Anarchoblogs

Visit / Join the Bay Area IWW at the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair
Start: Mar 13 2010 - 10:00am
End: Mar 14 2010 - 5:00pm

Disclaimer: The IWW is not an anarchist organization and makes no requirement that members be anarchists (or not), nor has the Bay Area IWW endorsed this event. The Bay Area IWW's participation in this event is for informational, educational, and fundraiisng purposes.

The Bay Area IWW will have its usual table at the annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair. This is an excellent place to catch up with your fellow IWW members, pay dues, join the union, plug in to various Bay Area IWW organizing efforts, or help the Bay Area IWW by purchasing awesome (usually union made) IWW merchandise.
For more information on the book fair, visit this page.
For more information on the Bay Area IWW, visit bayarea.iww.org.
Bay Area IWW on Facebook.

The Bookfair is open from 10 AM - 6 PM Saturday and 11 AM - 5 PM Sunday
Location(s)
SF County Fair Bldg / Golden Gate Park
9th and Lincoln San Francisco, CA
United States

See map: Google Maps
Related Links
Bay Area IWW

ALALALALALALAL
Save Jobs in America's Heartland:‏
Americans are angry, and for good reason.

Corporate greed and reckless Wall Street speculators created the worst economic crisis in a generation -- and big businesses like Whirlpool are continuing to put their profits ahead of the needs of workers and our communities.

Sign the petition to save 1,100 jobs in America's heartland.

http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/U1_xDw71HQLy/

Whirlpool Corporation took $19 million in economic recovery funds -- but now plans to eliminate 1,100 good jobs by shutting down a world-class plant in Evansville, Indiana.

JwJ is joining the AFL-CIO and IUE-CWA in mobilizing against this plant closure, and petitions will be delivered to Whirlpool this coming Friday, Feb 26 at a major march led by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Sign the petition today! And forward to your friends to sign!http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/U1_xDw71HQLy/

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If you are in the area near Evansville, IN and can come to the rally on Friday, Feb 26, please click here to let us know:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dE1jZDNHT3lZTEdVOVFFT09ubFBFcEE6MA

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Whirlpool is one of many examples of the jobs emergency faced in our country. Toyota, Hugo Boss and other big companies are threatening closures. Public services our communities need and the jobs to provide those services are being cut.

JwJ and our allies have called for mobilizations across the country during March to send a wake-up call to Congress demand bold action to save and create jobs. Check out the JwJ blog for more info:

Sign this petition either via email (please see directions below) or via the web at:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/jwj_whirlpool/wukd7sdfa7dixikj?

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/jwj_whirlpool/forward/wukd7sdfa7dixikj?

We encourage you to take action by March 1, 2010

Save Jobs in the Heartland-Whirlpool

ALALALALALALAL

We the undersigned call on Whirlpool Corp. to reverse its decision to close its Evansville, Indiana, plant, send work toMexico and eliminate 1,100 good jobs. With record profits and economic recovery funds that should be creating jobs in this country, Whirlpool should not turn its back on America.

)))))))))))))))))))))))
Disneyland Hotel Workers Fast For Safer Work:
by James Parks, Feb 9, 2010
Disneyland hotel workers began a water-only fast Tuesday to protest what they describe as life-threatening safety issues on the job. The more than 2,000 bellmen, dishwashers, room attendants, and cooks, members of Unite Here! Local 11, have been working without a contract since February 2008. They say new work requirements at three resort hotels and the villas at the Grand Californian Hotel have led to serious health problems among workers, including heart attack, stroke and musculoskeletal injuries.

Disney management also is demanding to make drastic cuts in workers’ health insurance.
During the fast, eight Disneyland hotel workers, two Los Angeles International Airport food service employees–who also are members of the local–and one adult son of a Disneyland hotel worker will refrain from eating and consume only water. Fast participants will remain, 24-hours a day, in front of the Grand Californian Hotel, sleeping in tents on the sidewalk and surrounded by a large shrine to injured workers.

Part of the shrine will pay tribute to Grand Californian housekeeper Rosario Casas, who is out of work on disability after suffering a heart attack on the job in October. Casas said her doctor said the heart attack was due to stress.

Narciso Guevara, a houseman at the Grand Californian Hotel, who plans to fast, said:
"We’re fighting for our health. We need better, safer conditions on the job, healthcare we can afford, and even more importantly, we need the company to respect us."

Maria Navarro, a housekeeper at the Grand Californian, who was injured at work just three days after Disney remodeled the hotel, said she is fasting to bring attention to the injuries she and several of her co-workers have suffered.

Since the changes were implemented at the Grand Californian, things have gotten worse. There are many people in my department who are hurt, but work through the pain because they are afraid of losing their jobs. So much pressure creates an unsafe place. We must make it stop.

Throughout the fast, community and religious leaders, unions, musicians, students and residents will call on Disney to address the health and safety issues at the hotels to by participating in daily actions, rallies and concerts.

The fasting workers are blogging about the action at:

http://www.disneyisunfaithful.org/work-shouldnt-hurt

and more information also is available here.

