists saying the coffee chain illegally discriminated B y P eter m O O R E against a woman with psychiatric disabilities IWW Bradford in northern England leaf- in one of its Seattle stores. The woman had leted two Starbucks stores on 12 August in worked for Starbucks for two years before support of IWW organiser Daniel Gross, who a new manager apparently decided to force was fired in New York the Saturday before. her from her job. The EEOC says Starbucks Store managers were taken by surprise. slashed the woman’s hours, berated her in The manager in the new Centenary Square front of customers, refused her requests for Starbucks jumped up from doing the ac- accommodations, and ultimately fired her. counts and told the IWWs to stop leafleting The Commission sued last month, after customers. The Fellow Workers only left once more than a year of investigations and several they had distributed leaflets to the clients meetings with the company. The suit seeks and staff. lost wages, punitive damages, and training of “I didn’t think you could cause so much managers on anti-discrimination laws. jitter with some A6 [leaflets],” said FW Retail workers are particularly vulner- Clive, who reported that the manager said able to arbitrary action by managers, who we should call ahead next time we want to are often less skilled than the workers they leaflet. Sounds like a good idea. oversee and often try to reinforce their au- The manager of Starbucks on the second thority through favoritism, petty discipline, floor of the Waterstones bookstore spread his and similar stratagems. arms to block IWWs from climbing the stairs to distribute leaflets. The other Starbucks Starbucks workers file OSHA manager had called ahead to warn him. He complaint over rats in stores said that his clients had the right to relax and Members of the IWW-affiliated Starbucks enjoy their coffees. The IWWs told him that Picketing Starbucks in Washington, D.C. Workers Union have filed complaints with Starbucks employees had the right to union- in the Yorkshire region to stop purchasing the action by entering the store to speak with the federal Occupational Safety and Health ize before walking past him. The manager Starbucks products until the coffee company employees. A barista came up and asked for Administration over conditions at three New threatened to call the police and the IWWs re-hires the fired IWW union organisers. No leaflets to share with co-workers even as the York City stores, after repeated complaints said, “Go ahead” and distributed leaflets to coffee is worth the dignity of our members. manager was telling the IWWs that no one to management over inadequate training customers. No police came. was interested. Police arrived soon afterward, and chronic infestations of roaches, rats and The IWWs then left the store and con- Starbucks actions spread... threatened one Wobbly with arrest, and then other vermin. tinued to leaflet in the street, encouraging continued from page 1 stood down. Hundreds of leaflets were distrib- City health department records indicate hundreds of people to boycott Starbucks until all fired union activists are reinstated include uted, and dozens of would-be coffee drinkers that 43 of 201 Starbucks outlets in the city they re-hired the fired union members. People the National Lawyers Guild and the revived (including a marching band in town for the were cited for rodent or insect activity in the responded positively, sometimes taking an Students for a Democratic Society. annual festival) turned away. A Barista from most recent round of inspections. extra leaflet to share with others. “The Guild is proud to stand in solidarity another Starbucks came up and asked for “It’s crazy, when you have to open at 5 The Starbucks manager came into the with the IWW baristas at Starbucks in their leaflets to distribute at his store. a.m. and see mice on the pastry tray when street and spoke with the fellow workers fight for a living wage and an independent On campuses across the United States, you’re not fully awake,” said IWW barista leafleting. Like his colleague, he plainly had voice on the job,” said Heidi Boghosian, students are launching the Justice From Bean Tomer Malchi, who’s worked at the Union not been informed by Starbucks about the executive director of the National Lawyers to Cup! (www.starbucksunion.org/bean2cup) Square East Starbucks for more than a year. Starbucks Union. “You know about the health Guild in a widely distributed press release. campaign calling for the reinstatement of “There are cockroaches all over the espresso package and benefits, right?” he asked. FW “Starbucks should ashamed to be cash- the fired baristas and fair compensation for machine and fruit flies near the syrup.” Peter replied that Starbucks workers still had ing in on a socially responsible image when coffee farmers. Union members stood outside the Union the right to organize a union and negotiate the company is in reality a serial violator of Starbucks’ workers fight for their rights Square East store August 16, displaying pho- collectively for better conditions without labor rights.” continues in the streets, before the National tos of dead rodents and roaches snapped at facing firing or intimidation. In Edinburgh, Wobblies leafleted the Labor Relations Board, and in growing num- that and other nearby Starbucks outlets. The IWW in Bradford calls on all people High Street Starbucks August 19, beginning bers of Starbucks outlets. “We don’t have the proper staff,” Malchi said. “We’re trained to be baristas, not jani- launch of rockets by Hezbollah justified the and after resolutions are passed, are welcome the spirit of peace-loving principles long tors. But we have to clean up dead mice and war. Not that he endorses the IDF’s bombing in organizations that want workers to be free embraced by the Wobblies and their inter- feces and blood and needles in the bathroom.” of civilians. But he tends to the view that Is- thinkers. “Let a hundred flowers bloom!” was national friends and allies: He said workers don’t have the proper gloves, rael commits bad, stupid and overblown acts a cynical slogan of murderous Mao. But it “Although we understand that the Leba- masks and other equipment for this. for defensible reasons – and that its enemies remains an image full of meaning. nese people are asking for and need help so are often not fighters for liberation but anti- Also, unions are first and foremost places that others stop slaughtering them, we think, Hundreds of immigrants Semites bent on the destruction of the Jewish where workers organize to defend each other from our anti-militarist perspective, that the arrested, deported homeland. It sounds like the sort of union – not clubs where a line is pronounced and solution lies not in more arms and armies but At least 107 workers from Santa Cruz, resolution on Israel Lee would favour would defended. through dialogue – and through the search Watsonville and Hollister, Calif., were begin by praising Israel as a worthwhile Lee also warns about the dangers of for peace based on the right of self-determi- arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs project and an attractive society… then enu- anti-Semitism mixing with criticism of Israel. nation, free association and social justice for Enforcement officers in a sweep September merate its sins as they are committed against Clearly, this card is played with shameless all peoples.” 7 and 8. Of the immigrants, mostly from Palestinians and others. frequency by the right. But leftists should Mexico but also from El Salvador, Guatemala Lee also has a problem with boycotts, take his warning into account when they find Trade Union Congress calls and India, 44 have already been deported suggesting that such campaigns are “blunt themselves in the same demonstrations as for end to Israeli terrorism without access to lawyers. The rest are being instruments” that often do more harm to those who mix affection for Iranian President The British Trade Union Congress meet- held in custody at an undisclosed location. workers and other innocents than good; they Ahmadinejad with hostility to Israeli armies. ing in September approved a resolution that Many of those arrested in “Operation are “ill thought-out and ineffective.” Syndicalists and the radical left are hardly calls for restoration of all European Union Return to Sender” arrived here with their CUPE’s Michael Hurley says his union “is favourable to an Old Testament or Koranic- and other international aid to the Palestin- parents and lived in the United States for the working to identify, with others, a short list of based (counter) revolution; they would do ian Authority. majority of their lives, and have homes and products that could be effective” in a boycott. well to remember that they are neither on With a general strike underway by U.S.-born children. “We would focus on [a limited selection] of the side of fundamentalists nor the powers of 160,000 Palestinian government and educa- The arrests follow a new round of protests goods that would make an economic differ- global capital. Open discussions about such tion workers to protest unpaid wages, the across California and the United States against ence” inside Israel. themes help activists remove the weeds of TUC’s condemned “Israel’s suspension of immigration legislation over the Labor Day anti-Semitism (and other prejudices) from revenue payments to the Palestinian Author- weekend. Last April 1, 187 undocumented Defending free speech gardens meant to support oppressed Palestin- ity,” saying it threatens the “well-being of the workers were detained and 275 deported in So what should left unionists in general ians and homeless Lebanese. And Jews whose Palestinian people as a whole.” raids across the U.S. Many of those workers and IWW activists in particular draw from families died in Auschwitz have no reason to The resolution said justice for the Pales- were reportedly employed by IFCO Systems Lee’s take? Most will shake their heads and sidle up to Holocaust doubters, as Lee would tinian people was necessary to bring peace North America, an international corporation side with the International Federation of Hu- rightly assert, even if these doubters rhetori- to the region, also supporting the right of that builds wood pallets. man Rights, which in September described cally champion Palestinian refugees. self-determination, the right of return for Meanwhile, the House of Representatives the summer war in Lebanon as a “collective But back to CUPE. Did the minor storm refugees, removal of Israeli military from the voted Sept. 14 to build another 700 miles punishment” of its people that constitutes a provoked by its decision shake that union’s occupied territories, and “removal of the il- of fencing along the border with Mexico “crime against humanity.” And a conflict that resolve? Michael Hurley is of the view that legally constructed ‘apartheid wall’” that now as part of a package of anti-immigrant bills also served as cover for the continuing repres- the controversy “emboldened us.” The CUPE divides Palestinian villages. being pushed through the House as part sion of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Ontario leadership is “firmly committed to The TUC resolution also called for dia- of the build-up to the Fall elections. Other But Wobblies and others would do well Resolution 50.” Members will embark on a logue between Israeli and Palestinian union- pending bills call for stepped-up arrests and to listen when Lee raises the banner of open thorough discussion of the issues raised in ists and condemned “the recent Israeli attack deportations, and stiffer sanctions against debate. Unions, syndicalist and social demo- the resolution. Peaceful resistance to Israeli on the Gaza City power station, the use of employers. The bills are not expected to pass cratic, rightly reject Leninism. They have no policy will be championed in Ontario public sonic booms over Gaza, and the seizure of the U.S. Senate before November elections, time for “democratic centralism.” Informed sector workplaces. members of the democratically elected Pal- as senators are pushing their own package of debates about contentious questions, before Perhaps a last word for the CGT, in estinian government.” anti-immigrant legislation. Page  • Industrial Worker • October 2006 IWW Assembly calls for Organizing Dept. Delegates to the IWW’s 2006 General As- ing on five more. The Committee is holding sembly kicked off their meeting Sept. 1 with a Training for Trainers workshop Oct. 7-8 a lively demonstration outside the Shattuck in the San Francisco Bay area, is working to Cinema in Berkeley, where newly organized finalize a training manual, and is beginning workers continue negotiations for the first efforts to add new topics to the OTC curricu- contract, and ended with a labor history lum around topics including building shop bike race