CANADIAN LABOUR EDMONTON:

SUPPORT NICK DREIGER:

Nick Dreiger is a shop steward for the Canadian Union Of Postal Workers (CUPW) in Edmonton Alberta and an organizer for the IWW. He was recently fired because of a number of charges related to either his union activities or his show of political support for the Occupy Edmonton encampment. The following is a solidarity campaign message from the Toronto IWW.

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Please support fired CUPW Steward & IWW Organizer
Posted by MoS ⋅ February 13, 2012

Reinstate postal worker shop steward.

Edmonton CUPW Shop Steward and IWW organizer Nick Drieger has been fired after many years of service at Canada Post. He was fired due to honking his horn at an action near Occupy Edmonton, who were not allowed on the university campus at the time.

His termination was based on

1.Attitude towards police.
2.A ticket for stunting (honking his horn).
3.Being out of his delivery area.
4.Activity on a wild cat strike when he was on vacation.
The plan for Tuesday February 14th is to fill their managers emails with letters of outrage over the conduct of firing this worker based on these charges.Thank you, solidarity, and lets fight to win. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Please begin sending emails and letters to the following people in response to Nick Driedger’s termination.

Wesam Haymour
Title:SPT TRANSPORTATION
Location: 9808 103 A AVE, T5J 2T6
Edmonton Alberta
Email: wesam.haymour@canadapost.postescanada.ca

Brenda Young
Title MGR SHIFT
Location:12135 149 ST, T5L 5H2
Edmonton Alberta
Email: brenda.young@canadapst.postescanada.ca

Robert Mccutcheon
Title DIR PLANT OPERATIONS
Location: 12135 149 ST T5L 5H2
Edmonton Alberta
Email: ben.mccutcheon@canadapost.postescanada.ca

Azam Bacchus
Title: OFFICER OF LABOUR RELATIONS
Location: 12135- 149 ST T5L 5H2
Edmonton Alberta
Email: azam.bacchus@canadapost.postescanada.ca

SAMPLE LETTER:

To: ________________

I am writing out of concern over the treatment of Shop Steward Nick Driedger, who has recently been dismissed. It is my understanding that Mr Nick Driedger advances the welfare and safety of his fellow workers in this role. It is hard to believe that someone as honest, positive, and hard working as Nick should be dismissed, especially in light of the charge discussed below.

Mr Nick Driedger has been accused of stunting, a charge of which he has not been found guilty. According to eyewitness testimony, he was merely honking his horn, which could only make him more visible as he drove through an area with many police and protesters. Also, according to eyewitnesses, he ceased after hearing shouting from the officers in question. The eyewitness testimony in his favour is substantial, and it is disturbing that Canada Post Corporation would find Nick Driedger guilty in advance of the verdict of a court of law.

I, ____________________ request that Nick Driedger be reinstated as a full time mail service courier with no harm to his seniority. I also request that any targeting of him due to his activities as a CUPW shop steward come to an immediate end.

AMERICAN LABOUR WISCONSIN:

THE IWW ON THE STRUGGLE IN WISCONSIN:

The struggle in the American state of Wisconsin continues as the Governor attempts to destroy the public sector unions there. He is, however, not unopposed. A call for Tea Party goons to show up to intimidate union members basically flopped as the unions and their supporters vastly outnumbered the other side. The Wisconsin unions are also gathering huge support, both nationally and even internationally as this is very much a test case to see how far government in the USA can go in destroying workers' rights. Here's one expression of this support, from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and their General Defense Committee.

WIWIWIWIWIWI
IWW General Defense Committee Statement on Wisconsin
by Twin Cities IWW on Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 5:16pm.

General Defense Committee
of the Industrial Workers of the World

An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!

GDC Central • Post Office Box 180195 • Chicago, Illinois 60618 USA

Email • gdc@iww.org • Telephone • 773.857.1090

Right now in Wisconsin public workers from across the state, supported by
private sector workers, students young and old, retirees, labor activists and more,
are holding unprecedented protests in Madison against the utterly dictatorial move
by Governor Scott Walker to gut their collective bargaining rights.


After giving $140 million to special interest groups in January, many of whom
donated to Republican campaigns and to the Governor himself, Walker is now
attempting to strip Wisconsin's state workers of their hard-won right to collectively
bargain over the conditions of their labor under the guise of filling a claimed $137
million budget shortfall.


A similar bill has been introduced in Ohio, and Republican Sen. Jane
Cunningham in Missouri has also introduced a bill to strip state law of all Child
Labor protections.


In light of these increasing attacks on the working class, We, the Steering
Committee and Central Secretary Treasurer of the General Defense Committee of
the Industrial Workers of the World, stand firmly behind all workers fighting back.
We extend Solidarity to all workers, union or non-union, fighting back against the
Capitalist class trying to return us to conditions not found since the Industrial
Revolution.


As our primary mission is to offer solidarity and defense help to any workers
imprisoned, arrested, attacked, or punished by the State in any way in fighting the
class war, the GDC of the IWW is here to offer any and all help we can during these
times, and during all labor struggles.

An injury to one is an injury to ALL!


Solidarity Forever!
Signed,
Central Secretary-Treasurer:
Steven Ayers

Steering Committee:
Chuck Bailey
Eric Zenke
Marie Mason

CANADIAN LABOUR:

ORGANIZING IN THE RETAIL SECTOR:

The nature of employment has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Nowadays the classical industrial "proletariat" comprises a small minority of the population. Growth in jobs is strongest in the "service" sector, of which retail is a branch. Workers in this sector face precarious employment, low pay and erratic hours. Because their workplaces are small they often find it more difficult to organize unions that might better their conditions. Unions, in turn, find it difficult to reach out to these workers because of the high turnover in personnel at many (most ?) retail outlets, but reach out they will indeed have to do if they want to remain relevant.

In the USA the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) has been very much at the forefront of organizing with their Starbucks Workers Union and the Jimmy Johns Workers Union. Here in Canada there have been attempts with the most successful being in large grocery chains. Here's an article from the Canadian progressive magazine 'Our Times' about organizing in retail. Even though the IWW has often been in the forefront this issue is a problem that all unions should be confronting.