New Book Cornered Discusses Walmart, Destructive Monopolies:‏
Do you want the real story about who destroyed America's REAL economy?

We wanted to recommend a new book that just hit the shelves. In Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism And The Economics Of Destruction, New America Foundation's Barry C. Lynn takes an explosive look at how Wall Street financiers took advantage of the overthrow of our anti-monopoly laws to consolidate unprecedented powers.

They use these powers in ways that destroy jobs, degrade safety, crush independent businesses, forestall innovation, harm our environment, and threaten the political foundations of our democratic republic.

Not surprisingly, Walmart is a major player in this disturbing story. Lynn discusses Walmart as one of the quintessential examples of the destructive monopoly, arguing that Walmart needs to change its ways not just for the benefit of workers or communities, but for the entire economy.
Endorsements for Cornered:
Cornered has changed my view of what's gone wrong with American capitalism. Brilliantly argued and meticulously reported, it confronts with the age-old enemy of both progressives and libertarian conservatives -- the power of monopoly.

-Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed and Brightsided.
This book is essential to understanding how we got into our current mess.

-Michael Mandel, chief economist, Business Week.
This is a truly groundbreaking and eye-opening work that everyone interested in understanding how the world really operates should read.

-Ha Joon Chang, winner Leontief Prize in economics, author Bad Samaritans.
Best Wishes,
The Team,

At6 the same time, while I was immediately alerted to the unpleasant religious nature of 'World Vision' and I both searched down their previous scandalous history and decided not to donate to them I was unaware of the recent scandals of the Red Cross. to my mind their most recent scandal was in the early 1980s with the tainted blood scandal here in Canada. I guess I don't pay enough attention to events outside of my own country because there have been many other incidents since then.

The following post gives you a way to contribute to Haiti relief directly to ordinary Haitian working people without having to go through government controlled quangos. There is also an alternative pathway to contribute, via the IWW, at http://pledgie.com/campaigns/7950 . The following appeal is from our local IWW group here in Winnipeg. While I think that at least some of the aid organizations now working in Haiti are legit, and even those who are not do at least some good work I would urge my readers to contribute via the IWW recommended sites to assure that their contributions won't be sucked away by an aid bureaucracy. Here's the appeal.

IWW Fundraising for Haiti Earthquake Relief :

On behalf of union workers in Haiti, the Industrial Workers of the World is raising funds for relief in the wake of the tragic earthquake that struck January 12th, 2010.

On the decision of the International Solidarity Committee of the IWW, all funds raised through these donations will be distributed to Batay Ouvriye and the CTH (Confederation of Haitian Workers), workers organizations in Haiti that the IWW has had contact with.

Since the IWW is a 501c5 Labor Organization, these donations will not be tax deductible.

ISC Haiti support is for long-term labor assistance and Development. For short-term disaster relief, the ISC suggest a donation to Partners in Health (http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti)

Bay Area IWW Labor Protest - Recycling Workers Say "NO!" To Management's Proposed Cuts!

- Thursday, Jan 21, 2010
The IWW is engaged in contract discussions with the Ecology Center, which runs Curbside Recycling - the outfit that picks up recyclable trash in Berkeley. They have presented a series of demands for draconian cut backs.

This includes demanding that the workers pay 20% of the cost of their health insurance premiums. Their position is that everywhere else such cuts are being instituted and they have to do the same. Our position is that these cuts have to be stopped somewhere, or, to paraphrase Harry Truman, "the cuts stop here." At the same time, Buyback - the recycling yard that is on the same property as Curbside and also under IWW contract - has announced that they will be laying off a worker, a first there.

The IWW is holding a "safety meeting" rally to protest these twin events. This will be in their yard at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21. The yard is on 2nd Street, just north of Gillman in north Berkeley (near the freeway).

We are urging all union members and supporters, students and community members to participate.

Hotel Workers, Trumka Arrested at Sit-In for Fair Contract:
by Mike Hall, Jan 6, 2010
More than 100 union members, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and UNITEHERE! President John Wilhelm were arrested at a sit-in demanding justice and a fair contract for San Francisco hotel workers last night. The workers have been without a contract since August.

The sit-in in front of the Hilton San Francisco followed a march by nearly 1,000 members of UNITEHERE! Local 2, other union members and community and political supporters. Says Ingrid Carp, a cook for 29 years at the Hilton:

“We’re determined as ever to win a good contract. It’s wrong for corporations to position themselves to make billions with the coming economic recovery, and expect us to go backward.”

The action is part of a campaign to win fair contracts at several national hotel chains, including Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood. The profitable chains are using the recession as an excuse to demand health care benefit cuts in contract talks with more than 16,000 workers at dozens of hotels in San Francisco, Chicago and other cities.

At the rally before the march, Trumka told crowd:

“A job is a good job because working people fight to make it one. It doesn’t matter if the job is in a coal mine or a hotel, a classroom or a car wash.