and an IWW contingent in San committees, winning demands, and strength- Francisco’s Labor Day parade. In between, 83 ening union culture and activity where the registered delegates heard reports, nominated IWW has won formal recognition. candidates for union office, and discussed Several members have argued that the proposals sent from branches across the union needs to expand its training efforts, and union over two sometimes grueling days. the Seattle branch sent proposals to Assembly The assembly was held in the Humanist calling for expanding the size of the Com- Hall in downtown Oakland. A portrait of Joe mittee, requiring “equal opportunity for the Hill from the Oakland railroad workers’ IWW funding of training[s],” and the creation of a hall (closed in the 1950s) hung on the wall new committee to develop a comprehensive alongside contemporary IWW banners. educational program for members bargaining Assembly delegates sent two proposals to for or currently working under IWW con- referendum of the entire membership: Con- tracts. The Assembly approved an amended stitutional language establishing a new IWW version of the latter proposal calling on the Organizing Department, and a proposal to tees have been brought up to date and efforts several months, wrote several articles for the OTC to develop advanced training curricula have the union become an “adherent” to the to launch a German-speaking ROC are also Industrial Worker on labor struggles there, on collective bargaining, grievance handling Sixth Declaration of the Lacondon Jungle is- progressing. and worked to lay the groundwork for closer and related matters. sued by the Zapatistas. A proposal to increase The General Executive Board’s report relations in the future. FW Chester reported IWW dues received extensive discussion but noted that as the union rebuilds its job floor on a meeting with a member of the Swedish Organizing Department ultimately was not approved. However, some presence we face many of the same issues Workers Center (SAC) international com- The second day of deliberations opened branches turned to the petition process to that faced the union in the 1930s, including mittee to discuss the possibilities for better with a rousing rendition of “Hold the Fort” place a more modest dues hike on the Fall the need to build a stable membership base, supporting each other’s workplace struggles by the delegates, led by assistant chair Jim referendum ballot. and to reconcile the constraints of workplace and sharing international contacts. Crutchfield. General Secretary-Treasurer Mark Dam- representation with our model of direct The International Solidarity Commis- The main item of business on the agenda ron reported dues income is running ahead of action unionism, which requires constant sion also authorized representatives to the was the report of the Organizing Department budget and expenses slightly below, but that mobilization. World Social Forum in Venezuela, to unions Formation Committee, established as part the union is still running a deficit on opera- The International Solidarity Commission in Central America, and to France, and is of the union’s ongoing efforts to strengthen tions (of nearly $16,000) for the first time in reported on its efforts to build direct contacts hoping to send a delegation to Bangladesh union-wide support for workplace organizing. several years. However, he reported that we with unions and other workers’ organizations to deepen our relations with the National The Committee submitted an extensive report IWW organizing efforts continue to expand, around the world, including substantial Garment Workers Federation. (They are also including the results of a survey of branches, and membership continues to grow. periods when members were in India and launching an initiative to help the NGWF proposed policies governing an organizing The Gainesville General Membership Mexico. FW Goodenow met with the New establish a strike fund.) department, and a Constitutional Amend- Branch was chartered in June, and a charter Trade Union Initiative, a federation of Indian Industrial Worker editor Jon Bekken was ment providing for union-wide elections to application is under consideration from Cen- unions that have remained independent of greeted with rousing applause as he stood a new Organizing Department board. tral Illinois. Active groups in Atlanta, Dallas the various parties that dominate other union to announce that he was concluding his six While there was broad support for the and Providence are working to build branches centers, around a program calling for a revival years in that position. FW Bekken’s report fo- proposal, some members questioned the in those cities. However, the Duluth, Law- of working class struggle and international cused on the need to expand the newspaper’s union’s ability to properly staff the depart- rence and Southern Illinois branches have solidarity. However, many of these unions circulation and to encourage branches to send ment with experienced organizers without collapsed and had their charters revoked, lack a rank-and-file orientation, and are more in news of their activities and of labor news pulling people away from other union bodies. and the General Executive Board is work- prone to lobby politicians than to organize in their industries. Particularly controversial was a suggestion ing with several other branches which are direct action struggles on the job. The Organizing Training Committee to bar fellow workers currently engaged in in serious arrears. Both the Australian and FW Bocking met with officers and mem- reported that they have facilitated eight train- local organizing from serving in the depart- British Isles Regional Organising Commit- bers of Mexico’s Authentic Labor Front over ings since the 2005 Assembly, and are work- ment – language in the explanatory material submitted with the proposal that turned out not to be in the policies themselves. 100 Wobblies and supporters Ultimately, the proposal was sent to ref- erendum with the Assembly’s endorsement. rally for Shattuck workers Assembly also sent to referendum an amend- B y D ea n D e m psey, B ay A rea G M B ment requiring new branches to adopt bylaws In the largest turnout to date, the Bay Area IWW rallied outside and elect officers before they are chartered. Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley, in support of the theater’s More controversial was a proposal to workers who are negotiating for their first contract. The rally occurred send the question of adhering to the Zap- one day before the IWW General Assembly, allowing fellow workers atista’s Other Campaign to referendum with from all parts of North America to participate, putting our number Assembly’s recommendation. at more than one hundred Wobblies and union supporters. While the proposal ultimately won a The rally began as a march, as Wobblies marched from the Bay strong majority from delegates, several spoke Area GMB office to the Shattuck Cinemas half a mile away. As we against it. Proponents argued that this was an approached the theater, everyone began to sing “Solidarity Forever,” important opportunity to declare solidarity and then took position outside the theater on Berkeley’s main com- with a grassroots, democratic movement of mercial strip to display banners and picket signs. our Mexican fellow workers and to lay the Among those present were several work- Workers from local IWW shops Buyback bucks and Shattuck workers side by side,” basis for participating in future encuentros. ers from the Starbucks Union in New York Recycling (IU670) and Stone Mountain & Gross said. Critics questioned what was meant by “ad- City. As Starbucks organizer Daniel Gross Daughter Fabrics (IU660) also joined the ral- The support given to the Shattuck Cin- herence,” objected to the Declaration’s calls said, “Starbucks workers were so inspired by ly, demonstrating their solidarity not only for ema workers comes as contract negotiations for an alliance between workers and small the Shattuck victory… so for us, it was such their union but for other fellow workers. are underway. Although wages and hours business owners (among others), and argued a privilege and honor to take a stand with Shattuck Cinema organizer Harjit Gill are being discussed, two major issues are the that we could better build solidarity with the the Shattuck workers and to be with them in saw the rally as “inspiring, with so many workers’ uniforms and the right to a chair for Zapatistas and other grassroots movements in solidarity, and also to pledge to do whatever people there to be supportive of the drive. the ticket collector. Mexico by developing joint campaigns and we can to make sure they succeed, and that The workers felt very supported, and were Recently, in a possible effort to under- sending delegations to meet with unions and we succeed as a class.” really in shock by all the people who turned mine union efforts, workers were offered rais- other workers’ organizations. Landmark employees were equally sup- out for them.” es nationwide, the first such wage increases Other resolutions sent to the Assembly portive of the New York Baristas. Shattuck “In the earlier rallies, workers were in at Landmark Cinemas in about three years. included a resolution requiring disclosure of Cinemas worker Ilya Gershov felt “impressed even greater disbelief that other people would These were 70 cents up to $1.00 raises. The conflict of interests, which was not adopted by the rally [and] that our fellow Wobblies… support them, but I told them this is called union and the workers are optimistic about although the Committee on Resolutions came across the country to show support for solidarity. An individual doesn’t need to know this action, because workers are receiving agreed that it was important for IWW officers our cause.” who you are to give support. That’s what this higher pay but remain committed in organiz- to disclose any potential conflicts of interest The rally also served as an occasion for one word means.” ing to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. to the union as a whole. A proposed amend- fellow workers to meet one another, shar- At mid-rally we convened for a second The support is going strong, and so is the ment to the IWW constitution governing the ing experience and encouraging each other march, circling around the block as people will and enthusiasm of the workers. Gershov filing and hearing of charges was not adopted, through ideas and support. Fellow workers shouted from building windows their sup- says, “I share the feeling with all my fellow although a committee was formed to consider from Canada, Washington, Illinois, Oregon, port for the workers at Shattuck Cinemas. Wobblies at the theater that [one day] people the issue and present new constitutional lan- Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, Wis- Employees at a nearby theater smiled and will walk by the Shattuck theater and say, guage to the 2007 General Assembly. consin and many other parts of the continent clapped as we paused in front. ‘those guys didn’t give.’ ... ‘They took on a A resolution offered from the floor to en- were able to network and meet their fellow “It was wonderful seeing all the IWW giant and didn’t accept anything less than dorse a boycott of Israeli goods was not placed workers face to face. flags waving in the air and seeing the Star- what workers deserve.’” on the agenda as it had not been circulated to October 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page  all branches for prior discussion, as required as little as $12 an hour are assessed maximum by the IWW constitution. However, an ad hoc dues even though they earn far less than the committee was formed by interested mem- median income for the United States. bers, and will research the issue and report These proposals received extensive their findings over the coming year. debate in committee and on the Assembly Delegates did adopt proposals from the floor. Delegates approved proposals to en- floor to prioritize child care arrangements courage automatic dues payments so long as at future Assemblies, to encourage branches these were not deducted from workers’ pay to adopt policies to facilitate more active in- checks, and to encourage branches to require volvement by women workers in the union, delegates to maintain regular contact with to establish a committee to draft bylaws new members in order to reduce turn-over. barring sexual harassment within the union, While the committee recommended across- and to reach out to the Federation of Worker the-board dues increases, delegates initially Cooperatives to advance our mutual interest approved only increases to the regular and in building a world without bosses. maximum dues rates. On a motion to re- consider raised by delegates distressed at Dues hike to referendum the disproportional impact these increases Delegates were presented with a dizzy- would have on low-income members work- ing array of proposals to change IWW dues, ing in shops where the IWW has established including encouraging greater use of auto- union representation, those increases were matic deductions from members’ checking also rejected – leaving consideration of dues accounts, online delegate reporting, annual for another year. GST Mark Damron (Right), speaking outside the Shattuck Cinemas Friday evening. or quarterly dues, creation of a new top dues However, in the week following Assem- stamp categories and end the current practice nominated to the International Solidarity tier for members earning more than the U.S. bly, branches successfully petitioned to place of printing the dues class on dues stamps. Commission (several others declined nomi- median wage, and increasing the union’s constitutional amendments on the Fall ballot nation): John Kalwaic, Philadelphia; Mike existing dues rates by about a third. Some to increase minimum dues by $1 a month, Nominations Pesa, Philadelphia; Dean Dempsey, Oakland; members argued from the floor for adjusting regular dues by $2, and maximum dues by Mark Damron was nominated to serve Druv Jain, Toronto; Skip Porter, Milwaukee; the existing dues tiers, noting that at present $3. Separate amendments would create a new another term as General Secretary-Treasurer. Lauren Anzalda, Pensacola. workers below the federal poverty level are top tier of $28 for workers earning more than Nominated to the General Executive Board Candidates for General Defense Com- assessed regular dues, while workers earning $3,000 a month, and would rename dues (including all those who have not declined mittee Secretary are Drew Robertson of as we go to press) were Patrick Brenner, Chi- Iowa and Leo Stigman of Oakland. cago; Adam Lincoln, BI ROC; Bryan Roberts, Nominated as sites for the 2007 General Edmonton; Scott Satterwhite, Pensacola; Assembly were Chicago, New York City, Twin Richard Seymour, Portland; Oliver Lanti, San Cities, Minn., Gainesville and Pensacola, Francisco Bay Area; Stacey Means, San Fran- Florida, Edmonton, and Woodbine March, cisco Bay Area; Mike Bell, Boston; Ed Boraas, Colorado. It should be kept in mind that Edmonton; Alexis Buss, Philadelphia; Kevin many nominees will ultimately not accept, Farkas, Pittsburgh; Jeanette Gysbers, Edmon- and so the ballot will contain fewer names. ton; Matt White, Philadelphia; Evan Wolfson, Pittsburgh; Sarah Bender, New York; Doug Remembering our dead Gilbert, Bay Area; Jessica Hawthorn, Edmon- The Assembly closed with good and wel- ton; Helen Hudson, Pensacola; Pete Little, fare, including thanks to the San Francisco Portland; Tabitha Millican, Portland; Peter Bay Area for their hospitality and a collection Montalbano, New York; John Persak, Seattle; for the victims of Starbucks’ union-busting. Melissa Roberts, Olympia; Skip Smith, Cen- But first FW Harry Siitonen delivered a tribute tral Jersey; Walt Weber, Philadelphia to Fellow Workers Reino Akkila and Jennie Nominated to a two-year term as In- Velsek, followed by a moment of silence in dustrial Worker editor were Tom Howard, memory of them and FW Steve Lindenmeyer Central New Jersey; Peter Moore, Ottawa; of the Portland IWW. Melissa Roberts, Olympia; Don Jennings, Delegates then gathered in a circle to Georgia; and Marc Young, Toronto. adjourn the proceedings with the singing of BuyBack workers at the Shattuck Cinemas rally The following fellow workers were the IWW anthem “Solidarity Forever.” Highlights of local reports Starbucks organizing has picked up, Ottawa Wobblies have been working with a new shop organized in Chicago and with a panhandlers union in a campaign The right to organize in education six shops in New York City. There’ve been a against police harassment. They also repre- As the National Labor Relations Board unionized and the NLRB has in several cases lot of firings in the last six months, but we’re sent projectionists at Carleton College, but considers the Kentucky River cases, which ruled that they had so little say in setting picking up a lot of contacts as well. The IU negotiations for a contract have been stalled could expand the legal definition of supervi- policy that they retained their right to the 460 campaign underway among largely un- for two years. They did a Starbucks picket sor – taking away the right to join unions protection of a union. documented workers has lined up four shops last week and had some good response talk- from up to 8 million workers – teachers But only the most brutally autocratic in Brooklyn, including Amersino where six ing to workers. continue struggling for the right to organize administrators need fear the Board. When IWW members were fired for demanding Since Centenary the Toronto branch has 26 years after the U.S. Supreme Court decreed Quinnipiac College decided to end 31 years union recognition. Thanks to all for the reformed for the third time in ten years. They that faculty at Yeshiva University were man- of AFT representation, claiming that faculty contributions which have helped the fired have organized a shop of graphic designers agement, and so have no union rights. unions create an “adversarial structure and workers pay their rent. and are meeting with workers in a plastics fac- Full-time faculty at Emerson College in culture,” the NLRB quickly agreed to strip the The San Francisco Area branch is tory. They also have a committee forming in a Boston just won a new contract after three 240 full-time faculty of their rights. reaching out to day laborers, participating supermarket, and contacts at a coffee shop. years of fighting administrators who refused If faculty really did run colleges, of in immigrant rights marches, and working Chicago GMB’s main organizing cam- to negotiate after part-time faculty won rep- course, the ranks of part-time and temporary with worker hiring halls to try to democratize paign underway is the Chicago Couriers resentation by their union, the AAUP. Faculty teachers would not be exploding as quickly as these and bring them under worker control. Union and its Stop NICA campaign. The failed in efforts to force out the college presi- the ranks of the high-paid managers sucking The Branch is also organizing bike messen- union has been fighting bannings of activists, dent, but with solidarity from students made the life out of colleges across the country. gers, and in negotiations at Shattuck Cinemas and established a variety of programs to offer it impossible to break the union. and Curbside Recycling. Stonemountain practical assistance to couriers. At Point Park University, faculty in the Rail Teamsters’ right to vote and Daughter recently ratified their second Portland IDC has moved to a new hall, Pittsburgh Newspaper Guild (CWA), who Members of the Teamsters Canada contract. There is high turnover in many of which is larger but in a worse location, as a overwhelmingly voted to unionize two years Rail Conference voted overwhelmingly in these shops and we need more discussion on result of their former offices being sold. The ago, face at least another year of legal battles August to change their by-laws to require strategies to maintain solidarity on the shop new space will house Martin Glaberman’s after the Court of Appeals sent Point Park’s direct election of the three national officers. floor in between negotiations. library. The branch is planning a campaign appeal back to the NLRB to clarify its ruling Two months earlier, Teamster engineers and One year after organizing, Twin Cities in the restaurant industry, and working to that the faculty were not managers. conductors in the United States also ap- (Minneapolis and St. Paul) GMB now has 45 shore up their IU 650 contracts. The regional director’s 112-page decision proved a system of one-member, one vote by members. They have been active in North- Seattle has won a new contract at Central that Point Park faculty were entitled to union a landslide. And in 2005, the Maintenance of west strike solidarity, and hosted MidWest Co-op which won an expanded unit and kept representation is testimony to the degree to Way Division of the TCRC also changed their WobFest. They have contacts in several shops out the no-strike and management rights which college management has infringed on constitution to provide for direct elections. and are laying the groundwork for a drive. clauses management’s high-priced union- every aspect of teachers’ work. At Point Park a Delegates from divisions that supported Wobblies are working with Los Angeles busting attorney was demanding. new president subcontracted faculty work to this reform are now considering a proposal taxi drivers, whose union was busted many The British Isles ROC reported steady private firms, dismantled departments, estab- to have direct elections at the General Com- years ago. Recently workers struck over long membership growth, establishment of new lished new courses and graduation require- mittee level as well. hours, with fuel prices many workers now branches, revival of their Bread & Roses ments without faculty involvement, imposed “The General Chairmen are the ones who earn less than minimum wage. magazine, and formal certification as a recog- a merit pay system, required faculty to follow actually bargain our contracts, so we feel it’s Pensacola is a low-wage area hit hard nised union (absence of which had blocked a rigid syllabus format, claimed ownership extremely important to hold them directly ac- by recent hurricanes. It’s still a low wage city, members fired for IWW membership from of faculty writings, changed grades assigned countable to the membership,” says Div. 320 but now it has high rents and many workers protection two years ago). In addition to the by faculty, and otherwise stripped faculty of member Craig Brown. “When they bargain have had to leave. They have a job branch at Scottish Parliament job branch, UK Wobs much of their power. our contracts they don’t say ‘look what we a collective coffee shop but it is a constant have active campaigns underway in the edu- As college administrations have become got’; they say ‘look what we didn’t give away.’ struggle to keep the union there. cation, health care and retail sectors. increasingly autocratic, many faculty have That’s got to stop.” Page  • Industrial Worker • October 2006 Northwest strike... continued from page 1 What is the value of a worker’s life? tendants are treading new ground. The union B y A rt h u r J . m I l l er getting the MSDS so that I could do the job as the danger is just a calculated risk and the leadership negotiated a concessionary tenta- Under capitalism the value of a worker’s safely as possible. He yelled that if I did not danger to us workers and the conditions we tive agreement, but the membership voted it life is measured in the ability to produce profit, like the job to call the hall, a rather useless must work in is not a consideration in the down handily. The union has been preparing consumption for profit and to reproduce the act. I said that if I called anyone it would be bottom line costs of such a job. Though the for CHAOS action, but the courts have denied next generation of workers. For the maximum OHSA, and that I had the right to know what engine room was not “Safe For Hot Work” the it and for now the union is obeying. profit in production, the cost of production the dangers were. outside bulkheads were being burnt on and Everyone covered by the RLA is watching must be kept as low as possible even at the The superintendent overheard the yelling at times there was hot burning slag raining the legal developments to see if a company expense of the safety and well-being of those and stepped in and said that, for now the down on us. Once, when I was draining fuel can unilaterally break the contract without that do the producing. Even in the union valves were not to be removed. The shipfitters oil, a burner started to burn right above me. triggering the right to strike. Workers in the shops of the business unions, an injured or were cutting out the bulkheads and they I yelled for him to stop. “Hey brother you’re industry have taken many millions of dollars dead worker can be replaced with a simple could cut around the pipes without having going to burn the boat down with us inside in annual concessions with unions afraid to call down to the union hall for a dispatch. the valves removed. Later on the whole pump it!” challenge the company and the courts. If Down at the local shipyard we were told room was to be removed, but they would deal When it came time to remove the we have the right to strike, it could change to go down into two tanks on a barge and with that problem later. mufflers off the generators I requested a the dynamic entirely since reluctant union remove some valves. The lines in the first I did not refuse to do the job, I only wanted beam clamp in order to safely lower