The Richmond Industrial Workers of the World endorsed a recent open letter addressed to President Sullivan and the University of Virginia Board of Visitors in  support of the UVA Living Wage Campaign.

The Richmond, Virginia Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World would like to extend our hand in solidarity to the UVA Living Wage Campaign and the working people at the University of Virginia.  We are all here today because we recognize that conditions can be changed, and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all it’s members, students, faculty, and workers, in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, participate in a concerted direct action with one another, thus making an injury to one an injury to all!  Together we will win dignity and respect for the working class!  Solidarity, and a state wide living wage for all!   

Dear President Sullivan and University of Virginia Board of Visitors: 

We, the undersigned, write to you today to express our commitment to economic justice and to call on you to act.  

We are individuals and organizations who have great concern for the well being of the people who live and work in our community, particularly in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.  We  share a commitment to economic justice and to equity in our  communities. Collectively, the organizations we represent have  thousands of members. 

As the area’s largest employer, the University of Virginia has a responsibility — indeed, an obligation — to improve our community.

We believe that the University has neglected this obligation and continues to do so. We call on you to take action by finally resolving the issue of living wages at the University in a fair, satisfying, and comprehensive way. We call on you to take this action now. 

As you surely recognize, the University affects the cost of living in Charlottesville in major ways, particularly with respect to housing costs. We believe that the University could offset the negative impacts of its increasing these costs for some of our community’s most vulnerable members by paying its employees enough to meet the cost of living.  

We remind you that in 2000 the University committed to a base pay increase for direct employees, and that we commended you for doing so.

That increase, however, did not include cost of living adjustments, nor did it include contracted employees. We had hoped that these issues would be addressed in a timely manner — certainly by now, a dozen years later. 

During that period, the Living Wage Campaign, currently configured as Workers And Students United, repeatedly presented its scrupulous research and stated its case with deep respect for administrative process. Concurrently, we in the community have stood with workers, students, and faculty. We have called on you to listen to their concerns, rallied, written letters, and requested meetings. In good faith, all of us have asked for commitments from you. The arguments have now been presented, the necessity and practicality of action proven. 

Overall, it must be said, we have not been satisfied with the University’s response. Frankly, at times we have even been disappointed by the dismissive tone of University communications. Such feelings, however, are fleeting compared with the enduring nature of the issues at stake.  And like those issues, the Living Wage Campaign will not go away — that is, until those issues are resolved in a fair, satisfying, and comprehensive manner.  

The time for straight answers and firm commitments is here. The University of Virginia needs to pay a living wage to all of its employees. We believe that the University has the potential to be a powerful force for positive change in our community. To further this end, we call for:  

• A living wage of no less than $13.00 per hour as the base pay for all direct employees;
• cost of living adjustments that are automatic and annual;
• all contracts with University service providers to include a living wage and cost of living adjustments.  

We stand with Workers And Students United and fully support their demands as presented on February 8, 2012 and will stand with them on February 17, 2012 and beyond if a commitment is not made to ensure a living wage, safe working conditions, and job security for all workers by that date.

As always, workers, students, faculty, and community are standing united in our call for a living wage. We are present, we are showing up, and we are taking the steps necessary to gain equity and economic justice in our community through the establishment of a living wage for all workers at the University of Virginia.  

Respectfully, 

Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP
Virginia Organizing
Legal Aid Justice Center
Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice
Public Housing Association of Residents
Campus Workers United
Wayside Center for Popular Education
Cville Workers Action Network
Socialist Party of Central Virginia
Richmond General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World
Joyful Dissent  
Kristin Szakos- Vice-Mayor City of Charlottesville 
David Swanson- founder WarIsACrime.org, author, blogger 
M. Rick Turner- president Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP 
Brenda Lambert- Community Activist Jim Shea- Community Activist

View the UVA Living Wage Campaigns point-by-point response to the Presidents response to the community letter [here].  

As many of you know there is an action in Sheffield UK today (protest and phone blast) for Pizza Hut Workers Union from the Steel City Wobs.  If you don’t know about it, learn more here.

What you may not know is that more pizza is sold on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb 5th 2012) than almost any other day in the US.  This Superbowl Sunday I plan to call my local Pizza Hut and ask to speak with a manager. I will let them know that I will NOT be ordering pizza from Pizza Hut because I stand in solidarity with workers in Sheffield and all over the world who deserve and demand to be treated with worth and dignity in their workplace! And as long as the management of the Sheffield branches ignore the concerns and value of their employees I will not be ordering Pizza Hut pizza at all and I will encourage my friends to do the same!

I know this is short notice but there is ALWAYS time for solidarity!

Join me in telling Pizza Hut that workers all over the world deserve to be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace. Spread this solidarity action far and wide! Tell your friends!