“That’s why the struggle of hotel workers here in San Francisco and across our country is so important. If we don’t protect the wages and benefits and health care of hotel workers no job is safe, no worker is safe no family is safe.”

Tomorrow, Trumka will join workers for a rally and picket in front of the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Along with the demand for justice for hotel workers, Trumka is in California this week to spotlight the need for job creation. We’ll have more on that later today.

& the winner of the 2009 national Scrooge of the Year election is...‏:
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Elected 2009's National Scrooge of the Year

The Chamber's narrow, radical agenda advocating for anti-worker,profit-focused solutions to the broken health care, labor, and environmental systems garnered them the most votes for the national Jobs with Justice "Scrooge of the Year" award.

Thousands of votes were cast in the Jobs with Justice annual contest to determine which greedy, cold-hearted organization or person deserves the title "Scrooge of the Year." Voters chose the Chamber of Commerce as their winner this year as it's became increasingly clear that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has developed into a front group for a few narrow interests, not a membership association that represents the voice of mainstream American businesses. The Chamber has spent millions of dollars lobbying against legislation that would benefit workers and families like the Employee Free Choice Act, health insurance reform, paid sick days, and environmental regulations. Their extreme positions have led some companies and local chapters of the Chamber to disaffiliate from the national group.

This year's Scrooge contest pitted the Chamber of Commerce against Bank of America, nominated for their role in the sub-prime lending crisis and failure to extend credit to small businesses, Hyatt Hotels for their Scrooge-like firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston and other anti-worker actions, Publix Supermarkets for their resisting the call to be part of the solution to human rights violations in Florida fields by continuing to buy tomatoes from growers prosecuted for modern-day slavery, and student loan lenders Sallie Mae and Citibank for their expensive, variable rate loans for students. An impressive write-in campaign was also waged for United Airlines, for their slashing of workers' wages and pensions while continuing to award lavish bonuses to top executives.

"There was plenty of competition for the award this year," said Jobs with Justice Executive Director Sarita Gupta. ? But the similarities between Scrooge and the Chamber of Commerce were hard to beat. The ghost of years past would show that the policies they've promoted including deregulation and maximizing profits at the expense of workers are directly connected to the destruction of America's middle class."

Throughout the country, many people remain unemployed and more are working harder and longer than ever before to make ends meet, as highlighted in our recently released report examining the impact of the economic crisis on working people. Over the holidays and in the coming weeks, Jobs with Justice will begin a campaign to engage working people in the fight for the creation of a national jobs program.

"We fully expect the Chamber of Commerce to come out in opposition to our demand for good paying and family sustaining jobs," said Gupta, "but we will not cede this moment nor shy away from this fight. The ghost of future years will show that in this time of crisis, it was our efforts that helped put people back to work."

VVVVVVVVVVVV
It’s a Small World: Disney and the H1N1 Virus:
by Tula Connell, Dec 17, 2009
For workers at Disney in Anaheim, Calif., getting sick—even with the H1N1 (swine flu) virus—means an awful choice: Stay home and risk being disciplined or go to work and spreading the illness to co-workers and the public.

Millions of hospitality industry workers in this country have no paid sick leave—like the more than 1,500 workers at Disney—and worse, actually could lose their jobs for staying home to get well. UNITEHERE! Local 11, which represents the workers at Disney, created this video, “It’s a Small World: Disney and the H1N1 Virus,” that clearly shows how Disney’s policy endangers workers and the public.

If you have information about cases of H1N1 among visitors or workers at Disney hotels or parks, send an e-mail with the story to disneyh1n1@gmail.com. And check out our resources on H1N1 here.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Tell Hugo Boss: Don't close our factory:‏
You may have heard of my employer: Hugo Boss. It's a company that makes a lot of money selling clothing to some of the most successful and most recognizable people on the planet.

For 25 years, I've made men's suits in Cleveland, Ohio. I've worked hard and earned an honest wage. And now Hugo Boss wants to close the factory, put more than 300 people out of work, and move the Cleveland jobs overseas.

Don't let Hugo Boss close our factory.
Can you write Hugo Boss' Chief Operating Officer Dr. Andreas Stockert and tell him not to close our factory?
Write him at http://action.seiu.org/page/m/18a1e142/16db6c9/5a415600/388f365/1695761614/VEsH/

Hugo Boss spends big bucks on fancy ads and corporate sponsorships like the Davis Cup tennis tournament. Yet they complain that they are subsidizing our factory and they complain that our wages and benefits take too big a bite out of their profits.

My co-workers and I take pride in our work. We support ourselves and our families. And our jobs are important to the economic future of Cleveland and the state of Ohio.

We want to keep our good jobs here in Cleveland so we can put food on our tables and take care of our families.

Tell Hugo Boss Chief Operating Officer Dr. Andreas Stockert to keep Hugo Boss manufacturing jobs here in Cleveland.
Write him at http://action.seiu.org/page/m/18a1e142/16db6c9/5a415600/388f365/1695761614/VEsE/
Sincerely,
Tina Vasquez Hugo Boss factory worker and President of Workers United Local 168C