RWRWRWRWRWRW
RETAIL MATTERS
Challenges & Opportunities for Retail Organizing
By Kendra Coulter


Fifteen years ago, two young women made history. Debora De Angelis and Wynne Hartviksen united with their retail co-workers to fight for better pay, basic rights and respect through union protection. Hartviksen led a drive to organize a chain of street-front retail stores in Toronto. The Suzy Shier store in the North York Sheridan Mall became the first women's clothing store in a mall to be unionized in Canada, thanks to the leadership of De Angelis.


Today, retail is the most common occupation in Canada for both women and men. Yet, only about 12 per cent of retail workers are union members and these are concentrated in warehouse and grocery work. Overall, retail work continues to mean low wages, few, if any, benefits and virtually no job security. Retail workers deserve better, today and tomorrow.

If workers learn from their history, and use this knowledge to organize, they can create better futures. Looking back at the history of retail organizing provides valuable lessons about unionizing this growing group of workers. I recently interviewed De Angelis and Hartviksen as part of my research on retail organizing. Many of the issues they confronted as they organized their workplaces in the 1990s persist, and some challenges have intensified. Organizing retail is no easy task, but there are possibilities.

DIGNITY AND RESPECT
While going to school in the early 1990s, Wynne Hartviksen worked for both the student newspaper and a chain of futon stores. Her pay was the minimum wage and benefits were minimal. Working conditions in the stores troubled the workers, most of whom were working part-time hours at various locations. The boss would arbitrarily fire people with little or no warning. In addition, being based in stores along downtown streets, the women had safety concerns, particularly when forced to work alone.

Hartviksen believes that her co-workers wanted respect and dignity, as much as, if not more than, higher wages.

Although her father was unionized, forming a union was not something Hartviksen immediately considered as a solution to her own workplace woes because she thought unions only represented workers in the manufacturing sector and other large workplaces. One evening when out for a beer, a co-worker suggested unionization as a joke. They discussed the possibility more seriously and decided to try, feeling they had nothing to lose. At the time, Ontario had card-check certification. Workers would indicate their desire to join a union by signing a card. If 60 per cent of employees signed a card and a hearing at the Labour Board was successful, the union was recognized. Every worker but one signed a card, and the futon chain workers quickly became members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

The workers negotiated their first contract, and the collective agreement was in effect for two years until the stores were closed during the height of the 1990s recession.

ORGANIZING SUZY SHIER
A few years later in the mid-1990s, Debora De Angelis began work at Suzy Shier, a women's clothing store, while in high school in Toronto. In addition to receiving low wages and no raises, workers were required to show up at work 15 minutes early for their shifts to apply make-up and prepare their appearance for the sales floor. A stack of resumes was kept by the phone, which the workers saw as a deliberate reminder that they were easily replaceable.

Managers made schedules and would allocate shifts based on their own personal preferences or prejudices, and on past sales performances. Some managers required sales associates to stand at least one metre away from each other so that they wouldn't talk too much.

Unionization was suggested by De Angelis' father, who worked for the Toronto Transit Commission and was a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union. De Angelis wasn't sure unions represented retail workers, or small workplaces dominated by young women, single mothers and workers of colour. After doing some research, she decided to pursue unionization and called the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).

But the rules for organizing had changed. In 1995, the Conservatives were elected in Ontario. They changed provincial labour legislation to a mandatory vote model, an approach that continues today under the Liberal government for the vast majority of sectors. In Ontario, the mandatory vote model requires two steps. First, at least 40 per cent of the employees must sign union cards and the union must file for certification with the Ontario Labour Board. Then, one week later, there is a secret ballot vote, and 50 per cent plus one of the workers must vote in favour of unionization. The effects of this two-stage process, with a built-in delay, are significant, particularly for small workplaces like retail stores.

RESPONDING TO WORKERS' CONCERNS
De Angelis spoke confidentially to workers in six stores across the Greater Toronto Area, explaining the unionization benefits and responding to the workers' concerns. Many were nervous and uncertain because they had no union experience, while others were keen to try and fight for dignity. When a manager from one of the locations found out about the drive, the union suggested only submitting the cards from the three stores with the strongest union support.

During the week before the vote, the company sent senior representatives in to try to dissuade the workers from supporting the union. The powerful corporate women would talk to each worker for at least an hour, often for longer. When the ballots were counted, only De Angelis' home store had voted for the union. During the five days of head office involvement, the key women workers in the other locations had spoken to De Angelis about their co-workers' fears of being identified as union supporters. Precisely because the company representatives had spent so much time talking to each worker, some workers had been convinced that things would improve without a union, while others were afraid that they would lose their jobs for having been open to unionization. They felt that in such small workplaces, they were too easily identifiable. The result
was that the other two stores voted as a block against the union.

The workers at the Sheridan Mall location negotiated their first collective agreement, which provided the workers with a raise, new rights and basic fairness for two years, until that Suzy Shier store was closed down. It has not been re-opened.

LEARNING FROM OUR PAST
These are two of a small number of retail drives in Canada, but they raise important issues of enduring significance. The value of workplace relationships and dialogue among workers is clear, particularly in sectors where company loyalty against competing stores is emphasized by bosses promoting corporate "community," an approach intended to minimize worker solidarity and class consciousness.

To be taken seriously, unions must be seen as the best strategy for workers. Harviksen and De Angelis had fathers who were in unions, but the young women had not seriously considered unions as a possibility for their own workplaces. Both women saw unions as representing groups of workers who did not look like them or do what they did, and they knew little about the building blocks needed to form a union. This is a telling reminder that unionized workers need to speak to their families, friends and neighbours about labour politics and possibilities. It also emphasizes that education campaigns that inform youth about their rights and how to organize are important, and should be expanded.

The experiences of Hartviksen and De Angelis also show that while workers can complain, that anger needs to be channelled into organizing. Frustration is a start, but it isn't enough. Social media and other communication strategies can be used to shame bad bosses, but these should be tools, not ends unto themselves. Organizing workers is a lot of work and requires time, emotional
investment and energy, but it is essential.

If small workplaces like retail stores are going to have a chance of being unionized, the two cases suggest legislative change is very important. Card-check certification, something the Canadian labour movement has been actively calling for, makes a difference. Workers feel safe and their identities are not known to their employer. With mandatory-vote legislation, workers feel vulnerable. Companies exploit the one-week delay, using promises, intimidation, or both.