them leaders will no longer be able to point to the tank contained Caustic Soda, which is highly to do it safely. I had already determined that down. First the foreman asks that we lower possibility of abrogation without recourse. corrosive. We were told to wear rubber gloves, face shields and rubber boats were needed it down by hand saying it could not be that If the courts continue to rule against us, safety glasses and spray down the flanges with and some type of splatter shield in case any heavy. The muffler is in the overhead and it will be a temporary setback. However, if we vinegar water. I asked what the danger was, of the Caustic Soda was under pressure. Safety is made out of steel and I told him that we have no legal recourse, then airline workers and the foreman said that if we were to get measures would not cost that much money or are not going to lower it by hand. No beam will be forced to see that we no longer have any on our skin it might burn a little. When I time, but they cost the company something clamp can be found and rather than take the any reason to respect the law, that we have got down into the tank, which was the pump – and maximum profit was the primary goal time to have the steel shop make one and to take matters into our own hands, and that room for the product, I noticed that there was and a worker’s life meant next to nothing. pay that small expense, the foreman tells us we must quit relying on courts that have been a full decontamination station. That set an Just having safety concerns was counter to to lower it down with rope any way we can. purchased by our employers. alarm off in my head. Why would they have the interests of the company. The next day I We got the first one down without much of Karen Schultz puts it best: “The NWA a decontamination station down in a tank if was laid off, I guess in the hope that the next a problem. Using rope means that when you flight attendants twice rejected the terms to the product was such a minor danger? Then I workers sent down there would do the job get the last bolt out the muffler will fall some which their unions and NWA agreed. Their noticed that the valves, suction and discharge without questions. no matter how tight the rope is because the voices should matter to NWA, to the courts were closed at the bulkhead, and the valves In the months before that work, we rope will stretch. So we knew to stand out of America and to the current administration. at the pumps were closed, which meant that were working on a major overhaul of a of the way. On the second muffler the rope Nowhere in the court’s decision was this in- more than likely the pipes still had product tugboat. This overhaul included replacing broke and the muffler fell about 8 feet down. dicated. We are not slaves and should have a in and could be under pressure. the engine and two generators, removing all Doing the job safely with a beam clamp and a right to strike. Now we have nothing to lose, I then went to the safety officer and asked the piping both to get them out but also so chainfall meant cutting in to profits and that but our dignity.” him about Caustic Soda and to find out about that new piping can be made for the different just cannot be allowed even at the expense And that is one concession we will never the stuff in the other tank which was a form configuration the new engine would need. of safe working conditions. give. of liquefied fertilizer. He told me that there To save time and money, thus making We had to take off the piping to the oil Joshua DeVries is a flight attendant and a had been injuries in the past in the yard due the owners more wealth, rather than have coolers, which were all six inch pipe. At the member of AFA and the IWW. to Caustic Soda. One pipefitter had part of his the lube and fuel oil lines sucked out by a top of the outlet of the waterside of the cooler face and neck burned that left scars. Another tanker truck we were told to cut those lines was a six inch angle valve. Even with all of us had his knees burned. Another had his arm and let what was in them drain into the bilge. pulling with rope there was no way we could Are we not slaves? burned as the Caustic Soda burned through The owner’s thinking is that since the bilges lift that valve. There was a padeye in which by J o n B e k k e n his clothing. I then asked for the Material must be cleaned before a “Safe For Hot Work” we could hook a comealong, so the foreman As the Industrial Worker goes to press, a Safety Data Sheet, which by law all companies permit is issued, why not remove the lube oil gives us a small comealong. I noticed that this federal judge has issued an injunction barring must have on all chemical hazards. and fuel oil at the same time? That creates a was the same comealong that I had brought flight attendants from striking Northwest While the safety officer was trying to fire danger, as we are working around very in to be red tagged until it was fixed because Airlines, while allowing the bosses to impose find the MSDS the pipe foreman came up to flammable material below us. Many of the when you change gears the load would free wage cuts and other concessions that flight at- me yelling about why I was not down in the pipes we must remove run through the bilge fall. That meant whenever you changed gears tendants had overwhelmingly voted down. tank taking out the valves! I told him I was and thus we must work in an oily mess. But to pick up or to lower a load the load would This injunction was handed down even though nothing in the Rail Labor Act provides Starbucks: Making work safer with direct action for such court orders. The “law” barring these workers from striking is an invention continued from page 1 (notwithstanding the poverty wage of the judge’s fevered mind, who recognizes a whistle after eight-hours of work and going and lack of full-time status), while the that another strike against Northwest would home. IWW timber workers won the eight- IWW is a radical organization outside be inconvenient to the employing class. (Of hour day in this manner and not through of the mainstream. course, working under the deep concessions the ballot box or a union official. Direct Ac- Third, the company could remove management imposed in violation of a “con- tion is about more than winning demands the IWW ladder and purchase a com- tract” it entered into with the flight atten- though. It’s about how the demand is won, parable ladder for the store. While this dants’ union is inconvenient to the workers, that is, through workers’ own initiative and wouldn’t be perfect for Starbucks be- but workers have few rights that the bosses self-organization. cause they’d have to spend money and and their courts feel obliged to respect.) The IWW baristas picked Labor Day to concede a union victory, workers pre- We derive no satisfaction from the fact launch their direct action. First, the union dicted this was the way management that the flight attendants stumbled into this bought a ladder. Next, workers placed a would go. After years of being turned desperate position by their act of treachery sticker on both sides of the ladder reading, down for a simple tool that makes ev- a year ago when they – along with every “Brought to you by IWW Starbucks Workers eryday life at work a whole lot easier, other air transport union, although they at Union for a safer, healthier workplace.” The the baristas would have their ladder. In least considered the possibility of solidarity workers knew that when they brought the addition, the company would foot the action – decided to cross the picket lines of ladder to work, Starbucks could respond in bill for the ladder, as it should under the mechanics and ground crew workers one of three ways. the law. The union would then return represented by the Airline Mechanics Frater- First, the company could allow the ladder its ladder to recoup the cost. nal Association. AMFA members remain on to stay in the store and workers would have September 4th came around and every- accept the union’s ladder but that the com- strike, with subcontractors and a handful of the tool they needed to work safer. The Wob- thing was set to go. Two Wobbly baristas from pany would purchase its own ladder. One scabs hired for the purpose doing their jobs bly baristas knew that the company wouldn’t the Logan Square Starbucks including one hour later, after years of individual requests and other air transport unions crossing the choose this first option. Starbucks is waging a of the authors, Joe Tessone, were selected to and less than one week as union members, picket lines to keep the scab-maintained and fierce and unlawful anti-union campaign that bring the ladder into the store. The contrast the Logan Square baristas had the ladder they cleaned airplanes flying. resulted in a massive complaint from the Na- of the reactions to their entry into the store needed for a safer healthier workplace. Because workers do not stand in solidar- tional Labor Relations Board. The last thing with the ladder was striking. Management, The IWW baristas and those acting with ity with each other – acting on the principle Starbucks would want was a useful tool that including a senior human resources official, them in solidarity still have much work to that An Injury to One Is An Injury to All – we workers needed with the IWW sticker on it. looked shocked and mortified. On the other do. Starbucks is still far from a decent place continue to be afflicted with the employing Allowing such a ladder to remain in the store hand, workers were beaming with smiles to work and the company continues union- class. Because our unions seek an of accom- would conflict with Starbucks’ message that cheek-to-cheek. The absolute power of their busting with impunity. But with several key modation with the employing class, we are unions are antiquated and not necessary in employer, which was first challenged less victories under its belt and a commitment to confronted with an endless series of demands Starbucks “pro-partner” environment. than a week ago, had been further eroded and a powerful organizing model, the IWW Star- for ever-more-humiliating concessions. Trust- Second, Starbucks could remove the lad- they had set in motion a plan to get the ladder bucks Workers Union is poised to continue ing in politicians and judges and arbitrators der to rid the store of a useful gift from the they needed! Afterwards, Joe’s partner in the growing and winning workplace demands. and labor boards invites nothing but abuse. IWW and reinstate the no-ladder status quo. action, Monica Karpuk, said that this was the Only one thing didn’t go according to If workers stuck together, the bosses’ in- This too would not be good for the company. most exciting thing she had ever done. plan in Chicago. The baristas decided not to junctions would not be worth the paper they Jettisoning a useful tool that workers needed Management sprang into action running return their ladder to get the money back. are laser printed on, good only for making to stay safe would make the company look around visibly shaken. Then they moved They kept it to remember their Direct Action paper airplanes. The power to run all indus- bad to workers and to the public. Such a outside the store to speak in private. Return- and to preserve a symbol for the millions of try, or to shut it down, rests in our hands. We maneuver would conflict with Starbucks’ ing to the store still distraught, management working people looking for their own ladder neglect that power at our peril. message that it’s a benevolent employer informed workers that Starbucks could not to a better life on and off the job. October 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page  fall. I checked to see if it had been fixed and were under them and thus had stuff falling it had not been. I found the shop steward and on us. The company was sorry. Later that showed him the problem with the comealong day we had fire raining down on us instead. and we got a red tag and both signed it, and Every time there is a grievance the company had witnesses to that so that if the red tag was is sorry and nothing changes. It was not the removed a safety grievance would be filed. fault of our shop steward; he did try, but the Once we had a lot of piping, valves and union would not back him up. other stuff removed, the foreman wanted us One issue in the yard is overtime work. to get all that material out on main deck. We Yes, we have the right to turn down overtime, were going to hook up a chainfall at the top of but the company uses a part of the contract the stairs to pull each piece out. The foreman that says they may keep workers based decided that would take too much time and upon “skills and ability.” The company says gave us a pulley and some rope. In order to get willingness to work overtime is an ability, up the stairs someone had to be by the load to so if we refuse