Greetings from the International Solidarity Commission (ISC) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and welcome to the first of our irregularly published international news letter.

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

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

Saludos de la Comisión de Solidaridad Internacional (ISC) de los Trabajadores Industriales del Mundo (IWW) y dar la bienvenida a la primera de la carta publicada irregularmente noticias internacionales.

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

Para contribuir con ideas o noticias al boletín, o para contactar a la ISC por favor escribir a solidarity [a] iww.org. Para la versión en español, hacer clic aquí.

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For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union

Contact: StarbucksUnion (at) yahoo.com

February 11, 2010

Kati Moore Inspires Starbucks District Managers to Expose High-Level Sexual Harassment

Howard Schultz Still Silent Amid Growing Evidence of a Hostile Work Environment

New York, NY- In a risky departure from the normal chain of command, a group of  Starbucks district managers have authored an impassioned letter to top executives in Seattle demanding that action be taken against a company vice president allegedly engaged in pervasive sexual harassment.  

The letter, which was made available to the IWW Starbucks Workers Union, alleges that Regional Vice President Andrew Alfano has created an unsafe work environment with his behavior and is responsible for the departure of two female regional directors, among many other troubling charges.  

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For Immediate Release:
Brandworkers

February 1, 2010

Contact: press (at) brandworkers.org

Workers Rights' Group Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Beverage Distributor Over Alleged Labor Violations

Immigrant Workers Take a Stand for Minimum Wage and Overtime Pay

New York, NY-  A non-profit workers' rights organization filed a class action lawsuit on Friday alleging that a Queens-based drink distributor,
Beverage-Plus, is violating the rights of its immigrant workforce.
The lawsuit was filed in New York federal court on behalf of current and former delivery drivers and warehouse assistants who were allegedly denied minimum wage and overtime by Beverage-Plus, in addition to other rights violations.  The case is an effort of the Brandworkers Focus on the Food Chain initiative which is exposing abuses in NYC's food processing sector and was brought in association with law firm Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C.

"My co-workers and I work hard and now we are demanding to be paid according to the law," said Richard Merino, a member of Brandworkers who has been a driver at Beverage-Plus for six years.  "Wage theft is very damaging and we have chosen to tackle the problem by organizing together and taking collective action."

Lawyers for the workers will seek class certification to recover allegedly withheld compensation for current and former Beverage-Plus workers who have worked at the company in the last six years.  Maia Goodell and Anand Swaminathan of Vladeck Waldman are serving as lead counsel.

"Tens of thousands of recent immigrant workers labor out-of-sight in exploitative conditions processing and distributing food to New York's markets and restaurants," said Daniel Gross, the director of Brandworkers.  "Wage theft, abusive treatment, non-existent benefits, and hostility to organizing are endemic in the sector but workers' resolve to assert their rights is strong and growing.  Brandworkers Focus on the Food Chain will press on until New York's food processing employees win respect for their human rights and just recognition for their important contribution to our economy and our community."

Brandworkers is a New York-based non-profit organization protecting and advancing the rights of retail and food employees.  By providing workers with legal, advocacy, and organizing tools, Brandworkers ensures employer compliance with the law and challenges corporate misconduct in the community.  The Brandworkers Focus on the Food Chain initiative promotes a sustainable food system where workers' human rights are respected.

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By Eric Griffey - Fort Worth Weekly, February 3, 2010.

In late December, a small group of Starbucks employees blocked the drive-through window at the company's coffee shop at Rosedale Street and 8th Avenue for about 20 minutes, in protest of the rising cost of their healthcare insurance, low wages, and a litany of other issues. The protest signaled that a handful of local baristas had gone public with their association with the Starbucks Workers' Union - and it meant that, for a while on that afternoon, customers had to wait even longer than usual to get a cup of gourmet coffee. coverThe protesters said they didn't intend for the store to lose any business. They saw the move as a symbolic gesture, a message to the corporate coffee giant that they are willing to go to great lengths to improve their working environment. Although the protest hardly measured up to, say, the garbage workers strike in Fort Worth in 1999, it did get the company's attention. Organizers said that the company's top brass now has the Rosedale store under a microscope and that corporate officials visit frequently.

Fort Worth is the sixth city in the U.S. and the first in Texas to associate with the Starbucks Workers Union, which was started in 2004 under the umbrella of the Industrial Workers of the World, a century-old international union that takes a kind of class warfare approach and has had success in organizing in nontraditional industries, from bicycle messengers to food co-op workers.

Michelle Cahill, the group's organizer, said that she and others have seen firsthand the declining morale of their co-workers, as the company has been forced to make changes to cope with hard times.