Certainly the transient nature of low-wage, insecure work like retail, combined with small, scattered workplaces, often located in the private property of malls, makes the logistical challenges of organizing retail workers formidable. Because a store closing creates unemployed workers and eliminates the wages of the workers who formed a union, it also contributes to a climate a fear, causing other workers to worry about losing their own jobs if they dare to ask for even modest improvements. The corporate practice of blaming unionized workers and their "high wages and benefits" for outsourcing, bankruptcies and/or store or plant closures, further divides unionized workers from non-union workers.

WAYS TO ORGANIZE
However, options exist. For example, although varying forms of labour legislation and jurisdiction complicate the scene, a union could opt to organize every store of a particular chain in a provincial, regional, national, or even continental area. Success with this approach could prevent the closure of individual, isolated unionized stores, thus removing one of the main impediments to union organizing. Hartviksen believes there are certain flagship stores aimed at particular consumer markets that companies, regardless of whether a union is present or not, will not close. These should be identified and targeted. If a team approach were undertaken, different unions could tackle neighbouring outlets within a mall that best fit their areas of expertise.

Unions could organize multiple stores or chains in a sector simultaneously, to pre-empt cries of unfair competition and the marginalization of unionized locations.

Alternative union models such as life-long or sector-based union membership could be used for workers shifting between many shorter-term jobs within a particular sector. Such an approach would require a shift in how union membership is conceptualized and organized for the service sector, but such a strategy may hold the most promise given the challenges of organizing transient workers and small workplaces.

WOMEN'S WORK DEVALUED
Many retail workers are young, and Hartviksen believes retail is often seen as "girls' work," thus allegedly temporary and providing non-essential income. This belief reproduces the devaluation of retail workers and women's work. "Girls" deserve good work in their own right, certainly. But the retail workforce is more complex. As pension funds are threatened, we can assume that more seniors will need to take on additional waged work to subsist, with many ending up in retail. As more university and college graduates are unable to find work in the careers for which they studied, we can predict that more will need to stay in or take up retail work. As industrial and manufacturing jobs continue to disappear, workers from those sectors will also be forced to seek employment in retail sales.

More and more Canadians are responsible for selling the products, the brands and the culture of contemporary capitalism, while trying to live as unorganized low-wage workers. The cultural climate of competitive individualism divides workers more generally. The transient nature of retail work; the threat and pursuit of store closings; and, in particular, legislated mandatory vote certifications, make organizing retail workers difficult.

But retail matters and retail workers can be organized. For example, in the fall of 2009, 15 workers at the Lenscrafters eyeglass store in the Eaton Centre in Toronto joined UFCW Canada (the United Food and Commercial Workers), seeing unionization as the way to improve their
working conditions.

Specific struggles from the past and present can teach us a great deal, and suggest specific avenues to explore and pursue. However, as long as so much power is held by a small minority of corporate leaders, unions will have to confront the problem of store closings as well as plant shutdowns. This suggests a need for more effective and alternative forms of organizing, and greater economic power and control for workers in the wider arena.

Kendra Coulter teaches in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology and in the Labour Studies Program at the University of Windsor, in Ontario. She worked in retail for six years.

AMERICAN LABOUR MINNESOTA:

ROUND TWO AT THE JIMMY JOHNS SHOPS:

This just in from the IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Union in Minneapolis and St. Paul...the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that the previous union election that the Union lost by a narrow 87-85 vote was invalid because of massive employer violations was invalid. This once again opens the matter of organizing at these shops. Here's the story from the Jimmy Johns Workers website.

IWWIWWIWWIWW

In Big Union Victory, Jimmy John's Union Election Nullified Due to Employer Labor Rights Violations
press release
Sandwich Workers Begin New Push for “10 Point Program” to Reform Fast Food Industry

MINNEAPOLIS– The National Labor Relations Board approved a settlement today nullifying the results of the historic October 22 union election at Jimmy John's, putting victory back on the table for the nation's first-ever union in franchised fast food. The settlement validates workers' claims that franchise owners Mike and Rob Mulligan were able to squeak out an 87-85 victory in the election only by resorting to unlawful tactics including threatening a wage freeze, intentionally fabricating rumors that the union engaged in sabotage, retaliating against union supporters, and numerous other labor rights violations.

With the tainted election results nullified, the union is asking the franchise owners to negotiate over its "10 Point Program for Justice at Jimmy John's," a comprehensive package of reforms that will bring respect, dignity, and democracy to the fast food workplace.

“There can now be no doubt that our rights were severely violated, but we're willing to put the past behind us. We are calling on Mike and Rob Mulligan to make a fresh start and work with us, rather than against us, to improve the lives of Jimmy John's workers and their families by negotiating over our 10 Point Program for modest but urgently needed changes,” said Micah Buckley-Farlee, a delivery driver at Jimmy John's and active member of the union campaign.

Based around benefits that workers in many other industries take for granted, the program is the response of Jimmy John's workers to their most pressing problems on the job. Core demands include sick days, improved job security, guaranteed work hours, a reasonable pay increase and regular raises, improved harassment policies, other basic job benefits, and the establishment of a system of shop committees giving workers a democratic voice within the company.

If franchise owners Mike and Rob Mulligan refuse to cooperate, the union has indicated a willingness to return to the trenches and continue the fight for union recognition, this time on terms that are much more favorable to the union due to the settlement agreement.

Under the NLRB settlement, Jimmy John's must cease engaging in a wide range of unlawful anti-union activities, post notices informing employees of the company's new commitment to obeying the law, and host a series of mandatory employee meetings in which a representative of the NLRB will read the notices in the presence of the company owner.

In 60 days, the Union will also be eligible to file for a fresh election at any point in the next 18 months, with an abbreviated “campaigning period” of 30 days, 12 days shorter than what is customary for NLRB elections.

Union member Ayo Collins said, "Mike and Rob Mulligan can either continue their losing battle against their employees, or they can work with us and distinguish themselves as leaders in bringing much-needed change to the nation's fast food industry. For our part, we're hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. We are more confident than ever that in the end, we will win, setting an example for 3.5 million fast food workers to follow."

The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.

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http://www.jimmyjohnsworkers.org

ANARCHIST HISTORY:

RADICAL WOMEN OF THE IWW:

Here's a great little piece that Molly recently discovered at the website of the Irish Workers' Solidarity Movement.