Call your local Pizza Hut and ask to speak with a manager OR click this link to submit online feedback.

Tell them:
-I will not be ordering pizza from Pizza Hut this Superbowl Sunday or any day until Pizza Hut recognizes and addresses the concerns and negotiations of fellow workers in Sheffield UK.

-I will encourage my friends and fellow workers to do the same!

-Pizza Hut Workers in Sheffield and all over the world deserve overtime pay for working bank/federal holidays.

-Pizza Hut Workers in Sheffield and all over the world deserve to fully reimbursed for mileage/fuel when using a personal vehicle for work purposes.

-Pizza Hut Workers in Sheffield and all over the world deserve a living wage and regular cost-of-living wage increases commiserate with inflation.

-Pizza Hut workers in Sheffield and all over the world are entitled to collective bargaining to improve their working conditions!

What is the Work People’s College? From 1921 until it’s closure in 1941, the Work People’s College trained hundreds of workers on tactics of the class struggle, nourishing a tradition of working class radicalism in Minnesota that lives on today.

In 2006, the Twin Cities IWW (aka Minneapolis & St. Paul IWW) began reviving the Work People’s College with a series of workshops, one-day educationals, and presentations.  

In the summer 2012, we are inviting IWW members from across North America to a six-day intensive training at Mesaba Co-op Park designed to give a new generation of leaders in the IWW all the tools they need to build union branches, and fight and win the next battles of the class struggle.

Check out the curriculum! [ HERE ] 

The Richmond IWW is fundraising to help subsidize the attendance of fellow workers from the Richmond General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World [www.richmondiww.org ] at the Work People’s College.  

Members of the Richmond Industrial Workers of the World are building a radical labor movement in Virginia.  Membership is growing, and we’ve been engaging working class people through various campaigns through out Virginia, and in each campaign we strive to increase class consciousness.  

We are engaging workers on the shop floor and challenging the boss class, organizing with the Richmond Transit Riders Union for transportation equality, housing justice with Residents of Public Housing in Richmond Against Mass Eviction (RePHRAME), and against gentrification and food deserts through Sustainable East End Development in Church Hill(SEED-CH).  

Those are a lot of different issues right?  Not all of them take place in the work place, however they all involve working people, and these working people are working together to solve problems in their community the same way one would do in the work place.  These are worker driven movements with a lot of inter-connectivity, and at the root of all these concerns lies the enemy, capitalism.  A system which inherently feeds off the exploitation of the working class.

If you would like to support the work we do towards the abolition of the wage system and with it the capitalist system, please help us continue in the education of fellow workers within our union and our community.  Please consider donating any amount to the Work People’s College Fund. Our goal is $500 by April 15th. 

How do I donate?  

We are a 501c5 Non-Profit Organization, so your donations will not be tax-deductable, sorry.  However you can still send a donation online through the “donate” button at the top right hand corner of [ www.richmondiww.org ] or by sending cash / check / money order to:

Richmond IWW c/o WPC
PO BOX 7055
Richmond, Virginia 23221

We are building a cookbook for our community. Please submit a recipe using the link below.

We want to develop a collection of recipes that fuel radical movements! We want only your most delicious, beloved, tried and true recipes because we want this anthology of deliciousness to fuel the fire!

Learn more about the Big Red Cookbook here.

Submit a recipe to the Big Red Cookbook.

Have you seen the ROC guide? The ROC (Restaurant Opportunities Center United) has put out a consumers’ report on employment practices and policies or several national and local chains and stores. Laid out is the good the bad and the ugly of wages, discrimination, benefits and more… Check it out!

“Consumer Guide on the Working Conditions of American Restaurants” is a 30-page guide to working conditions in popular American restaurants, published by Restaurant Opportunities Center United, a worker-rights advocacy group. It tells you whether the staff at the restaurant you’re thinking of eating at gives its staff sick-leave, whether they are paid beyond the $2.13 minimum wage for tipped workers, and whether the restaurant has a policy of limiting women, immigrants and people of color to lower-paid “back of the house” jobs.

Working with students from Tulane University and the University of California at Los Angeles, we asked restaurants about their practices with regard to:

a) wages for tipped and non-tipped workers;

b) paid sick leave and other benefits; and

c) opportunities for workers to move up the ladder.

We asked this information from all of our ‘high road’ restaurant partners in our eight current affiliate cities and from the top 150 highest revenue- grossing restaurants in America. Using the Restaurants & Institutions Top 400 list1, we identified the top 50 highest revenue-grossing restaurants in each of the industry’s three segments.

QUICK SERVE: fast food, delis, and any establishment without waiter service

CASUAL: full service restaurants with casual service

FINE DINING: higher-priced full-service restaurants2 Some restaurants did not provide us with all requested information.