we can be bumped down make sure that it did not get caught up on the the senority list by someone who will work stairs. With a pulley you have no means other overtime. Our shop steward was the most than your own strength to keep the load from insistent of all of us about refusing overtime. going back down. With a chainfall that works He did not have to worry about being bumped right, the load stays where it because the shop steward is is until you either lower it or Solidarity is not just always number one on the raise it. We left all the material seniority list. down there. helping some strike; That pissed off the hall Removing the insulation it must become a cats at the union because they off the exhaust piping had are more pro-overtime than he told us that it is his power alone to appoint room and off the tug. All of the painting is covered much of the engine way of life for us the company. As in many stewards and that the shop steward works done at night and on weekends because other room with dust. I had asked working people... construction unions, we pay for him. So with conditions already bad, we workers cannot work around the painting. the foreman if the insulation both standard union dues and now have a shop steward who is a lackey of Marine paint is very strong and toxic. The has any asbestos in it. He told me no. Then “working dues” based upon how much you the hall cats. painters painted the exhaust trunk right on one day we were told to leave the boat – the work. So the more hours we work, the more About a week ago, while inspecting pipe top of us. They were in such a rush they did test results on the insulation had come back money the union gets. going to the keel coolers of a large tug, a hole not take the time to see if any one was in the positive for asbestos. For over a week those of One day our union B.A. came down to was found in a pipe. This pipe was down engine room and to warn them. I was sick for us working in the engine room had asbestos the yard. He told the shop steward that if he in the infamous number 14 double bottom two days. All the foreman would say is that raining down on us. Though our lives may did not agree to work overtime that he would tank. I had already worked in that tank three we should have had our respirators on, but not have any value to the company, in their no longer be the shop steward. We did not others times, so with two other pipefitters and how would we know to use them without mad pursuit of profit they ended up costing realize that the B.A. had the power to appoint a welder I found myself in that damn tank some warning? themselves profit because the tug boat had shop stewards and to get rid of them. He again. That tank is tight to begin with, but The capitalist system places little or no to be shut down. Since the dust was now all refused to agree to work overtime and the when you had to crawl under the foundation value on the lives of workers. We can be over the place, there was a much larger area B.A. appointed a new shop steward. The guy of the port engine it was even tighter. To make replaced. Workers are injured, sickened and to clean up than if they had waited until the he appointed had been a pipe helper, and was matters worse, there were pipes running killed throughout the industries so that the results came back and they just had to contain made a journeyman without apprenticeship through some of the holes you had to crawl bosses can make their profits. Profits are the the asbestos while stripping the insulation or test by the B.A. He had been low on the though so you had to squeeze your body highest economic and social value under off the pipes. seniority list. So without the B.A. talking to through them. There was mud and anti-freeze capitalism and we workers have the lowest It would seem that these safety issues any of us, he makes this guy shop steward on the bottom of the tank, which you had to value. It should be clear to all that capitalism should be the concern of the union. We – jumping over all of us to be number one lie down in because there was only enough can not be reformed because the interests of tried to file a grievance about the asbestos, on the seniority list. Why were such favors room to work the pipe lying down. capitalism and the interests of workers are too and were told that the company was sorry. shown this guy? Could it be that his brother I could not get in there without crawling far apart to ever find common ground. We tried to file a grievance about workers was the union dispatcher? around the backside, so first the other two The labor movement has been so cleaning the tops of the engines while we The next time the B.A. came to the yard pipefitters who were thinner than I am tried concerned about more nickels and dimes for to do the job. The first one was a building bargaining units that it often overlooks the Oct. 24 is Take Back trades fitter who had never worked in such a conditions of labor and the well-being of our communities and the environment. We need Your Time Day place. When he reached where the work was he turned around and had to get out of there. more than just these bargaining units; we October 24th is Take Back The look on his face was of sheer terror. need a labor movement based upon the idea Your Time Day and this year’s Then the other fitter went in and got the on universal class solidarity as a way of life. theme is “Let’s Get Back to the old pipe cut and the new one tacked up. Once This means we look out for each other and Table!” A variety of resources the new pipe was out of the tank and welded the highest concern of all is the well-being of and suggestions on possible ac- up, I took it around the backside. We had all. No job that we perform is more important tivities are available at www.timeday.org. can be downloaded and reproduced. already nearly completed our normal shift than the well-being of the workers who do the “We’ve got the most Gross Domestic when this job came up and by the time it was work. Even when pushed hard by the bosses, Product in the world,” says Time Day Coor- European vacations remain done we had pull down a 15 ½ hour shift. we should first look out for each other. dinator John de Graaf. “But there’s no time With almost weekly headlines like “Eu- The tug had to leave at high tide and An injury to one is an injury to all is the to enjoy all that stuff and we’re sacrificing rope’s Long Vacation Is Ending” (Philadel- we were done shortly before it left. This job most fundamental principle our class should so much. Americans can hardly find time phia Inquirer, June 11) one might conclude should have been done while the tug was in live by. I have a friend and long-time public to sit down to eat together anymore. Is our that the American model – no vacations – is dry dock, but in the planning of the job it got worker who is bed ridden with cancer that is economy just for raising the Dow Jones av- winning the global vacation wars. However, left to the last moment. Thus the company’s killing her. I visit her often and try to make erage, or is it to provide healthy and happy notes John Messenger of the International crisis became our hell. It only got done her life more comfortable, not out of some kids, families and communities?” Labor Organization, “The picture painted by because of the human solidarity between us bleeding heart charity, but out of solidarity. The growing American work week these articles is an inaccurate one. workers who gave comfort and aid to each Solidarity is not just helping some strike carries a heavy price in depression, stress- “Although some European firms, par- other to get through such hard conditions. action; it must become a way of life for us related health problems, and social isolation ticularly in some sectors in Germany and At what point do we tell the capitalists working people. Be it on our jobs, be it in as too many of us simply don’t have time France are pushing for longer working that their problems are not our problems and support of workers on other jobs, be it in for our families or our friends. Studies have weeks, there is certainly no movement to- refuse to bail them out? Like it or not that our communities, solidarity does not have shown that the number of intimate friends wards a reduction in paid annual leave (paid time is coming is coming for all workers. an up or down hierarchy of importance. It has continued to plummet, making us more vacation) in the EU – where a minimum of The painters are pushed very hard to get their matters not what the situation workers find isolated and lonely. And lonely people are 20 working days (4 weeks) of paid vacation work done and sometimes that causes the themselves in, sick in bed, fighting conditions less happy and healthy. is required under the European Working rest of us problems. Another pipefitter and I on the job or resisting the bosses’ wars. Nor are we making up for this social Time Directive. This is a key point because were working on the lines to the steering shaft Solidarity is our revolutionary way of life and misery with more material wealth. Wages the main reason for the difference in average when all of a sudden we heard the tank lid the means of creating a new society within have been stagnant for more than 30 years, annual working hours between the US and being closed. Luckily I was near the opening the shell of the old. and American workers are falling ever the EU countries is not weekly hours, but and yelled out to stop them. Had we been deeper in debt even as we work harder and rather the difference in paid annual leave, further in the tank we could have been sealed Subscribe to the produce more than ever before. which is between 5 and 6 weeks in most in. The painters did not know that anyone Industrial Worker today Wobblies in San Francisco will be dis- of the old EU – 15 (the average number else was working on the tug and were getting Subscriptions are $15 per year. tributing leaflets reviving the IWW’s historic of days of collectively agreed annual leave it ready to paint. They were pushed so hard Enclosed: q $15 for 1 year campaign for the 4-hour day – a goal that has across the entire EU is 26 working days), they did not have time to think about the q $_____ donation to IW Sustaining Fund been economically practical for 75 years or as compared with only 2 to 3 weeks of paid other workers who might be around them. q $15, bundle of 5 for 6 issues so. Churches across Massachusetts will urge vacation in the U.S. (and U.S. workers, like (ask about special IWW member rates) On another tug we had to work a parishioners to reflect on the time crunch the Japanese, also don’t take all of their Saturday because the new sea valves had in their lives, and resolve to do something vacation days)... Name: ______just come in and the tug was scheduled to to reclaim more of their lives. “When it comes to paid vacation, it is leave drydock on Sunday. There we were Address:______There are many ways to celebrate Take not the EU but the U.S. that is the outlier installing the sea valves right off the sea chest City/State:______Back Your Time Day, from organizing an because the US is now ... the only industri- when strong fumes hit us hard. Our eyes and event in your union hall or local library to alized country that provides no statutory Postal Code:______throats were burning and we grabbed rags to hosting a brown bag lunch at work. The minimum entitlement for paid vacation for send to: Industrial Worker Distribution cover our mouths as we ran out of the engine TBYT also has several silent agitators which its workers.” PO Box 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223 USA Page 10 • Industrial Worker • October 2006 Written at the time when there was a very bitter debate going on in Washington about Poetry can be a class act a gold standard versus a silver standard; and A few weeks ago, I went to a poetry read- the Bones from www.ghostroadpress.com with William Jennings Bryan carrying the ing at a local book store in Denver, because for $13.95 to savor the rest. Every student torch for gold, it is not surprising that our the book of poems were primarily about a of Ludlow must have this book of pain and four heroes traveled the “yellow brick road” subject close to the heart of the working class struggle. or that “Oz” is the symbol for ounce. of many nations: the Ludlow Strike in 1914. The play was not very popular. Critics The author, Eleanor Swanson, is a professor of Glenda Downie Listens scorned it. But the play was made into a English at Regis University here in Denver. Lying sleepless beside my husband, movie in the ’50s and became a smashing hit I might have been leery that I was going I listen to the sounds of midnight, at, ironically, the very period when Yip had to hear another failed attempt by an intel- light, complicated noises, he wrote the lyrics, ‘if I only had a Brain … a been blacklisted by McCarthyism. lectual to put working class experience to like an embroidery on a dark Heart… the Nerve.’ ” Very close, Jeff. As Mark Wolff pointed out in his June rhyme; but as I’m drawn to anything about cloth fine as air itself. Yip’s son, Ernie Harburg, co-authored a article, in 1932 Yip also wrote the song that this quintessential example of the struggle My husband snores softly and frets, wonderful biography of Yip’s life and contri- became a hit among the unemployed during between workers and the owning class like rolling this way and that, then settles. butions, Who put the Rainbow in The Wizard the depression, “Brother Can You Spare a a moth to a flame, I went to hear her poetry. Outside, wind shudders through pines, of Oz? (University of Michigan, 1993), in Dime.” The words of this song are Wobbly I would have been dead wrong to miss this muffling a hoot owl’s cries. which he discloses the radical politics of this to the core. The tune came from an old Rus- reading. Once again, I was reminded of the I’ve always had good ears, play. A novel called The Wizard of Oz, written sian folk song and Yip changed the words. A truth that we can never assume we know and used them many a time by L. Frank Baum, was the basis for the play. Wobbly trick, wouldn’t you agree? For those where we are going to find working class to seek out solitude amid Baum wrote this novel in 1900 as a political of you who missed Mark Wolff’s article in the hearts and minds. the maddening noise of everyday, allegory for grown-ups hidden in a fairy tale June issue, I’ll repeat some of the words here. Eleanor entitled her book of poetry, or as a way to learn secrets for children amidst the wreckage of the failure “Once I built a railroad, made it run / Made Trembling in the Bones. Reading the poems and enter into mysteries of the Populist movement of the 1890s. it race against time / Once I built a railroad, in the book is a deeply moving experience beyond the ken of most. As Baum saw it, the potential coalition of now it’s done / Brother can you spare a dime? for any student of labor history. You will not farmers (the Scarecrow) and urban industrial / Once I built a tower, to the sun (Rockefeller read them all with dry eyes. But when she Keen hearing’s almost better workers (the Tin Man) had been subverted by Center – 1931) / Brick and rivet and lime / reads her own poetry, one quickly discerns than the gift of prophecy. the political chicanery of financial interests Once I built a tower, now it’s done / Brother that, although Trembling in the Bones refers to That’s a footstep now, a boot and the shortcomings of the Populists’ own can you spare a dime?” a poem about a mine cave-in, Eleanor’s bones crushing a twig, and another. leaders, most particularly presidential candi- The idea for this song is known to all also tremble, with the rage, fear, and pain of Strangers in the camp date William Jennings Bryan – the model for familiar with the history of the Ludlow a non-union coal miner in 1914. who’ve gotten past the guards. the cowardly Lion. Dorothy, a farmer’s daugh- Massacre in Colorado. After the brutality of Eleanor Swanson begins her book with a My ears tell me more ter from Kansas who wants to escape the drab the Ludlow strike of 1913-1914 was finally short history of the Colorado Territory that than my mind knows. life of farming, befriended the Scarecrow, the reported in the press, John D. Rockefeller’s would, in 1876, become the state of Colorado. It’s union men come to organize Tin Man and the Lion in hopes that the all- image was so tarnished that he was among In reality, this area was always just another this near-beaten band of men powerful Wizard (the federal government) the first industrialists to hire a public relations third world country with lots of resources to and boys, into a boisterous force would fulfill all their needs. agency. The railroads preceded him. They exploit for the wealthy back east who ignored that the bosses will finally hear, The Wicked Witch of the East (capital- agreed to loan out their master of propaganda the laws and took what they wanted regard- voices roaring like rushing water ism) tried to foil their journey for fear they on a part-time basis. Ivy Ledbetter Lee went less of what the area was called. sweeping over the land. would discover the ugly truth, that the to work for Rockefeller’s CF&I company for Towards the end of Eleanor’s book is a Wizard was a scam and possessed no special $1,000 per day; good part-time wages. Ivy poem about Baron Beshoar’s memories as Yip Harburg’s “Wizard of Oz” powers; worse yet, that the Scarecrow would immediately hired photographers to follow the young son of the only doctor who would In the June issue, Mark Wolff wrote a discover that he did possess a brain and was John D. around taking pictures of him giv- treat the striking miners. (Later in his life, nice tribute to E. Y. “Yip” Harburg on page not stupid; that the Tin Man would discover, ing dimes to little children and distributing Baron wrote an excellent book about the 10. I was so glad that Yip is remembered. though brutalized by a ruthless capitalism, the pictures to the press. The idea for Yip’s strike of 1913-1914, Out of the Depths, that By the way, when Yip moved to Uruguay for that he still had a heart and a soul; that, song came from this PR gimmick. Capitalism you can only find as a rare or used book, but three years, it was to avoid World War 1. He though cowed by financial power, the Lion weaves a nasty web that ties much ugliness it is worth the search. The Rockefeller family refused to bear arms for capitalism. might discover courage on his own. in our history neatly together, and the web still intimidates anyone who wants to keep Then in the July/August paper, Jeff Stein Even Dorothy might find that farming in is growing and growing and... the memory of this strike alive.) added to Mark’s praise of Yip. Jeff’s article Kansas could be quite fulfilling if the Wicked How long, fellow workers? Dorothy still I will only give you a taste of Eleanor’s ended with, “I am forced to wonder if Harburg Witch of the East were dead. “Ding Dong the needs your help. Remember her every time poetry. You will have to order Trembling in did not have the ruling class in mind when Witch is Dead,” sung by the Munchkins (the you see a rainbow. little people) in the play, was a dream that The moral to Yip’s story? Pay more atten- went unfulfilled for Baum; but we continue tion to children’s fairy tales. Thanks, Mark to dream his dream. and Jeff, for reminding me that Yip Harburg The Wizard of Oz is full of symbolism. was one of our own. Harvey slays the time-study monster B y J . P ierce clipboard and stop watch in hand, just like Harvey shows up to deliver mail at a the classic ‘time-study men’ in an assembly warehouse in West Berkeley. He chuckles to plant. A couple days before, management In the never-never land of fantasy I am construct an extensive warehouse. The city himself. Not because this drop brings him any installs another chair in his regular vehicle granted three wishes. I immediately bring had sold the property to Horowitz in 2003 particular joy, but because he’s got a story to for the time-study boss to ride around in. home the troops from whatever outpost they for $5 million. Now, somehow, the price had tell. What used to be one drop at an empty Harvey believes this to be a safety hazard, are station. I convert the funds used to sup- spiraled to $16 million if Horowitz agreed to edifice not long ago is now a 15-minute mini- seeing as how there is no escape route for port them in their unproductive mission to sell the land back to the little farmers. route to a dozen different drops in a labyrinth this passenger in the event of an accident. social services. And, as befits war criminals, The date of eviction was postponed from of offices and ‘work-live spaces’ for yuppies. Harvey puts his diabolical brain to work. Our I lodge both George Bush and Saddam Hus- April to June to permit the peasants to raise I’m at this May Day party at Inkworks friend enlists a lawyer buddy and draws up sein in the same narrow jail cell for the rest this impossible sum. Celebrities and con- Press and I meet Harvey. He’s a middle-aged a very official looking ‘waiver form’ to bring of their lives. cerned citizens got into the act, setting up Asian guy with a soft-spoken manner and a to work with him. The day arrives when the I recall all CIA agents, reassigning them round-the-clock vigils. They broadcast the mischievous humor about him. He’s dressed time-study wonk shows up to climb in the cab to the dangerous but essential task of remov- news of the people’s plight. They did their as though he just got off his mail route. In- and harass Harvey for an entire shift. Harvey ing land mines throughout the world. darnedest to raise funds. (And don’t raise deed, he did, having been forced to labor on whips out his waiver form and says, “Sure I declare the city of Los Angeles’s trans- the ugly specter of anti-Semitism. Concerned May 1, the Workers’ Holiday. Harvey made boss, climb aboard. But first I need you to action selling the peasants’ plot of land in Jews joined the party.) acquaintances on his route over the years, sign this waiver form. It says that you release central Los Angeles to a developer null and The day of reckoning arrived on Thurs- and the folks at Inkworks treated him to a me of all liability for any injuries you sustain void. I tear up the contract, and throw the day, June 13. Hundreds of loyal pawns of respite among friends. in the event of an accident.” pieces at Mr. Horowitz’s feet. And I assign a the state swarmed over the area, tossing tree As we talk over hot dogs, I learn that Time-study man can’t think on his feet so team of reformed police to guard the people’s sitters out of trees, cutting metal chains bind- management has been after Harvey for a he goes away. Days later our friend, Harvey, garden against any vengeful incursion of the ing protesters to trees, confiscating personal while. He’s a typical worker militant: hated repeats his waiver form routine at the door developer. property, handcuffing and arresting over 40 by management as well as his union’s piecard of his vehicle to yet another stop-watch boss Down to earth, you dreamer. people. Bulldozers began the job of crushing, local officials and always standing up for who’s half-way in the truck. Stumped, the How reckon the cruelty of a system, pulverizing the labor of 350 families. The himself in creative ways. The bosses wanted bosses relent and send a stooge out to trail the blind folly of compliance with a legal transaction took eight hours. to increase his workload and lengthen his Harvey in a separate vehicle. At every stop mandate? On July 26 a court ruled in favor of the daily route. They were arguing that he takes the snoop truck parks parallel to Harvey’s so Bulldozed! Ten years of productive labor developer. An appeal is planned. To what too long on his current drive. The post office the boss can peer into Harvey’s window and plowed under: a plot of land granted by the purpose? insists that his route is an eight hour route watch him sort mail. city where 350 families raised corn, beets, Feeble plans are proposed to relocate when in fact, Harvey claims, it takes nine and All this time-study business could’ve tomatoes, and fruit trees to feed themselves. the dispossessed farmers to little plots of one half to do it. Unlike the bosses, I take made a person pretty angry. But Harvey got This 14-acre central city garden project had land here and there – somebody’s big back Harvey’s word as a matter of course. Every a good laugh when exiting the building he drawn national attention for its self-help yard, a weed-strewn acre nobody wants, an worker knows the job better than the boss. saw a parking ticket on the boss’ Post Office gumption. enterprising angel with a piece of land to Management decides to time Harvey’s truck. The time-study clown got a ticket for This suddenly changed when a developer donate… “With liberty and justice for all.” route the old fashioned way – ride his ass all being triple parked on a narrow street in front decided he needed this particular plot to What say you? day. They’re gonna look over his shoulder, of the warehouse in West Berkeley. October 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page 11 IWW Victory for Taxi Drivers Working Families Party wins The purpose of the non-standard work- at LA Airport place is to deny the workers their rights and cannot be tolerated and it is our duty as Massachusetts ballot line B y E r n esto n E V A R E z , to keep out legitimate competition. The elected officers to speak out. Mr. Toussaint, by m A R k W o l ff T u r n i n g t h e tide only recourse for the workers is to create whose intolerance for opposing views is The Massachusetts Working Families The City of Los Angeles has issued nine economic chaos and anarchy. After the war, well