@W@W@W@W@W@W

Radical Women of the IWW
Donal Fallon profiles some of the women who played a large part in the illustrious history of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Women have been at the forefront of the IWW since its inception. The IWW was the first union of its kind to attempt to organise prostitutes in major US cities. While the percentage of female representatives at their inaugural convention (around 12 in total) may seem quite small, the issue of gender equality was always at the front of the organisations agenda.The women profiled here are just three of the famous female faces among the wobblies of the past. There are many others whose names remain unknown.

During one strike, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, female strikers carried homemade placards proclaiming “we want bread and roses too!” committed to improving not just the conditions of the working class in the work place, but indeed the general living conditions of working class people. During the strikes in Lawrence, local media reported that more female strikers than males were arrested by the local police force! Their crimes included, according to the police, “intimidating strikebreakers."

There are countless other chapters to the history of women within the IWW, not least the Patterson Silk Strike of 1913 when around 25,000 striking silk workers managed to shut down 200 silk mills and dye houses in New Jersey for 5 months in 1913. The IWW’s attitude to the state is what sets it apart from many unions. Its bold mission statement stated that the working class and employing class held nothing in common, a philosophy it continued to work by through good times and bad. The women, and indeed men and children of the IWW are, I feel, best remembered in the lines of the classic IWW ballad Everett County Jail:
In the prison cell we sit
Are we broken hearted—nit.
We’re as happy and as cheerful as can be,
For we know that every Wob Will be busy on the job,
Till they swing the prison doors and set us free

Elisabeth Gurley Flynn

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is one of the many women who stand out in the history of the Industrial Workers of the World. She was just seventeen when she shared the platform with a certain James Connolly, who she described as a “Short, rather stout, plain looking man, [...] a scholar and an excellent writer [whose] speech was marred for American audiences by his thick North of Ireland accent.” Connolly thought very highly of her too.
“She started out as a pure utopian, but now she laughs at her former theories. Had she stuck by her first set of opinions she would have continued a persona grata with the Socialist Party crowd,” Connolly wrote, “but her advocacy of straight revolutionary socialism and industrial unionism alienated them and now they hate her.”

Gurley Flynn once famously remarked, when responding to criticism of the IWW for using women as shields:
“The IWW has been accused of putting the women in the front, the truth is- the IWW does not keep them at the back- and they go to the front”

Lucy Parsons

Lucy Parsons was one of the founders of the IWW She had been involved in the foundation of the journal of IWPA in 1883. In a piece entitled ‘To Tramps, The Unemployed, the Disinherited, and Miserable,’ published in the IWPA journal, The Alarm, in 1884, she called on the poor and disenfranchised to:
“Avail yourselves of those little methods of warfare which Science has placed in the hands of the poor man, and you will become a power in this or any other land. Learn the use of explosives!”

In 1905, she displayed similar radicalism when speaking at the IWW’s foundation (a speech that was reputedly interrupted several times by loud applause).
“We, the women of this country, have no ballot even if we wished to use it, and the only way that we can be represented is to take a man to represent us. You men have made such a mess of it in representing us that we have not much confidence in asking you !We [women] are the slaves of slaves. We are exploited more ruthlessly than men. Whenever wages are to be reduced the capitalist class use women to reduce them, and if there is anything that you men should do in the future it is to organize the women.....”

A very powerful orator, said to be more dangerous than a ‘thousand rioters’ by the Chicago Police force, she quickly took to editing The Liberator, the newspaper of the IWW in the Chicago area. While class struggle was always to the front of her political agenda, she used the space this paper offered to push for, among other things, women’s right to access birth control and the legalisation of divorce. Interestingly, Parsons was highly critical of the idea of ‘free love’, and disagreed with attacks made on the traditional institutions of marriage and family by other anarchists, in particular by Emma Goldman. It is thought that Lucy Parsons married twice, firstly to Oliver Gathing, and later to Albert Parsons - a fascinating character, who had fought as a confederate soldier before becoming involved in union activism and gaining an interest in anarchism, leading to his eventual execution as one of the famous Haymarket martyrs.

Mother Jones

We can even find an Irish connection when we look at the historical role played by women in the early days of the wobblies. Mary Harris Jones, better known as Mother Jones and born in the rebel county of Cork. She was once described as “the most dangerous woman in America,” which must be up there with being “more dangerous than a thousand rioters”! She stated in her autobiography that her family had been involved in the ‘struggle against British rule’ in Ireland. Indeed her grandfather was hanged as a result of his activity in the nationalist movement. Mother Jones played a huge role in bringing the issue of Child Labour to the forefront of the political agenda, writing in her autobiography
“In the spring of 1903 I went to Kensington, Pennsylvania, where seventy-five thousand textile workers were on strike. Of this number at least ten thousand were little children.....“I called upon the millionaire manufactures to cease their moral murders, and I cried to the officials in the open windows opposite, “Some day the workers will take possession of your city hall, and when we do, no child will be sacrificed on the altar of profit.”

Mother Jones famously led a group of striking children on a march all the way to the front door of a certain Theodore Roosevelt. The march, from Pennsylvania to New York City, was designed to take the issue of child labour right to the Presidents doorstep. Around 100 children took part in the march, designed to show what she termed the “New York millionaires” the suffering of working class children. She led the children all the way to the Presidents Long Island home, and when they reached the home, she was informed by the president’s secretary that Teddy himself was “unavailable”. Still, the campaign had succeeded in drawing public attention to a shocking issue. In her own words:“We are told that every American boy has the chance of being president. I tell you that these little boys in the iron cages would sell their chance any day for good square meals and a chance to play. These little toilers whom I have taken from the mills --deformed, dwarfed in body and soul, with nothing but toil before them -have never heard that they have a chance, the chance of every American male citizen, to become the president.”

The children carried banners with slogans like “We want time to play!”, “We miss our parents” and “We want time to go to school” and demanded a new federal law prohibiting the exploitation of children in the work place. While they failed in this, it was clear Mother Jones was standing by her own life philosophy to “pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.”

