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.

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.

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.

There will be a Northwest Industrial Workers of the WorldmMeet-up on May 25th in Olympia, Washington at Traditions Cafe off of 5th St. It will begin at 1:00 PM and go on until 5:00 PM. It'll be full of singing, strategy sessions, and general good times. For more information on it email me at Solus_rising@riseup.net or call 630-930-2163.

A group of Latino workers, at the Twin Cities-based D’Amico’s & Sons restaurant chain have organized and taken direct action to resist being fired for receiving “No-Match” letters from the Social Security Administration. The workers ­ many who have well over a decade of service for the company ­ have been joined by family members, some co-workers, the Workers Interfaith Network (WIN), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Twin Cities General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) and others.

Tacoma Wobblyfest 2008: A Poor and Working People's Gathering

A Public Gathering of Education and Music
ALL POOR AND WORKING PEOPLE ARE WELCOMED!

May 24, 2008

9 AM to 5 PM at: Evergreen State College-Tacoma Campus
1210 6th Ave, Tacoma, WA. The Commons Room.

6 PM to 9 PM at: Pitchpipe Infoshop
621 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Tacoma, WA

Wobblyfest Schedule:

WORKSHOPS: 9 AM to 12 Noon at Evergreen

1. Immigrant Workers:
2. Working Class Environmentalism