The unhappy baristas feel as though the company, which is perennially listed on Forbes magazine's "best companies to work for" list, has lost its way, and is becoming more like a fast food chain - concentrating more on moving product than connecting with customers. "There are people in every store in the country who feel that the company isn't what it used to be," Cahill said.

But she said the union's goals have less to do with the overall direction of the company than with mistreatment of workers. Among their demands are better and cheaper healthcare, increased wages, more hours, and better working conditions.

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Originally posted here

Andrew Nellis of the Ottawa Pandhandlers Union said the group has reached a settlement after filing a $1-million lawsuit against the city last year.

The lawsuit accused the city of violating panhandlers' constitutional rights by putting up a fence at the underpass across from Chateau Laurier. Nellis ended up being charged after he snipped a lock off the fence.

On Tuesday, Nellis said the panhandlers and city reached a deal but an agreement on confidentiality prevented him from going into details. Sounded like the settlement might involve allowing the panhandlers to use some property for a street art gallery.

Nellis is claiming victory.

"It won't be the first victory we have, either," he said.

In the same breath, Nellis said the panhandlers group plans to sue the city again if an updated nuisance bylaw comes into force for roads and sidewalks. The bylaw passed the transportation committee meeting Wednesday.

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Philadelphia IWW Demonstrates at the German Consulate Against Repression of the FAU Union in Berlin

By John Kalwaic, contributions by Walt Weber
Despite freezing cold weather on January 29 members of the Philadelphia General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World picketed the Philadelphia German Consulate as part of an International day of action in solidarity with the FAU-B or (Free Workers Union) in Berlin, Germany. The FAU Berlin has come under attack from both the employers of the Babylon Cinema where workers are trying to organize and the city government, which is trying to outlaw the FAU. Philadelphia IWW members displayed signs in both English and German expressing solidarity with the FAU outside the building. In addition to distributing flyers, branch members sang labor songs and chanted that workers had the right to organize anywhere in the world.

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March 4th is over, but we've only just begun.

“Why the hell did you get on that highway?” asked the cops, our cell mates, our coworkers, our classmates. There are many responses that could be given that have been outlined by banners, occupation demands, student leaders, or budget statistics, but none of them really connect to why one would take over a highway. Obviously there are no libraries on a highway. The funding for schools isn't going to be found on any one of those lanes of oncoming traffic. And, in fact, a lot of people who were arrested on the highway were not students or teachers. This is because the highway takeover is an action against a power structure that is much larger than this year's budget crisis.

That morning we awakened to newspaper headlines stating the governor's support for sanctioned student protests. We weren't the least bit impressed by this patronizing rhetoric. Our motivations for walking up that on ramp to 880 were far deeper and broader than some piddly demand for a return of the same: An education system that has for a long time been the bedrock to our highly divided class system in the United States. The myth that change will come to this society by poor people reaching middle class status through the university makes no sense; a school degree does not impact the condition of the neighborhoods and families we come from. It should also now be clear to everyone that ritualized demonstrations that fail to break out of the normal functioning of society represent nothing more than the further consolidation of state power. What fails to concretely disrupt the system ultimately strengthens it. We know that if we “win” funding from Governor Schwarzenegger this is no victory, but a diversion of funds from one group of already-struggling people to pacify another, without changing shit. For example, plans are in the works that will take money from the health care of prisoners in order to fatten university administrators' pockets. We refuse to accept a shallow bribe that places “our” interests in competition with the interests of our potential comrades.

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A few weeks ago we posted a call-out asking for support in lieu of our pending eviction. After receiving many questions concerning logistics and the space itself, we have decided to issue the lowercase call-out part II to clear up any confusion.

As many of you now know, the state is planning to evict the lowercase collective squat in approximately three weeks. The foreclosure and eviction of our home is one of many in this neighborhood and many other neighborhoods. Our resistance is a response to not only the attack on our home, but also to the attack on all people facing eviction as well as the system from which evictions are born.

During the weeks that precede our eviction, we are asking for the help of our friends and the greater radical community. Mutual aid, folks! These are the things we need right now:

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The theoretical block draws up a program of lectures on how the capitalist system works, focusing on the present moment of economic and social crisis. Anarcho-syndicalist proposals facing the crisis will also be debated. This theoretical perspective is completed with several papers which shall offer a wide vision of economic and social literature on the subject of socialism and libertarian-communism models.

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We also include in-depth analysis of this content, with the intention of connecting these occurrences and seeking ideas on how they can spread. Every issue also includes multiple accounts of individuals or groups experiencing repression by the state. By repression we mean police surveillance or harassment, draining trials, grand juries, or incarceration. We hope with this to help raise an awareness of these cases and prevent them from becoming isolated. We also hope that by reporting on this, it will help others to learn from the mistakes or courage of those currently dealing with the state's justice system, and help strengthen a more powerful revolutionary community before a more powerful repressive system.

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