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:
THE 'HOLIDARITY' PARTY:



It's winter in Winterpeg, and our local IWW branch, the Winnipeg Wobblies (see also their Facebook page ) are inviting people to a 'Holidarity Forever' get together this coming December 16. Here's what it's all about.
♦○♦○♦○♦○♦○♦○♦○♦○


Holidarity Forever!
Time Thursday, December 16 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

-----------------------
Location Black Sheep Diner
540 Ellice
Winnipeg, MB

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More Info
It's that time of year again...

Time to spend some quality time with your fellow workers and comrades. Time to reminisce about the struggles of the past year, and hope for revolution in the new. Time to dust off the old little red songbook and sing classic IWW carols.

Yes, it's Holidarity Forever, the annual get-together for folks interested in social justice (and by "social justice" we mean smashing capitalism, patriarchy, racism, homophobia, colonialism, etc.). Come down and enjoy the company of your comrades in the struggle!

There will be food, beer and songs.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR GERMANY:

PROTESTING NEO-LIBERALISM IN GERMANY:

It's official now. You know that a ruling class plot has serious opposition when there are mass protests against it in Germany of all places. I speak of the practically worldwide move by governments to make the ordinary person suck it up for the bank and corporate bailouts of recent memory. Yes, even governments have to at least pretend to balance their books occasionally (despite social democratic illusions) or at least not get swamped in a visible sea of red ink. Thus Germany, like many other countries, is trying to download the cost onto its average citizen, and German workers are responding with opposition to this attempt to make them pay for a crisis they didn't create. Here's the story from Deutsche Welle. But I would not be true to form if I didn't make a plug here for my own people, the German anarcho-syndicalist union the FAU, and the German language section of the IWW. Look to them for more consistent opposition than social democratic unions are wont to present.

☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼
Thousands march as German unions protest Merkel government

Tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets of a host of German cities, marching against what they say are unfair social policies espoused by the coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A day ahead of an important gathering of heavyweights from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), tens of thousands have marched across Germany on Saturday protesting government policies and what they say is social inequality.


Umbrella union group DGB, which helped organize the demonstrations, said nearly 100,000 people marched in Stuttgart, Dortmund, Nuremberg and Erfurt to voice their disapproval with the Merkel government.


Chief among the complaints was the offloading of the costs of the financial crisis on taxpayers.


"We don't want a republic in which powerful interest groups decide the guidelines of politics with their money, their power and their influence," Berthold Huber, head of IG Metall, Germany's largest trade union, told demonstrators in Stuttgart.


The union is demanding higher wages and the introduction of a minimum wage, arguing that ordinary Germans should benefit most from the country's economic upswing following the financial crisis.
Pressure mounts on coalition


The protests were timed to coincide with the CDU's annual party congress, at which it's expected Merkel will be reelected to the leadership. The three-day gathering in Karlsruhe in Germany's south begins Sunday.


The congress will be held under the specter of sagging opinion poll figures for Merkel and the CDU. Just over a year into Merkel's second tenure as chancellor, many Germans are angry over a lack of progress on key campaign promises.


Her center-right coalition now trails the center-left grouping of Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens in opinion polls.


Merkel's government has also been dogged by infighting between the CDU and their government partners, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).


Most recently, the public was angered when the Merkel government decided to extend the lifespan of the country's nuclear reactors. Nuclear energy remains deeply unpopular in Germany, witnessed most recently last week when tens of thousands protested the transfer of atomic waste from France to a storage facility in the north of Germany.


Merkel has also been criticized from the rightist faction within her own party, who believe she has not been conservative enough in her leadership of the CDU and the country.

AMERICAN LABOUR MINNEAPOLIS:

JIMMY JOHNS WORKERS UNION TO FILE UNFAIR LABOUR PRACTICES SUIT:

After recently narrowly (87 to 85) losing the Labour Board election to represent fast food workers at the Jimmy Johns outlets in the Twin Cities the Jimmy Johns Workers Union has filed a detailed unfair labour practices suit against management of the locations involved. One manager in particular engaged in a vicious anti-union campaign. The Union is also continuing to press for its demands in the workplaces despite having lost the election. Here's the story from the website of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

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Alleging Rampant Labor Rights Violations at Jimmy Johns, Workers Call on NLRB to Take Action on Manipulated Union Election
October 22, 2010 - Sandwich Workers to Continue to Press for Improved Working Conditions.

MINNEAPOLIS – The Jimmy John's Workers Union has filed a 12-page Objection to the October 22 NLRB election at 10 Minneapolis sandwich shops, outlining a pattern of pervasive and systemic labor rights violations that prevented the possibility of a free and fair vote. The union election, a first in fast food in the US, was as close as they come, with 85 votes in favor of the union, 87 against, and 2 challenged ballots.

"Franchise owner Mike Mulligan decided to go beyond the pale. His managers asked workers to wear anti-union pins, fired pro-union workers, threatened a mass firing, implemented an illegal wage freeze, tightened policies and retaliated against union members, offered bribes, and pressured workers to vote no. He broke the law repeatedly in order to win, and he just barely won. That's not right. We are calling on the NLRB to set aside the results of this election," said worker and union member Emily Przybylsky.

In response to his employee's union campaign, franchise owner Mike Mulligan hired a third-party anti-union consulting firm, Labor Relations Inc., to prevent employees from winning an NLRB Union election. According to documents obtained from the Department of Labor, Mulligan spent over $84,500 on an anti-union campaign intended to prevent workers from unionizing.

Tim Louris, of Minneapolis labor firm Miller O'Brien Cummins, is assisting the union pro-bono in navigating the tricky waters of labor law. Union spokespeople say the written objection to the election results will be available to the public within a few days.

While filing with the NLRB to have the election results nullified, the workers also plan to mount a campaign to win their demands without union recognition.

"85 yes votes, in spite of 6 weeks of vicious union-busting, is a mandate for change," said "There are a thousand ways we can put pressure on Jimmy John's to win our demands for fair wages, sick days, consistent hours, and respect. We're fired up, this fight is just beginning," said Ayo Collins, another worker and union member.

The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is the first fast food union in the nation, and is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.