Via boingboing >> Via pump handle

The National Labor Relations Board reached a decision (case 05-CA-062891) this week bringing justice to a fellow worker wrongfully fired from the Forest Hill  Crossroads Coffee & Ice Cream in Richmond, Virginia.

On August 18, 2011  (see ‘Unfair Labor Practice’  at the Forest Hill Crossroads Coffee & Ice Cream?) an ‘Unfair Labor Practice‘ was filed against the local establishment for a violation of an employee’s right to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid protection, as found in Sec. 7. [§ 157.] of the National Labor Relations Act.

The boards decision will require Crossroads Coffee & Ice Cream to pay the fellow worker a settlement for lost wages, which includes an agreement that they will not return to their former position with the employer.  Furthermore, Crossroads Coffee & Ice Cream must visibly post, for all current workers, and email all former workers, an apology and notice of an employee’s right to unionize.

 On Jun 8, 2011, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), was terminated after sending an email, a common form of communication, to management and staff.  The email addressed Crossroads owner Will Herring’s failure to close and lock up the establishment, forcing employees to wait for his arrival well after the end of their shift. This incident was one in a pattern of disrespectful behavior by Mr. Herring towards employees. While individual attempts were made by employees to address the problem, their failure led to the decision that collective action was the logical step towards resolving the issue.

Our intention was not to suggest a boycott of the establishment; rather, we wanted to join concerned workers and customers in sending a message to management and other Richmond employers that exploitation will not be tolerated. Members of the Industrial Workers of the World firmly believe that all employers, large and small, must respect the rights of its employees — including the right to an open and safe environment where employee concerns can be addressed without the fear of retaliation. If this simple demand can not be met, the working class will respond as necessary.

The Richmond Industrial Workers of the World accept the NLRB’s decision as a victory for our fellow worker and the working class as whole.  However, the Industrial Workers of the World would like to stress the importance of workers collectively organizing on the shop floor.  The everyday practice of solidarity and direct action as a means to prevent retaliation against our fellow workers should always be the first response, leaving government institutions such as the National Labor Relations Board, whenever possible, as an absolute last resort.

###

Contact the Richmond, Virginia General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World at (804)496-1568 

From Occupy Oakland:
[ http://www.occupyoakland.org/2011/10/general-strike-mass-day-of-action/?mid=5137 ]

Below is the proposal passed by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on Wednesday October 26, 2011 in reclaimed Oscar Grant Plaza. 1607 people voted. 1484 voted in favor of the resolution, 77 abstained and 46 voted against it, passing the proposal at 96.9%. The General Assembly operates on a modified consensus process that passes proposals with 90% in favor and with abstaining votes removed from the final count.

PROPOSAL:

We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%.

We propose a city wide general strike and we propose we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city.

All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them.

While we are calling for a general strike, we are also calling for much more. People who organize out of their neighborhoods, schools, community organizations, affinity groups, workplaces and families are encouraged to self organize in a way that allows them to participate in shutting down the city in whatever manner they are comfortable with and capable of.

The whole world is watching Oakland. Let’s show them what is possible.

Radio interview with Fellow Worker Reimann and other fellow occupiers on Berkley Radio about the proposal they presented to #occupyoakland general assembly calling for a General Strike!

October 22, 2011

Fellow Occupiers,

The Richmond General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World offer our support and solidarity to the occupation of Kanawha Plaza by #occupyrichmond, those determined to hold accountable our oppressors.

The actions across the United States in solidarity with the Wall Street Occupation call into question the very foundation in which the capitalist system is based, and its relentless desire to place profit over and above all else. When 1 percent of the ruling class holds the wealth created by the remaining 99 percent, it is clear that the watchwords found in our union’s preamble, “…the working class and the employing class have nothing in common…”, ring true more than ever.

The future is ours to command. What began as an issue based movement in New York City, has become a popular education opportunity for fellow workers to learn and implement direct democracy, introducing revolution into our daily lives. These mobilizations shall be the beginning of a new era for radical activity. By transferring power directly to the working class, the conditions in which we live will be determined, as it should have always been, by the workers, for the workers.

Like the #occupyeverywhere movement & its consensus driven General Assemblies, the Industrial Workers of the World shall continue, with your mutual support, in building a democratic and militant labor movement and mold a new society around the struggles of the old.

Therefore, in the spirit of the Wall Street Occupation our ‘one demand’ shall be the abolition of the wage system. This will not be freely surrendered by the ruling class, it must be taken by the mass organization of the working class at the point of production. Only then will we see a definite end to global austerity.

In Solidarity we struggle, and United we Educate, Organize, & Emancipate the masses!

For The Workers,
Richmond Industrial Workers of the World

[download][Solidarity Letter For #OccupyRichmond .PDF]

Greetings Fellow Workers,