A guide for organizing your workplace (and community) in response to the COVID-19 crisis WHEN SHIT HITS THE FAN, ORGANIZE! TABLE OF CONTENTS As prescribed by the Portland Introduction.................................02 Industrial Workers of the World What is a Union?............................03 Common Demands..........................04 Workplace Mapping.......................05 Escalation Plans.............................06 Retaliation & Security....................11 Layoff FAQ.....................................12 Recent Victories .............................14 Available online at portlandiww.org/XXXXX Mutual Aid & More Resources.........18 Portland Industrial Workers of the World Meet the "Sabo Tabby." It’s original purpose was as a code or symbol for direct action at the point of production, specifically sabotage, in order to achieve better working conditions. This Tabby has a general association with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). INTRODUCTION We are living Unemployment has This packet was compiled by a group of Portland skyrocketed 3,000%, while workers from a variety of industries who have years through a many of us still with jobs of experience organizing in their own workplaces historic crisis. are forced to work during a to win better wages, healthcare, set schedules, safe pandemic without hazard working conditions, and dignity on the job and in pay, sick leave, or even affordable health insurance. our communities. We’re all current members of the Many of us are facing pay cuts or layoff without Portland branch of the Industrial Workers of the severance or a guarantee to get our jobs back. It’s World and invite you to join us. a scary and unpredictable time, made possible This packet is an overview of organizing tactics and all the more worse by an unequal society that and resources, not a comprehensive how-to, and prioritizes making profits for a select few over the any successful organizing campaign needs to be lives of the many. How we, the workers, prepare to based on the specific conditions that you and your navigate this pandemic and the looming economic coworkers are facing. Contact us at our Portland crisis is in our own hands and the hands of our IWW Hotline (503-622-9085) and we can connect fellow workers across the city. you with a mentor and a network of other By getting organized now, we can protect ourselves, worker organizers! our loved ones, and our community from getting sick, from losing our housing, and from falling in debt. By staying organized, we can use this moment Nobody is coming to save us, take to fight together for a better world, a world where action with your coworkers now! no one is disposable and everyone can flourish. 2 Portland Industrial Workers of the World The basics WHAT IS A UNION? A union is a group of workers The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is a union that thinks workers should run their coming together to take action workplaces. The IWW knows that our power is in order to collectively improve found in the relationships we have with each other at work, and that if we organize those relationships, their working conditions. worker by worker, workplace by workplace, into one big union, we will have the power to make Sometimes this looks like handing your boss a meaningful changes in our lives and our society. petition demanding raises for everyone, sometimes In Portland, members of the IWW at Burgerville, it looks like making a plan to address dangerous Little Big Burger, Call to Safety, Voodoo Doughnuts, working conditions, sometimes it looks like going Scottie’s Pizza, Lewis and Clark phonathon, Crush on strike until the company is ready to listen, and Bar and many, many other workplaces across the sometimes it looks like bargaining at a negotiating city are doing this right now. We’re building a table. A union exists wherever workers use movement focused on finding collective solutions solidarity to take matters into their own hands. to the collective problems we all face at work. Sick of Workers Working Sick won’t pay for this! Hazard Pay Now! PAID SICK LEAVE 3 Portland Industrial Workers of the World COMMON DEMANDS during the COVID-19 Pandemic What are the issues you and your coworkers are facing? What would it take to improve your working conditions? Identify what you need and ask for it! For workers continuing to go to work: For workers facing 1. Store closure and paid leave for all workplaces unnecessary to the reduced hours, furlough, survival of community members (hospitals and other health care or lay off: facilities, grocery stores, and pharmacies). 1. Emergency Paid Time Off 2. Expansion of paid sick time and no discipline for workers for all hours lost. calling out sick. Union workers at Aramark just won 21 additional 2. Severance Pay in the event days of paid sick time that can be used for themselves or to care for of layoffs or business closure. family members. 