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Labor
Union organizing, workers' rights, farmworkers.
From the open publishing newswire:
[May 1, 2008] Minutes ago, I spoke with Clarence Thomas of the ILWU executive board. "The rank and file action against the war is indeed happening right now", he said. And today the workers will write history.
In an attempt to head this off last night the PMA went to court, "Employers, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), will not agree to it, and threatened union leaders with court action under Taft-Hartley if they don't call it all off." but the judge refused to take any action, until there is concrete action by the union in violation of their contract. This is a rank and file action by union members who are united by their opposition to the war. They disagree with the decision of the arbitrator who has dis-allowed the choice of May Day, by the ILWU, as a "day for union business" for workers at all 29 ports on the west coast. A "day for union business" is allowed by their contract. Their original intent was to use this day for their official protest, but official or not, the protest is on. Protests in the Bay Area began early today, led by Direct Action to Stop the War. DASW organized the famous march on Washington that gathered 500,000 people from groups across the nation. Today, they will close down the war effort in San Fransisco. Their effort to shut down the Union Pacific Rail lines began at sunrise this morning. Indybay reported:
From the open publishing newswire:
On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a historic event of international significance: labor action against imperialist war by a major American union. The strategically placed port workers in the ILWU can bring commerce with Asia to a grinding halt, and they're about to demonstrate it. The maritime employers are already screaming, and you can bet it's got the attention of the warmongers in Washington. All labor should take up the challenge this poses: For workers strikes against the war! M
eanwhile, immigrants' rights groups are once again mobilizing on May Day. And on April 30 and May 1, the independent truckers who move cargo to and from the docks may play an important role in a shutdown. The imperialist war on Afghanistan and Iraq is also a war on immigrants, minorities, working people and democratic rights "at home." We need to defeat this attack here and abroad, in opposition to both the capitalist war parties. The "antiwar movement," whose aim has always been to pressure the Democrats, is at a dead end. What's needed is working-class action independent of the bosses. What that takes is a fundamental break from the Democratic Party and the pro-capitalist politics that infuse the labor bureaucracy. MayDay Picnic Noon-4pm | Mayday Immigrants Rights Demo 3 - 4 pm | Mayday GUELAGUETZA! 6-10pm | Red & Black mayday celebration starting at 7pm
From the open publishing newswire:
The Executive Board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, have unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their "unequivocal" support for the first US labor work stoppage against the war in Iraq. The work stoppage, [which was] being organized by the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), will seek to shutdown all west coast ports during the day on May 1st 2008. The Vermont AFL-CIO is the first state labor federation to publicly back the Longshoremen; other state federations are expected to follow. The resolution, among other things, calls the war in Iraq "immoral, unwanted, and unnecessary", states that the vast majority of working Vermonters oppose the war, and contends that the war will only be brought to an end by "the direct actions of working people." Many other Vermont labor unions and organizations, including the Vermont Workers' Center, have also made official statements condemning the war. "Workers in Vermont and all across this nation are against this war. We have already demanded that the government end it, but they have consistently failed to heed our words. Therefore working people are beginning to take concrete steps to make our resistance known. If the war does not immediately end we, the unions and working people of Vermont, will also be compelled to take appropriate action," said David Van Deusen, District Vice President of the AFL-CIO. Related: ILWU Antiwar Shutdown of West Coast Ports on May Day is Blocked
From the open publishing newswire:
The ILWU's planned antiwar West Coast work stoppage on international workers' rights day would have been one of the first such actions of its kind by a major American union since the Iraq war began. Plans for an unprecedented display of labor muscle on May 1 in support of the peace movement have been blocked for now, though it remains anybody's guess what might actually happen.
An estimated 25,000 longshore workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) were planning to take part in a May Day antiwar shutdown of all West Coast ports, including the ports of Portland and Vancouver. The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), charged with negotiating and administering maritime labor agreements with the ILWU, however, has nixed those dayshift May Day stop-work sessions. comment: In summer of '01, Carlo Giulini was murdered in Genoa by carabinieri at G-8 Summit, & many many protesters were beaten half to death. Shortly after, an Italian ship docked at Port of Portland, & some of us set up a picket line outside the gates, & ILWU honored our line!
From the open publishing newswire:
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) - an organization of low-wage workers based in Immokalee, Florida - has launched a national petition campaign to demand that Burger King and other food industry leaders work with the CIW to improve the wages & working conditions of the workers who pick their tomatoes, and join with the CIW in an industry-wide effort to eliminate modern-day slavery & human rights abuses from Florida's fields.
Farmworkers are among the poorest workers in the United States, and have very few labor protections. Most workers earn sub-poverty wages and do not have the legal rights to overtime pay, to organize, or to bargain collectively. in the most extreme conditions, workers are forced to work under conditions of modern-day slavery, receiving little or no pay through violence & threats of violence. The petition not only calls on Burger King & other food industry leaders to join McDonald's & Yum Brands (parent company of Taco Bell) in addressing human rights abuses in the fields where their tomatoes are picked, but will serve as notice that the petitioners are "prepared to stop patronizing Burger King now, and other food industry leaders in the future, should they fail to do so." To read & sign the petition, visit fairfoodnation.org/petition Coalition of Immokalee Workers www.ciw-online.org
From the open publishing newswire:
Friday March 28, 2008, the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters staged a picket line at the site of the Mississippi Avenue Lofts project (Skidmore and Mississippi Ave), demanding that contractor Gray Purcell pay area standard wages and offer area standard benefits. The union picketers showed up at 6:30 am in the rainy and snowy morning, but the situation got heated when a private security guard for the condo-project used the metal fence to to push against the picketers, threatened to mace them, then called the police, reporting a "riot." [ Read More ]
From the open publishing newswire:
Square dancing with a cause!!!
