Tacoma SDS

The next General Membership Meeting of the Industrial Workers of the World will be on Saturday, September 6 at 7:00 PM at Tully's Coffee (S. 9th and Broadway, downtown Tacoma).

Preamble to the IWW constitution:

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Twin Cities, MN- Baristas at the Mall of America Starbucks walked off the café floor today and delivered a demand letter to management calling for just treatment of all employees affected by Starbucks’ closure of stores nationwide. The surprise job action comes in the wake of the coffee giant’s announcement that it will close 600 stores, including 27 in Minnesota.

The Next General Membership Meeting of the Tacoma Industrial Workers of the World will be on Saturday July 19 at 7 PM at Tully's Coffee in downtown Tacoma. Tully's address is: 764 Broadway, in downtown Tacoma.

Preamble to the constitution of the IWW:

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Grand Rapids, MI (06/06/2008)- Starbucks terminated a barista active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union today as part of its ongoing effort to combat a growing movement of employees pushing for a living wage and secure work hours. The barista, Cole Dorsey, was fired after two years of service while he was coordinating a union recruitment drive at Starbucks stores in Grand Rapids. Starbucks' pretext for the illegal anti-union firing was that Dorsey was guilty of some months-old attendance infractions.

The Grand Rapids Starbucks Union (IWW) and the Spanish CNT have announced a Global Day of Action to protest Starbucks union busting in Sevilla, Spain and Grand Rapids, Michigan. On April 24th, 2008 Monica, a member of the CNT, was fired from a Starbucks in Sevilla for her union activity. In Grand Rapids the National Labor Relations Board continues to investigate Starbucks for Unfair Labor Practices. The two groups are calling on all social organizations, unions, and invdividuals to organize and participate in this Day of Action. Stand up for worker's rights and against globalization!

Flaum Appetizing, a kosher food distributor, terminated 20 IWW members last week. The IWW had a strong presence at Flaum, with about two-thirds of the warehouse being union members. Workers had been struggling for respect from the boss for almost a year before the firings occurred.

The chain of events began last Thursday when the boss fired a woman known for being a strong union member. When her fellow workers decided to confront the boss about her termination, they were all fired on the spot.

Utah Phillips, a seminal figure in American folk music who performed extensively and tirelessly for audiences on two continents for 38 years, died Friday of congestive heart failure in Nevada City, California a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains where he lived for the last 21 years with his wife, Joanna Robinson, a freelance editor.