3. Ability to cash out sick 3. Hazard Pay for workers who have to remain at their workplaces. time if furloughed or laid off. This can be an extra dollar amount or additional percentage if your 4. Half pay for all previously hourly wage. Many grocery store workers have secured an extra $2/ scheduled shifts that were hr for the duration of the pandemic. revoked. 4. Increased time to perform work tasks to accommodate for 5. Guarantee rehire. additional cleaning. Housekeepers at Executive Inn by the Space 6. Unemployment Assistance. Needle and Loyal Inn (bit.ly/2X9TGLJ) recently won a decreased workload and additional time to disinfect the hotel rooms. 7. Create a list of demands conditional on being met 5. Ability to work remotely. before accepting future 6. Increased health and safety precautions including limiting re-hire. interactions with other workers and customers and expanding cleaning measures in the workplace. This includes being provided with appropriate cleaning supplies and training on how to use them and how to handle dangerous customer interactions. Union cashiers at Stop & Shop grocery stores secured plexiglass walls that separate them from customers. Other grocery stores have implemented limits on how many customers can be in the store, closed unnecessary departments, and expanded their delivery services. 7. No doctor’s note required to prove sickness. 8. Ensured health insurance coverage regardless of hours worked. 9. Job Security Agreements. An agreement that would secure an employee’s job in the event of company lay-offs. Can be used to ensure job protection in case the employer decides to lay off staff so they can collect unemployment instead of paying them PTO. 4 Portland Industrial Workers of the World Relationships EXERCISE: MAKE A CHART, TOO After making a physical map of your workplace, you can keep track of the essential information in a chart. Charts are easy to update and help you monitor your organizing progress and see WORKPLACEwhere the gaps are. MAPPING Keep it simple. Create a spreadsheet, using a computer program such as Excel or Google Sheets.Knowing Enteryour workplace one row and for having each aworker, solid even people you don’t have much information about. Makeunderstanding a column of thefor social each interactions bit of information amongst you Identifyingwant to track, leaders such as: (both potentially your coworkers is essential to any kind of • First name organizing. It will be well worth your time• toTop sit issue positive and negative towards collective down and• mapLast out name your workplace. This• canUnion be done member? action) will be vitally important to your by yourself• orCell with phone a few trusted coworkers• whoSteward? you’re organizing with. organizing as their opinion will have • Email address • Contract action team member? Compile a list of every worker (including bosses) significant sway over your coworkers. at your •workplace Job title along with their position• Completed and bargaining survey? any known• Workcontact area information. Depending• Attended on trainingMapping on your X issue?coworkers can be a creative process. the workplace,• Shift you can sometimes discretely• Attended rallyUse ona large Y date? surface, perhaps butcher block paper, download a roster from an employee accessible a whiteboard, or index cards with your coworker’s computer.• TakingDate ofpictures hire of a posted •schedule Signed up ornames recruited on them a rearrangednew member? on the floor. Consider can also• be Wagehelpful. tier Discretion is important, you physically drawing a map of our workplace as well don’t want• toLanguage accidentally tip off any bosses or to help visualize. However you decide to map your unsympathetic coworkers. workplace, don’t forget to save a copy of your work. KeepOnce you it haveup to compiled date. Chartsa comprehensive are only list as of useful asDon’t they be are afraid accurate. to edit and Print change out youra copy work of as your your chartyour coworkers to carry the around nextEXERCISE: step with is toyou. map Continually out MAP the YOUR updateorganizing WORKPLACE it, and develops,enlist co-workers these relations to help. are not This static can includesocial relations filling between in gaps them. in contact Are any information,of your addingand will people likely varywho over are the missing course fromof a campaign. your list, andcoworkers removing relatives? those Who who are besthave friends? quit, gone Who on leave, or changed assignments. spends time with whom? Is there animosity Office between some coworkers? Make a wall chart. Also make a big version of your chart Storageto display on the wall, with all the namesAs you are grouped mapping by your work coworkers, area, job, think and about shift. Color-code it to show your organizing progress, You will need: Desks Union activist sowho you are thecan natural see at leaders a glance at your where work. Whoyour union is weak and where it’s strong.