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At New York, Immigrant drivers demanding dignity and end the abuses of their new employer

The 7 mars 2012, drivers Tom Cat Bakery, Members of the Campaign Focus on the Food Chain, delivered a statement Dignity representatives of the company.

[http youtube://www.youtube.com/watch?v = EEeNiHLqoNs&w=560&h=315]

See more photos of the event on
la page Facebook de la campagne Focus on the Food Chain

Like their Facebook group in here!

Written by Daniel Gross the 9 mars 2012
Published on 11 march on iww.org
Translated by “travailleurindustriel”

Members of Focus on the Food Chain working for the largest industrial bakery in New York City launched a campaign on Wednesday 7 mars. It aims to achieve respect for workers since the new owners of the plant aggressively trying to degrade working conditions. The drivers of the business Tom Cat Bakery, based in the borough of Queens, are forced to work under very abusive and suffer the threat of having their health insurance degrade significantly Directors. Tom Cat Bakery artisan bread is an important distributor for many restaurants and specialty food retailers in the New York metropolitan area.

Workers Tom Cat Bakery, mostly Latin American immigrants, gathered in Long Island City with other workers and students from support. These are all part and all groups that agree with the claims of workers of Tom Cat Bakery. These groups include the Working Committee “justice for immigrant workers” d’Occupy Wall Street, Alliance food chain workers-workers (Food Chain Workers Alliance), the United Daily Woodside (Journeymen States of Woodside), the Workers-Workers Center for Laundries (Laundry Workers Center), the employment opportunities Center in NewYork Restorations (the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York) Workers and Domestic Workers United, (Domestic Workers United).

Workers and their supporters marched together to the factory where several drivers have read and handed Dignity Declaration. This highlights the expectations that workers face administration in regard to the respectful treatment of employee-s, an affordable family health insurance and fair treatment for all workers-workers. The action was a departure incredibly inspiring for walking Tom Cat Bakery workers-workers towards justice and represents the latest effort of a growing movement to transform food processing plants and distribution warehouses.

At New York, the food processing industry and distribution provided a livelihood to more than 35 000 Workers and their families. This sector nevertheless remains increasingly characterized by a business model which is based on precarious work and abusive treatment with regard to the strength of working predominantly immigrant. Focus on the Food Chain is a campaign that works on the basis of individual membership of workers in this sector. Those latter are organized in order to promote good jobs and a sustainable local food system. The campaign is a joint project of fire Workers and IWW in the city of New York.

Tom Cat Drivers need your support in their struggle to defend their dignity, challenge the strategies of industry by private actions, and creating a food system based on human rights rather than exploitation. Please stay on the lookout for actions that will be needed in the future. To get involved and help, send email to Joseph Sanchez jsanchez [at] brandworkers.org.

Thank you to you all for what you do that can go in the direction of human rights and human dignity.

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CKUT Labor Radio | Historian Peter Cole on IWW’s black leader Ben Fletcher, Local 8 and South Africa


Listen to CKUT Labor RadI 12 minutes interview with Peter Cole, or listen to the whole one hour show.

February was Black History Month. For that reason, members of the Montreal IWW helped CKUT Radio work‘s host David Tacium to talk with history professor at Western Illinois University, Mr Peter Cole. Mr Cole is the author of Ben Fletcher: The Life and Writings of a Black Wobbly” about the IWW’s most famous black leader Ben Fletcher. Mr Cole also wrote a book called Wobblies on the Waterfront Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia about the IWW branch Ben Fletcher was involved with : the Longshoremen Union “Local 8” in Philadelphia in 1913.

During the interview, they also talk about the influence of the IWW in organizing black people in South African, a subject Mr Cole is studying now with the aim of writing a next book.

Peter Cole’s two books are available at the Montreal anarchist library Jezebel on St-Laurent Street. The chapter 4 of Wobblies on the Waterfront, “War on the waterfront”, is also online here.

Read short presentation of Local8 and Ben Fletcher…

Read more

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Montreal Stock Echange Tower Blocked by Hundreds / Blocking the Tower of the Montreal Exchange [Eng-Fr]

Police peppersprayed about 45 people. © PC/Ryan Remiorz

Here’s a great audio interview that explains it all very quickly.
Thanks to Montréal COOP Media and Alexia Conradi from the Quebec Women’s Federation.
Hundreds of people participated in a major action in Montreal [on Thursday February the 16th], shutting down the Montreal Stock Exchange [Tower], the heart of the city’s financial district, for several hours. The blockade was organized by the Coalition opposée à la tarification et à la privatisation des services publics. Alexa Conradi is the head of the Quebec Women’s Federation and one of the spokeswomen for today’s action. In this clip she speaks about the organization and the reasons behind this action, as well as the ongoing campaignsincluding the province-wide student strike against tuition fee increasesthat are certain to make it an eventful spring in Quebec.

En français cette fois, Concordia University TV fait un bon tour d’horizon de l’évènement en 7 minutes.
In French, this CUTVvideo takes a good big picture of the event.
[http youtube://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjJo-yavDKQ&w=560&h=315]

Read more

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McGill Students Occupy Office Against Administration’s Autocracy

The occupiers explain the circumstances for this action in a communiqué:

In the summer of 2010, Dr. Morton Mendelson (Deputy Provost, Student Life & Learning who is mandated to represent the interests of students to the administration) shut down the beloved Architecture Cafe, taking away our biggest student-run cafe and giving Aramark – a company that provides food to most US prisons and the US military – a monopoly on food services on campus. Last year, he and the administration forced all clubs and services to remove “McGill” from their name,as if we, the students of this university, have no right to associate with the brand they wish to put forward. Then, this winter, Mendelson announced the administration would ignore and seek to invalidate the overwhelmingly clear results of the CKUT and QPIRG fall referendum question.