Related Links
•Restaurant, Hotel, and Building Service Workers Industrial Union 640
•Jimmy Johns Workers Union
•Twin Cities IWW
•IWW Starbucks Workers Union

AMERICAN LABOUR MINNEAPOLIS:

JIMMY JOHNS WORKERS UNION LOSES ELECTION IN CLOSE TALLY:

Close but no cigar. The Jimmy Johns Workers' Union in Minneapolis lost the Labour Board election that would have seen them representing workers in the 10 outlets in that city. the final tally was 85 in favour of the union and 87 against. US labour law says that a majority of those eligible to vote would have to vote yes to certify a union as the bargaining representative. In this case that would have meant 103 workers.

The IWW isn't giving up, and hopefully future efforts will be rewarded. The reader can see more and keep up to date on developments at both the Jimmy Johns Workers' Union site and also that of the Twin Cities IWW. Management fought a dirty campaign against the union, and there are quite a few unfair labour practices complaints in the works. As the following article from Business Week shows, red-baiting was part of their book of tricks. Nothing remarkable about this. What is remarkable, and it bodes well for the health of the American body politic, is that almost half the workers involved were unimpressed by scare words like "socialist-anarchist".

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Union’s Bid to Organize Minneapolis Sandwich Shops Rejected
October 23, 2010, 12:01 AM EDT
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Union efforts to recruit workers at U.S. fast-food restaurants were set back yesterday as Minneapolis employees at Jimmy John’s sandwich shops rejected a bid to affiliate with organized labor.

The Industrial Workers of the World, a Chicago-based group, failed to win enough votes at 10 shops where the union’s supporters complained of low wages and too few working hours. A tally showed 87 workers against the union and 85 in favor, with 103 votes, a majority of those eligible, needed to win, according to the National Labor Relations Board. The parties have seven days to file objections.

“We make minimum wage, and if the companies could pay us less, I’m sure they would,” said Ayo Collins, 20, who delivers sandwiches and is a union organizer at Jimmy John’s, a Champaign, Illinois-based chain with 1,000 U.S. shops. “We don’t have health care either.”

Success at Jimmy John’s would have been a breakthrough for organized labor in the fast-food business, where 1.3 percent of workers belong to a union and organizing is difficult because of rapid turnover and a young workforce, said Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The drive signals that working conditions are “perhaps a real social problem that requires a more pressing solution,” he said.

Mike Mulligan, who owns the 10 franchises in Minneapolis that were targeted in the campaign, said he has been “more than fair” to his workers. He said the workers include a high percentage of minority employees and he has “zero tolerance” for sexual harassment. Most employees have been with the company for less than six months, and are paid minimum wage of $7.25-an- hour, he said.

Socialist Wobblies

The I.W.W., known as the Wobblies, has 1,600 U.S. members and few union contracts with employers. The socialist union ( "socialist" is a fair description, but it should be stressed that this doesn't imply any support for any electoral socialist party ie "small s" socialist- Molly )says on its website that there can be “no end to injustice and want until the profit system itself is abolished.” The union has tried in the past to organize baristas at Starbucks Corp.

Employees at two Jimmy John’s in downtown Chicago, which wasn’t part of the I.W.W. organizing, said yesterday that pay is low and hours are inadequate.

“Three hours Monday through Friday isn’t enough,” said Julian Western, 20, who said he makes $8.25 an hour at the Jimmy John’s at 2 N. Riverside Plaza and works side jobs to supplement his income. “You need a second job just to get enough to get by, pay bills.”

Western and his friend Susana Contreras, 20, a cashier and baker at a nearby Jimmy John’s, said they hadn’t heard of the effort in Minneapolis. He said the Wobblies would succeed if they tried to organize in Chicago.

Hours, Pay

“A lot of people are complaining about the hours and pay,” said Western, who works the cash register and hands out sandwiches. “They’d be more than happy to cooperate.”

Mulligan, a retired senior vice president with grocer Supervalu Inc., said he met frequently with workers in the past six weeks to combat the union effort. He told workers the I.W.W. is a “socialist-anarchist” group, and that the union wouldn’t be likely to improve their working conditions.

“They’re trying to take down the quick-service industry,” said Mulligan, who became a franchisee after he leaving Supervalu as a way of going into business with his son. “Our employees don’t deserve these people, and these people don’t deserve our employees.”

Robert Bruno, director of the labor education program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said it’s significant for labor unions to target fast-food workers as potential union members.

“Some of the traditional rationales against unions in the industry -- that the workers are too young, they don’t stay on the job -- isn’t true any longer,” Bruno said. “Something has changed in the economy. It signals that you can’t take these workers for granted.”

--Editors: Steve Geimann, Larry Liebert

To contact the reporters on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net; Flynn McRoberts in Chicago at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net .

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net .

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Here's how the Jimmy Johns Workers' Union themselves see the matter.

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Unfazed by near tie, Jimmy John’s Workers vow to continue campaign
by Twin Cities Iww on Friday, October 22, 2010 at 8:14pm.

Jimmy Johns Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World) Contact: Erik Forman, 612-598-6205, Ayo Collins 612-281-0882



October 22, 2010

Unfazed by near tie, Jimmy John’s Workers vow to continue campaign
Workers report widespread illegal activity by company
MINNEAPOLIS – Workers at 10 Jimmy John’s franchise locations in Minneapolis are crying foul after a near tie in a union certification election marred by misconduct by owner MikLin enterprises. 85 workers voted in favor of unionization and 87 against, with two unknown contested ballots. Under the National Labor Relations Act, a tie goes to the employer.

Workers reported strong evidence of several violations of the National Labor Relations Act on and before election day, including attempted bribes of workers, management asking workers to wear anti-union pins, threats of mass firings, and anti-union firings. MikLin Enterprises currently stands charged with 22 alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act.

“We are extremely disappointed with the company’s conduct in this matter; rather then letting simply letting us vote, management chose to break the law repeatedly during the last six weeks. They spent over $84,500 on a vicious anti-union smear campaign, that's over $1000 per vote. We do not recognize these election results as legitimate and will continue to fight for our demands,” said Erik Forman, a worker at Jimmy John’s and a union member.

Ayo Collins, a delivery driver, says the union “hasn’t put all their eggs in one basket” and has multiple avenues of action still open to them. He says the union is considering taking legal action against the company over their misconduct in the runup to the election.

"In a company with turnover approaching 50% each month, a majority at any given moment only means so much. We have a mandate- more than 85 of us are committed to continuing the fight for decent wages, consistent scheduling, sick days, and the basic respect and dignity that all workers deserve. This is just the beginning of the fight," said Collins.