known, has now declared war on the Party has gotten enough signatures to get Franchise Contracts to taxi companies which when the dust settles, then there can be a democratic rights of every Local 100 member. union activist Rand Wilson on the November allow them to work LAX. These companies collective agreement. Congratulations to our We demand the right of every member to ballot for state auditor. Wilson has worked have permission to use about 3,000 drivers. Wobbly brothers and sisters at the Airport! express their opinions without bodily harm as an organizer with CWA, SEIU, the Boston Most are poor immigrants from a variety or intimidation. Teachers Union and the Teamsters. of countries, such as Iran, Russia, Congo, What’s more, democratic unions have The WFP was a New York union initiative Pakistan, etc. The companies have banded Charges Against Toussaint the best record defending the rights of its founded with help from ACORN. The party together and have invented a non-standard Fellow workers; membership. campaigns around issues such as wages, re- workplace with characteristics that have Please note the activity of Transport Mr. Toussaint’s actions do not bode well tirement security, education and health care, been institutionalized and accepted as the Workers Union president Roger Toussaint for the upcoming union election in December excluding issues such as abortion and mar- “standard” and which the workers have in calling for attacks on fellow transit work- in which he is a likely candidate. Will there riage rights. Although the WFP opposed the fatalistically believed was their reality. That ers who exercise their right to dissent. The be physical violence? Will candidates be free war in Iraq, it endorsed Hillary Clinton. was until the Nick Search Decision! Stalinist Anwar Hodja [of the Albanian Com- to campaign without fear? Will there be full The Wilson campaign cites a Suffolk Most of these companies vary in legal munist party ] past of Transport Workers disclosure of the process? Can the official University poll which gives the WFP/Wilson entity with the standard being a non-profit Union president Roger Toussaint is not lost election results be trusted? campaign 11 percent among likely voters. membership corporation made up of mem- in his application of tactics. We call on all Local 100 members must demand that The WFP submitted the signatures needed bers who own the vehicles. The first thought genuine lovers of union democracy to fight Mr. Toussaint and his supporters repudiate for official third party ballot status, and is was that since the taxi company was made up this and make his tactics known. The com- violent threats and acts of intimidation. In using the candidacy for state auditor to push of taxi owners, no one would be employees. plete absence of democracy in the Transport addition, members must demand an end to a ballot reform question supporting ‘cross- This thought was erroneous. Even in small workers Union destroyed the strike and left the cover-up and allow union officers full endorsement’ or fusion voting. With fusion partnerships, if you do work for the partner- its workers open for more anti-worker attacks access to the official record. voting, a candidate is placed on the ballot ship, you are an employee. and added to the demoralization from the more than once on different party lines. You can be a limited partner and only heady days of the strike. Transport Work- FOR MORE INFO CONTACT: According to Bill Cunningham, writ- have a passive participation to safeguard an ers Union president Roger Toussaint is now Marty Goodman, Local 100 Executive ing in the August The Bridge (a Somerville, economic investment but if you do work, laying the groundwork for further givebacks Board member: 212-781-5157 Ainsley Stew- Mass.-based Green Rainbow Party vehicle), you are still an employee. Eventually the and refusal to fight the MTA during a time art, Local 100 Vice-President for Car Equip- the WFP strategy is to get enough votes to “owners” allowed for multiple cab ownership when attacks on transit workers is increas- ment Division: 917-318-8356 John Mooney, secure their ballot line, and then to bargain and the standard is now limiting owners to ing on a daily basis with no word from the Local 100 Vice-President for Station Division: with Democratic candidates to deliver their 5 cabs maximum. Well, u can just imagine union. Transport Workers Union president 917-770-4082 ballot line and their voters. what happened to the immigrant work Roger Toussaint and his cronies sit alienated Wilson campaign manager and Teamsters force of drivers. They were all denied their from the membership at the union center on Vice President John Murphy says the strategy employment rights and have been treated as 80 West End Ave. They are more concerned Marty Goodman is to show voters how to choose candidates independent contractors and almost none with posturing for the upcoming November 731 W. 183 St. based on issues and to make those choices receive even a 1099 and none are known to election. The fight for union democracy NYC 10033 with fusion voting. receive a w-2 form. is severely limited in the face of Transport Eric Chester, a Socialist candidate for An original member of the Waterfront Workers Union president Roger Toussaint’s R e c o r d i n g S e c r e t a r y L a w s o n , Congress, says fusion voting was once an Rail Truckers Union of 1987, who has Stalinist tactics. We call on all workers to ask August 8, 2006 opportunity for two third parties to support become a taxi driver over the last 15 years, Transport Workers Union president Roger the same candidate that more recently be- was recently released from a job at a taxi Toussaint what is going on in his local and During the June 10, 2006 Joint Executive came a way to place Democrats on the slate company. He requested wage credits for all take the darling of liberals to task. Board – Executive Board meeting, President of independent parties. Candidates from the of last year during which time he worked Roger Toussaint referred to dissenters within Socialist, the Green Rainbow and Libertarian at ITOA, Independent Taxi Owners’ Asso- the union as a “lunatic fringe” and urged parties oppose the ballot initiative. ciation, driving a cab belonging to the CEO. Marty Goodman 8/25/06 members to “run people like that out with Cunningham says that if workers really The company claimed that he was an inde- baseball bats.” want to use the vote to push their issues with- pendent contractor, and the worker strongly Below are two items: a press release and By encouraging violence against mem- out the threat of a “spoiler,” or the “lesser of insisted that he was an employee. Just last a copy of charges I filed against Roger Tous- bers of our union, Mr. Toussaint has made two evils,” then they should organize initia- week, he received word that his employment saint on August 8, 2006. It is in “text only” himself unworthy of being Local 100 Presi- tives to promote Instant Runoff Voting rather status was upheld, and has received some format. dent. Violence or the threat of violence has than fusion voting. IRV allows voters to rank nice size unemployment benefit checks! no place in Local 100. candidates, making it easier for voters to se- Political fall-out: All of the “owners” are in The two items pertain to a speech Tous- To my knowledge, such comments are lect the candidate they really prefer without denial and the LATDA is having an emergency saint made to the Executive Board on June without precedent for a Local 100 President. the danger of a detested major party candidate meeting. The driver and his friends from the 10th urging violence against dissidents. Union democracy is the life-blood of the slipping in with a minority of the vote. competing LATDO are having their meeting TWU and the labor movement. As history Sunday night to celebrate and plan on how PRESS RELEASE! shows, democratic unions are best able to Electronic pink slips to promote the victory and go after the rest defend its members against management. The Some 400 workers at RadioShack Corp. in of the companies. WATERGATE IN TWU LOCAL 100? cause of transit workers cannot be advanced Fort Worth, Texas, recently received an email Their mobilizers are IWW members with when fear prevents us from expressing our notification that they were fired immediately: dual membership and supporters. ONE single CHARGES FILED AGAINST TOUS- own opinions. The enemy is the MTA, not “The work force reduction notification is unemployed, homeless, living out of a shelter SAINT FOR VIOLENT SPEECH AND each other. currently in progress. Unfortunately your worker, Vietnam Veteran, with NOTHING, COVER-UP. We must ask ourselves whether the position is one that has been eliminated.” nothing at all except his pride, his IWW shirt, 11,000 members who voted against the con- Employees got one to three weeks pay for and a desire for justice, has just FUCKED the August 23, 2006 tract Mr. Toussaint negotiated are part of this each year of service, up to 16 weeks. whole damn cab industry! The competing “lunatic fringe,” as he describes it? How many group, the LATDA, with all of their lawyers, Roger Toussaint, President of the Trans- of them must be driven out with “baseball Bush Labor Dept. dropping have failed to accomplish what this one port Workers Union Local 100, during a June bats” to satisfy Toussaint’s hatred of union equal opportunity survey Wobbly worker has done. There are many 10, 2006 meeting of the union’s Executive democracy? And, just what constitutes being The Labor Department is eliminating its “do-gooders” that come to the non-standard Board, said that his opponents within the “driven out” in Mr. Toussaint’s eyes? A push annual Equal Opportunity Survey, which is work places, the underground economy, and union are a “lunatic fringe” and urged that down the stairs? A baseball bat to a member’s used to help identify contractors most likely attempt to find a solution within the param- members “run people like that out with skull? A member’s death? engaging in systematic discrimination against eters of the non-standard workplace. The baseball bats.” With calls to violence being expressed by women and people of color, and so most true solution will come from the workers We are outraged. Such threats are unprec- our President, how democratic will our union likely to merit investigation, according to the themselves. The industry and government edented for a Local 100 president. election be in December? Workers Independent News. regulators “allowed” the workplaces to be- In response, Marty Goodman, a member Lastly, inquiries into listening to the of- The survey measures employers’ affirma- come nonstandard with the understanding of the Local 100 Executive Board, filed inter- ficial audio record of the June 10th meeting tive action performance and pay by gender that the workers are complacent and that nal union charges against Mr. Toussaint for have been ignored by Recording Secretary and race, and was originally sent to 50,000 the “do-gooders” will confine themselves to violating the TWU Constitution and the Local Darlyne Lawson, despite numerous written of the more than 100,000 federal contractors. the status quo. Never did anyone expect the 100 By-Laws [See accompanying charges]. and verbal requests. Toussaint bears respon- The Bush administration reduced the number workers to educate themselves and to use the The charges include Mr. Toussaint’s re- sibility for Lawson’s defiance of the Executive of annual surveys to just 10,000. “non-standard” characteristics to destroy the sponsibility for a Watergate style cover-up in Board decision that upholds our right to hear In a letter to the Labor Department, same industry. The “leader” of the LATDO, which Local 100 Recording Secretary Darlyne the tapes. Harry Alford, president of the National Black Mike, has been put in jail at least three times Lawson has denied several Executive Board Therefore, Mr. Toussaint is charged with Chamber of Commerce, said: “This require- this year for organizing at the LAX holding members their right to listen to the official violating Article XVI, Section I and Article ment has been the lynchpin in successfully yard. Everyone else and their mother are tape recording of the June 10th meeting. XIX, Section I of the TWU Constitution. Mr. encouraging compliance with the Civil Rights allowed on the holding yard except for him. Numerous requests, both verbal and in writ- Toussaint is further charged with violating Act of 1964. A reversal of this policy would Yes, we know about the NLRA but it is part ing, were ignored by Ms. Lawson. The right Article III and Article VIII, Section (b) of the mean a redirection back to the status of Jim of a dream in a different world and not ours. to listen to recordings of Executive Board Local 100 By-laws. Crow.” This time brother Mike will not stand outside meetings was upheld by a vote of the Local Elimination of the survey lets federal the holding yard by himself, but will include 100 Executive Board under Mr.. Toussaint’s contractors who discriminate off the hook the rest of his brothers that are organizing at administration. and fails to protect workers from sex and race the airport and at the harbor. Violence within the labor movement discrimination in federal projects. Page 12 • Industrial Worker • October 2006 Iran Khodro Diesel workers struggle