[…]

There is no doubt in our mind that this administration – and Dr. Mendelson in particular – need to understand the consequences of their actions towards students. We are here to hold them accountable. We have undertaken this action in full knowledge of its potential consequences, yet maintain that, given the current context of administrative disregard for student autonomy by the administration and the radical imbalance of power between students and administrators, this action is justified.”

Follow the occupiers’ updates on Twitter

Read the full “COMMUNICATED: Dear McGill”

Read Montreal Media Coop‘s article

[http youtube://www.youtube.com/watch?v = WCuSTYFn shu&w=560&h=315]
VIDEO: Getting food to the students at McGill who are “occupying” the 6th floor of the McGill Administration building
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London IWW Cleaners: Workplace Occupation Stoped by Police Threats

[http youtube://www.youtube.com/watch?v = vtjsJSBeZ7c&w=560&h=315]

Cleaners at the Guildhall have been holding a sit in and stopping work since the 22nd of December because of mistreatment and intimidation. Early this morning [4th of January] management called the police, who came and intimidated and threatened the cleaners. The cleaners protested that they were holding a completely peaceful sit-in. They finally left due to police threats to drag them out physically.
Read more

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England: 24h General strike 30 November

En Angleterre, more than 2,6 millions de travailleurs et travailleuse seront en grève le 30 novembre prochain.

Une mobilisation sans précédant… … pour contrer une attaque sans précédant
Avec son projet drastique de réforme des fonds de retraites des employé-e-s du système publique, le gouvernement a poussé les paramédics, les auxiliaires d’enseignement, les travailleuses de comptoirs alimentaires et les travailleurs sociaux à passer à l’action. Les deux tiers des écoles (20,000) seront fermées et des perturbations sont aussi prévues dans les ports, les aéroports et les hôpitaux. On dit déjà que ce sera la plus grandes grève que l’Angleterre aura connue depuis des lustres.

Pour un professeur, la réforme mise de l’avant par le gouvernement amènerait les changements suivants:

• La contribution mensuelles augmenterait de 50%, en passant de 6.4% at 9.6% d’ici 2014.

• Les enseignants gagnant plus de £40,000 verraient leur contribution augmenter de 64%.

• La pension de retraite d’un enseignant serait calculée à partir de la moyenne des revenues au cours de sa carrière plutôt qu’à partir du salaire à la fin de sa carrière.

• Les enseignants ne pourront plus prendre leur retraite à 60 years, mais devront attendre de le faire à l’âge déterminé par l’état soit 65 ans prochainement, 66 ans en 2020 et par la suite, 68 years.

La tension monte
Du côté des douanes, un ministre a annoncé que l’armée prendra la tâche de vérifier les passeports à la place des travailleurs habituels tout en annonçant que l’offre de réforme des fonds de retraites actuel sera retirée si les syndicats ne l’acceptent pas d’ici la fin de l’année. For his part, la secrétaire générale du National Union of Teachers, a dit que les syndiqué-e-s prévoient des grèves régionales si jamais le gouvernement ne flanchait pas après la manifestation de jeudi.

L’extrême-droite menace les grévistes et le mouvement Occupy
Il est a noter qu’une scission du groupe d’extrême-droite English Defence League (EDL), appelée The Infidels, a déclaré vouloir s’en prendre physiquement aux grévistes. Les dirigeants syndicaux de Unite, disent se préoccuper sérieusement de ces menaces puisqu’un de leur quartier général a été la cible d’une attaque le 10 November. Des évènements récents laissent comprendre que cette scission d’EDL souhaite s’en prendre plus largement aux groupes de gauche, tandis que EDL ciblait uniquement les musulmans. Des membres de ce groupe seraient responsables d’attaques contre des manifestants anti-racistes et des manifestants contre les mesures d’austérité ainsi qu’une tentative d’assaut contre le campement Occupy StPaul et de l’assaut du campement d’Occupy Newcastle où un Indigné a été hospitalisé et d’autres blessés.

The industrial worker of November is online | November IW journal is online Issue #1740

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The states-uniens lava-cars, sweatshops in the corner.

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTCiYI84Snw&feature=player_embedded%3C]

Les lave-autos états-uniens sont de vrais ateliers de misère à chaque coin de rue.

Majoritairement immigrant-e-s latinos, les ouvriers-ouvrières sont victimes d’abus sexuels, de violence physique et verbales, sont dangereusement exposé-e-s à des produits chimiques toxiques. Ils sont aussi parfois payés seulement le pourboire qu’ils et elles reçoivent des clients, ce qui revient à moins que le salaire minimum.

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Migrant Workers’ Conditions in Middle East is Modern Slavery – and the answer from employing class to radicalised Arab working class of the ’60s

The idea that Dubai is an oasis of freedom on the Arabian peninsular is one of the great lies of our time. Yes, it has Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts and the Gucci styles, but beneath these accoutrements, there is a dictatorship built by slaves.

If you go there with your eyes open – as I did earlier this year – the truth is hidden in plain view. The tour books and the bragging Emiratis will tell you the city was built by Sheikh Mohammed, the country’s hereditary ruler. It is untrue.

The people who really built the city can be seen in long chain-gangs by the side of the road, or toiling all day at the top of the tallest buildings in the world, in heat that Westerners are told not to stay in for more than 10 minutes. They were conned into coming, and trapped into staying.

In their home country – Bangladesh or the Philippines or India – these workers are told they can earn a fortune in Dubai if they pay a large upfront fee. When they arrive, their passports are taken from them, and they are told their wages are a tenth of the rate they were promised. Read more