The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is the first fast food union in the nation, and is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.

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JimmyJohnsWorkers.org 

AMERICAN LABOUR MINNEAPOLIS:
PRE-ELECTION PARTY FOR THE JIMMY JOHNS WORKERS:


The Labour Board elections for the Jimmy Johns outlets in the Twin Cities are coming up this Friday, and the IWW Jimmy John's Workers' Union is holding a sort of pre-victory celebration tomorrow night in anticipation. The IWW's organizing campaign with these workers is a great breakthrough for both the IWW and fast food workers in general. Here's the notice of the event.
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JIMMY JAMS! Pre-Election Party for the IWW Jimmy John's Workers Union
Time Tomorrow at 8:00pm - Friday at 12:00am

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Location The Paper Moose
945 Broadway NE
Minneapolis, MN

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Created By IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Union

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More Info
JIMMY JAMs
vol. 1: Pre-Election Party!

A concert featuring Jimmy John's workers bands!

-MENU-
PT -feat. Damien from Calhoun
False- feat. Niko from Calhoun
True Mutiny-feat. JJ from Block E
Oblivion- feat. Mike B. from Knollwood

and more!

This Thursday 8pm at the Paper Moose, 945 Broadway NE.

FREE for Jimmy John's workers

Donations welcome from supporters.

AMERICAN LABOUR MINNEAPOLIS:

JIMMY JOHNS WORKER THREATENED FOR PROTECTING PUBLIC:

Even though new and not yet duly registered the Jimmy Johns Workers Union in Minneapolis has already demonstrated the value of a good union to the general public. Here's from the Jimmy Johns Workers website the story of one worker who thinks public health is more important than corporate profits.

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Jimmy Johns Employee on the Chopping Block for Refusing to Serve Rotten Meat
Sandwich Workers and Customers Unite in Support of Working Class Hero

Press Conference and Delegation: 1pm Sunday September 26, Calhoun Square Jimmy Johns, 3001 Hennepin Ave. S.

MINNEAPOLIS– When Shift Supervisor Margaret Brickely began her morning prep work at Jimmy John's last Monday, she noticed that all of the meat and produce she pulled out of the cooler was warm and beginning to rot. The coolers had broken, leaving the meat at room temperature overnight. Margaret refused to serve the meat. Now, Jimmy John's is threatening her job in retaliation.

“The vegetables were shriveled, the meat hot, and the bread dough semi-cooked. This is not something I was willing to serve” says Margaret. “I called my District Manager Jason Effertz to inform him that the meat was rotten, and he ordered me to slice it and serve it. When I refused, Effertz came in and sliced the meat himself, preparing to sell it to customers.”

With the support of the newly-organized Jimmy Johns Workers Union, Margaret and her coworkers called the City of Minneapolis Health Department. A City Health Inspector came to the store, condemned the meat as unfit for human consumption, and forced management to throw it all away.

Had Margaret not taken a stand for proper sanitation, hundreds of customers would have been served rotten meat.

Jimmy Johns workers and customers from across the city are organizing a public delegation to the store on Sunday at 1pm to thank Margaret for her courage and demand an end to Jimmy John's rotten business practices of retaliating against employees who put sanitation and safety first.

“Margaret is a working class hero. She did the right thing by refusing to sell spoiled meat and we’re backing her up. No one should have to worry about getting fired for preventing customers from being served rotten food. We formed a union to protect ourselves in exactly these kinds of situations,” says Jaim’ee Bolte an employee at the Ninth Street Jimmy John's Location.

Jimmy John’s Workers at the Minneapolis franchise recently filed for a National Labor Relations board union election, the first at the growing sandwich chain and a rare move in an industry with a union density of 1.8%. The demands of the union include paid sick days, minimum shift lengths and fair scheduling, job security, tip jars, fair raises and wages, an end to sexual harassment and a voice on the job.

The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.

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http://JimmyJohnsWorkers.org
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This all reminds of one incident when I was young and had a part time job delivering pizza. One evening I was waiting in the restaurant for the next order to go out, and I espied a plate of spagetti sitting up on the shelf. The thing was that the pile looked grey, and you naturally assume that it's a plate put aside and forgotten. Curiousity is this cat's second name so naturally I poked at it. "Oh, it's warm", I say as I pull back. From a little bit behind me I hear the word "good", and the waitress comes and takes the plate out to a customer. Myself I just sit there being stunned at this. Needless to say the plate came back uneaten and with a complaint. Believe me it happens more often than you might think, and having a union means that it happens far less.

CANADIAN LABOUR WINNIPEG:

THE WINNIPEG WOBBLY ISSUE #5:

Hot of the press the Winnipeg Wobbly Issue #5. Here's the story from the Winnipeg Wobbly Blog, the local organ of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

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Winnipeg Wobbly Newsletter #5

Fresh for the Radical Bookfair, check out the newest edition of our newsletter, the Winnipeg Wobbly! Included in this edition:


•The Coming Insurrection at the University of Manitoba
•Winnipeg Municipal Elections: "If voting changed anything it would be illegal"
•Jimmy Johns Workers Join IWW in Increase Minimum wage pay
•IWW Convention 2010 Report
•No to Bill94

Click Here For The Winnipeg Wobbly Vol. 1 Issue 5

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR GERMANY:

GERMAN IWW PICKETS EUREST:

The following article is from the website of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and concerns a informational picket by the German IWW outside the Municipal Services offices in Frankfurt Germany a couple of days ago. The target of the picket was the international catering company Eurest (active in over 80 countries) who supply catering services to the city of Frankfurt. Eurest is emblematic of the "new economy" that is so widely trumpeted as "progressive" by apologists for our managerial rulers, and its "progress" involves squeezing its workers as hard as it can whenever it can. But not just its workers, also its customers. Through its subsidiary Eurest Support Services Eurest has been involved in more than one multibillion dollar corruption scandal over the years and will undoubtedly be involved in many more in the years to come.

In 2005 Eurest hit the news because of a UN procurement scandal, and in 2007 it was also implicated in corruption related to supplying food services to US forces in Iraq.

Here's the story from the IWW. The following has been slightly edited for reasons of English grammar.