IWW Restaurant Workers Fund-raiser Square Dance (and Bake Sale!)
From the open publishing newswire:
We are a group of activist union trades workers who want to see more cross-trade solidarity here in Portland.
We are hoping to organize building trades workers from the Portland metro area to travel to the Labor Notes conference in Dearborn, MI on April 11-13, 2008. We are also planning three sessions at the conference on issues in the building trades: diversity in the trades, building cross-trade solidarity, and the building trades unions and immigrant workers. FUNDRAISER...
In Solidarity! ,p> http://www.labornotes.org/
From the open publishing newswire:
'NO VOLVERAN', the most up to date documentary about the Venezuelan Revolution, will be playing on Saturday, Oct. 20th @ Liberty Hall at 7pm (311 N Ivy).
While giving a brief overview of recent events, the film's focus is the worker organizations that have successfully responded to the challenges of globalization and outsourcing, as well as other attacks on their living standards from profit-hungry corporations. Venezuela remains the most politically progressive country in the world, not because of Chavez, but because of the action of the people pushing the revolution forward. There are thus many lessons that US workers and activists could learn from this on-going process. Come join us for a post-film discussion and learn how to become involved in Venezuelan solidarity work. - PCASC (Portland Central American Solidarity Committee)
From the open publishing newswire:
Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition and Portland Jobs With Justice
Say NO to Unfair Social Security "No Match" Rules NATIONAL DAY of ACTION This Friday, Oct.12. Rally at the Federal Building 1220 SW 3rd Av., Portland Friday, October 12, 11 am The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule punishing employers if they do not take action after receiving Social Security "no-match" letters is on trial. A temporary restraining order found that "if allowed to proceed, the mailing of no-match letters, accompanied by DHS's guidance letter, would result in irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers." On Friday at 10 am, a delegation representing labor and immigrant rights will visit the Social Security Administration Office (1538 SW Yamhill) to urge support for abolishing the DHS rule. The Rally at 11 am will demonstrate broad based community opposition to this flawed and discriminatory ruling. For more information, Contact: Marco Mejia, American Friends Service Committee, or Eliana Machuca, Portland Jobs with Justice,  http://www.LILC.org
From the open publishing newswire:
Five months before organized West Coast longshore workers are set to begin bargaining for a new contract with the employers association, union officers in one ILWU local are already starting to give away some key historic gains of waterfront workers
Seattle, Aug. 15 ?In a stunning betrayal of the militant rank-and-file ideals upon which the ILWU was founded, Local 19's officers duped a tiny minority of the local's membership present at last Thursday's stop-work meeting into a sell-out of unparalleled proportions. On August 9th, on behalf of the Port Labor Relations Committee, President Herald Ugles tabled a "Continuous Operation Document" between the local union and Stevedoring Services of America Terminals, which will eliminate unit breaks at Terminal 18 in the Port of Seattle. The motion to adopt the new work rules, in exchange for at most five more jobs on container operations?although the memorandum's language itself is so vague that even this slight gain in manning is not even for sure?was passed by a slim majority at the tiny and unrepresentative meeting. The underhanded tactics used by the Ugles/Manwell/Ventoza regime to ensure the membership meeting would be tiny and then to blackmail those members who did show up into passing the give-back measure have been the subject of lively debate around the Seattle waterfront in the days since the August 9th meeting.
From the open publishing newswire:
Anti immigrant folks in PDX this Wednesday! Counter Protest!!!
The city of Portland is finally getting on with plans to build a Day Labor Hiring site! Unfortunately reactionary right wing bigot groups are car pooling again up to Portland to condemn progressive actions and to spout their flimsy racist anti-immigrant rhetoric. Come out to support the Day Labor Center and to denounce the anti-immigrant racist scapegoating! Mayor Tom Potter and community members plan to create a hire site for day laborers. Read about their plans in the Portland Tribune of July 24. The hearing on the proposal will be in front of the Portland City Council, Wednesday, August 1, at 5:00 p.m. Call the city hall at (503) 823-4000 to be able to testify. Portland City Hall is located at 1221 SW 4th Ave (Jefferson and 4th) There are no illegal men, women or children. Poverty, lack of health care, lack of job security, lack of prioritizing funding for children, privatization, neo-liberal economic polices, white supremacy and patriarchy...all of these things perpetuated by U.S. capitalist and imperialist policies are the real crimes.~ SIN FRONTERAS PORTLAND Related: Portland's Newest Labor Movement?
From the open publishing newswire:
Alejandro is an immigrant from Oaxacaca, Mexico whose weathered, toughened hands betrayed his experience with construction jobs. In a recent interview, he said visiting the de facto day labor corners at SE 6th and Ankeny every morning has been his ongoing task for at least a month, every time landing him some type of work. "Oaxacaca is too much resting, not enough work," he explained. "In Portland there is good natural beauty and good jobs." His personal plan was to work here very hard for five years and then return home to his wife and two children, ages 7 and 4. While some area businesses and property owners want laborers like Alejandro who search daily for work on and around the SE 6th Avenue and Ankeny intersection relocated as soon as possible to a new as yet unbuilt day labor center, others in the area have not made that demand. In fact, the functioning business closest to the day labor issue, the only one along that stretch of SE 6th Avenue whose front door literally opens into the on-street labor market, has been doing quite well and has no immediate plans to change. previous: Portland's Newest Labor Movement? SE 6th & Ankeny Day Laborers May Relocate to New Center |
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