by W or k ers ’ A ctio n C o m m ittee , The workers who had been asked to sign T ra n s l ated by I ra n ia n W or k ers ’ the monthly contracts were generally on old S o l idarity n E T W O R k six-month contracts. When management On Sept. 3, Abbas Kangarloo, head of decided to deduct 300,000 rials, and after the Islamic Labour Council at Iran Khodro they were faced with workers’ protests, they Diesel, reported that there was a hunger strike tried to create divisions among the workers. by workers at this company but that produc- Managers prepared forms that the workers tion had not been stopped. He said the work- had to sign if they wanted the 300,000 rials, then demanded to dismiss all the strikers by ers gathered in front of the Islamic Labour but then there would be no work contract for Mercadona offers 300,000 offering E300,000. The general assembly of Council’s office demanding answers about the them. When the workers saw that if they re- euros to dismiss all strikers the strikers didn’t accept this offer: “They 300,000 to 400,000 rials cut in their wages ceive the 300,000 rials they would be sacked, Dear comrades of the IWW! can’t buy us.” [about one week’s pay]. He denied reports they decided to prevent divisions among We received a solidarity letter from you in Now we are trying to make more pressure that riot police had attacked workers. themselves by urging that nobody should go April. Thank you a lot. As you know, workers, against the company, not only with more ac- But what the leader of the Islamic Labour to the personnel department and that they members of to the anarchosyndicalist CNT- tions in Spain but all over the world. Council said about the Iran Khodro Diesel should continue with the hunger strike. AIT in Spain, are on strike in the logistic Although Mercadona only exists in Spain, production line not coming to a standstill and The workers of Iran Khodro Diesel have a centre in Barcelona of the supermarket “Mer- we think that this struggle should be known the nature of workers’ grievances is not true. long history of struggles. It is the only vehicle cadona” for now more than 150 days. worldwide as an example that it is possible to After a number of workers were called up to manufacturing company that had a workers’ It is one of the most longest strikes in organize and to defend our interests and dig- sign monthly contracts, all the workers came council from the first days of the 1979 insur- Catalunya in the recent decades and the CNT nity like workers. We will win this struggle! out on strike and all the production lines rection. During the protests of the 1980s, has struggles and conflicts with Mercadona all It is possible to show solidarity and help came to a halt. Then the factory’s security workers fought against the suppression of over Spain. But the most important and hard- us win this strike by sending solidarity mails force surrounded the company. workers’ disputes in this company, and was est struggle is this strike. The workers and our to the workers ([email protected] and The strike began a week after managers stopped. Management’s way out of this pre- comrades in Mercadona need solidarity. [email protected]), protest letters to the persuaded workers to suspend an earlier dicament was redundancies and the transfer This company is big and powerful: company (Mercadona S.A., CIF:A-46-103834, strike to give them time to resolve workers’ of a section of workers to other companies. They’ve got 20 policemen of the “Guardia C/ Valencia, nº 5 Tavernes Blanques Valencia grievances. To break the strike, management But despite the suppression, transfers and the Civil” – the state paramilitary security force - C.P.46016 Spain), protest actions at Span- came up with a new trick: whoever wants to retirement of workers, the flame of struggle – at his orders to protect the logistic centre, it ish embassies and consulates, and donating continue working must sign a monthly con- never went out. is able to make the local government to forbid money to the strikers and their families. tract! When the workers got to know about Mainly younger workers took part in the demonstrations and actions, it is able to sup- We want to ask you if you could publish this, they came out spontaneously and gath- protest. Few official workers were involved press notices in the public press, etc. this notices in your sincerely great and very ered in front of the factory’s Islamic Labour and some production continued because the But as a result of our struggle and good web page and maybe in your newspaper Council and management to protest. official workers did not join the stoppage. never-ending actions Mercadona returned to Industrial Worker. negotiations and reached a tentative agree- Marc Stehle, Local Federation ment to end the strike. Nevertheless, they of the CNT-AIT Badalona, www.cnt.es

TUC delegates walk out on load the ship in support for the strike. UK ‘Labour’ prime minister “The owner has threatened to fire the Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, crew, take the ship out to anchor and hire a National Union of Rail, Maritime and Trans- new crew,” Schroeder said. “This is a basic port Workers, led a walkout during Tony human rights deal. They are standing up for Blair’s speech before the TUC. Joining him their rights.” were Dean Mills, representing the Fire Bri- gades, and Derek Simpson, general secretary S. Korean unions press of the Amicus union. for industrial unionism Angered by privatization plans and the Auto workers at South Korean auto Iraq war, protesters held signs urging Blair maker Hyundai have agreed to a tentative to “Go Now!” The remaining thousand del- agreement with the country’s largest carmaker egates seated in the hall heckled when the after a series of partial strikes that cost Hyun- Prime Minister spoke about Iraq, Afghanistan dai hundreds of millions of dollars in lost and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. production. The workers had been seeking a 9 percent wage hike, but settled for just over Textile workers killed in minimum wage fight Chilean copper miners vote 5 percent in a one year deal. One worker was fired and more than 200 percent of whom are women, work in the to strike BHP Spence Workers have struck the South Korean injured Sept. 7 when police opened fire on sector. Bangladesh has 4,200 garment facto- In Chile, 374 miners at BHP Billiton auto giant every year for the last twelve years, protesting textile workers in the Bangladesh ries, accounting for more than three-fourths Ltd.’s Spence copper mine have voted to each time winning wage and benefit gains. port city of Khulna. The striking jute work- of the country’s export revenues. Business strike Sept. 15. Rejecting a 3.8 percent wage Now the union is trying to broaden its ers responded to the killing of 20-year-old has boomed since the lifting of global textile increase matching the inflation rate, workers struggle by creating an industry-wide in- Mohammad Hanif by blocking rail lines and quotas last year, as the international garment demanded a 7 percent increase, bonuses and dustrial union for the automobile industry.A expanding protests throughout the country. industry has had difficulty finding cheaper increased benefits. member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Bangladeshi garment and textile workers workers elsewhere. BHP can legally delay the strike by ex- Unions, the Hyundai union wants to increase have been pressing for a higher minimum National protests against the minimum tending negotiations until Sept. 26. its industrial power by uniting all workers at wage, better safety conditions, and other wage in May saw workers torch 16 factories Melbourne-based BHP must also satisfy Hyundai Motor, its affiliated companies and demands. The government has announced a and ransack hundreds of others. At least two worker demands at the Cerro Colorado mine parts makers into a single union. new monthly minimum wage of about US$23 workers were killed and scores injured after in Chile, and at the Antamina copper and zinc This is a trend that is being mirrored (1,604 taka), saying that employers would security officers shot at employees. mine in Peru. Earlier this year workers struck throughout the KCTU as unions reorganize have difficulty paying more. Those strikes ended in June after employ- BHP’s Escondida in Chile, the world’s biggest into industry-wide unions, such as the Korea “It’s far lower than our expectations. We ers promised a new minimum wage. copper mine, and Grupo Mexico. Metal Workers’ Federation, once illegal under hoped the commission would think about The most recent killing occurred in the country’s repressive labor code. the cost of living in the country before fixing Khulna when police fired on jute workers Solidarity wins seafarers this absurd minimum wage,” garment union they said had grown “rowdy” following a $250,000 in back wages Wage dumping in Sweden leader Nazma Akhter told AFP. Workers are rally in the industrial park where they are Crew members on the Greek-owned With the German page jobdumping.de demanding at least $29 a month, saying they on strike. Police fired rubber bullets and live carrier Endless ended a four-day sit-down as a model, three Swedish businessmen have can not live on anything less. ammunition on the strikers, who defended strike Sept. 11 after the ship owner agreed launched the site jobbjakt.se (jobhunting). More than 2 million workers, some 85 themselves with stones and sticks. to pay the 18 workers $250,000 of the more Workers register themselves free of charge on than $300,000 they were owed as a result of the site, and are then supposed to place bids Zimbabwean general strike shut down by police brutality months of miscalculated pay checks. on the available jobs – the lower the “better.” Zimbabwean riot police barricaded several imprisoned unionists whose heads The owner was forced to settle quickly This tasteless auction reduces salaries streets and arrested more than 200 activists were bashed against prison walls. as the ship was struck while in the Long in general, undermines collective wage throughout the country to shut down marches Working with the Movement for Beach port being loaded with petroleum coke agreements, and forces workers to commit prior to a general strike in Harare planned for Democratic Change, the opposition front that bound for Asia, and longshoremen reportedly treason against their fellow workers. Sept. 13 to protest government economic has called for direct action to protest inflation, refused to work the scab ship even after an The site is not just a way to push down policy. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's president unemployment, food/fuel shortages, and the arbitrator ordered them to resume work. The wages, but also a means to beat competitive headed for a lavish summit in Havana AIDS epidemic, ZCTU labor leaders had strike not only tied up the Endless, but also attitudes into our heads and shatter us in an Sixteen imprisoned members of the organized a general strike to demand pay another ship moored in the harbor waiting area where we, the workers, always benefit Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, increases, minimum wages, tax breaks for low for the berth to open. from sticking together to demand higher including General Secretary Wellington income earners, and price regulation. The Endless is registered in Panama, wages and better conditions. Chibebe and President Lovemore Matombo, The ZCTU also is demanding an end to owned in Greece, and crewed by Filipinos The Syndicalist Youth Federation is were in very serious condition Sept. 14, held brutality by police against street vendors that who work under dual contracts negotiated by working to close the site by registering in harsh prisons and awaiting transfer to has continued since the government removed Greek and Philippines seafarers unions. dummy job seekers who place low (but not hospital as a result of uncontrolled beatings. them from slum areas. UN agencies have said Kevin Schroeder, vice president of Local insanely low) bids on the listed jobs and then Chibebe suffered a broken arm, while ZCTU this action left 700,000 homeless and without 13 of the International Longshore and Ware- don't show up – rendering the system useless Vice President Lucia Matibenga was one of a means of survival. house Union, said dockworkers refused to for employers in need of wage slaves.