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German IWW pickets against austerity measures outside the Frankfurter Stadtwerke [Municipal Services]:
Translated by a member of the British Isles IWW Regional Organizing Committee (BIROC)

Today the IWW distributed the following flyer (image not included) in front of the Frankfurter Stadtwerke [Municipal Services]:

Training outside working hours - "but can they do that?" They keep getting more impertinent!

Today, on Saturday, college students at EUREST have to work, because by now so many people have been made redundant that training can no longer take place during regular working hours. The Compass Group has made fat profits during the crisis- on the backs of their workers. Reduced staff, reduced shifts and unpaid overtime, that's their trick.

So, it's not a surprise that trainings are now happening during the weekend. The location of the Stadtwerke is not the first one where this is practiced. But, no manager has put pressure on the workers quite so shamelessly. He doesn't care, that you have kids you need to care for. He doesn't even care if you're on holiday. You need to show up or have proof that you already booked some trip. But time off is time off, and to force colleagues who have taken time off to go to work is, simply put, illegal.

A person like Tobias Engel does not seem to know, that the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany also apply to Eurest. Therefore, it's not surprising that the IWW Union learnt that he recently opened the locker of a worker. How long do you want to take such infringements?

If you don't resist, you'll soon need to show up every Saturday, for a training, or to clean. And the worst is, that it seems the shop steward agreed to this. Why do the NGG-shop stewards do whatever Eurest wants?

The problem, of course, are not just the cuddly unions and shop stewards, who don't represent the interest of the workers. As a union we can insist on the compliance with legal protections and rights of employees. But their implementation depends on whether the workers in the company resist the dismantling of workers' rights.

If you are ready, we'll support you in a big way!

Related Links
•GLAMROC IWW

AMERICAN LABOUR MINNEAPOLIS:

DAVID ROVICS BENEFIT CONCERT:

Coming up this weekend down in (Winnipeg South ???) Minneapolis a benefit concert for the Jimmy Johns Workers by anarchist songster David Rovics. Here's the notice from the website of the IWW.

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David Rovics Benefit Concert for the IWW Jimmy John's Workers Union
Start: Sep 24 2010 - 7:00pm
End: Sep 24 2010 - 11:00pm
Timezone: US/Central
Location
Walker Community Church
3104 16th Ave South
Minneapolis, MN
United States
Originally posted here - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143516879008661

To benefit the Twin Cities Industrial Workers of the World in support of the Jimmy John’s Workers Union
(All proceeds will benefit the IWW JJWU - http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/jimmyjohnsunion?v=info&ref=ts )

**David Rovics Benefit Concert**

...Rovics has been traveling the world for decades now, singing his songs of resistance, peace, and democracy for unions, peace activists, and
social justice everywhere he travels. In the middle of his current Prairie Fire Tour, he is performing a benefit concert for the local
branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, the most democratic union in North America since 1905. While David travels the world
singing about corporate greed and political injustice, the IWW is actively organizing workplaces - like Starbucks at the Mall of
America! - near you. We are a perfect match, but there's one thing missing: you.

Openers: Abdi Phenomenal Farah & the Twin Cities Labor Chorus
Walker Community Church
$9 - No one turned away for lack of funds.

All Jimmy John's Workers receive Free Admission.

If you can't make the IWW Benefit Concert on Sept 24, you can catch David R.at the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, Corner of 4th and Broadway, Lowertown,St. Paul the following evening (Saturday, September 25) at 8 pm.

Or Check ot the Children's show Sat. the 25th at 2pm: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=119021171484821&ref=ts

http://www.davidrovics.com/
http://www.facebook.com/twincities.iww
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/jimmyjohnsunion?v=info&ref=ts

Labor Chorus: http://twincitieslaborchorus.blogspot.com/
Abdi Phenomenal Farah: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504113529

Related Links
•Jimmy Johns Workers Union
•Twin Cities IWW
Links from Article Text
• http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143516879008661
• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504113529

CANADIAN LABOUR VANCOUVER ISLAND:

THE VANISLE IWW BLOG:

Well, it's as official as it's going to get. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) are now officially present in Canada from coast to coast. As previously reported here at Molly's Blog there is a Halifax branch of the IWW (see our Links section under IWW Canada) , and now there is a branch for Vancouver Island wobs. Molly waits with bated breath for a Newfoundland and a Yukon branch. To say nothing of the employees at the Anne of Green Gables park organizing. While you bide your time waiting with me check out the new Vancouver Island blog. All the best to the Vanisle wobs.

AMERICAN LABOUR MINNEAPOLIS:
JIMMY JOHNS WORKERS FILM SHOWING:



As part of their continuing organizing efforts the IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Union are showing the film 'Eyes on the Fries' about working conditions in the fast food industry. Here's the promo.>>>
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Jimmy John's Workers Union Film Showing of "Eyes on the Fries"
Twin Cities IWW

Time Thursday, September 30 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm

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Location West Bank, U of M, exact location TBA

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More Info
Join us for a free showing of the 20-minute film "Eyes on the Fries", which offers a look into the current system of labor in the low-wage service sector. After the film, there will be a discussion/q&a session with a panel of Jimmy John's workers who have been active in the union organizing effort.

From the website progressivefilms.org:

"Low wages, erratic schedules, no health care, work-school conflicts. This film looks beyond the stereotypes of carefree and undeserving youth to uncover a reality that millions of young working people know all too well: no matter how hard you work and how well you do in school, it can be difficult to stay afloat when you're coming of age in a "McJob" economy. But there are ways to improve things - and young people are taking the lead.

"Examines the rise of the low wage service sector and what it means for a generation of young Americans whose lives depend on it. Also features the successful struggle to raise the minimum wage in San Francisco, and the daily struggles of young workers from Oakland to New York."

Producer: Jeremy Blasi (Center for Labor Research and Education)
Director/Editor: Casey Peek


And from jimmyjohnsworkers.org:

"The union campaign at Jimmy Johns could hold deep implications for other companies in the fast food industry, a sector known for the lowest rates of unionization- and lowest wages- in the United States. Only 1.8% of food service workers were represented by a union in 2009, far below the nation-wide figure of 12.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The question of unionization of the food and service industries looms is assuming greater focus as employment in these non-union sectors increases, while manufacturing, the traditional stronghold of unionization, slides further into decline.

"The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people."