Originaly Published in the Industrial Worker Sept. 2011 issue:

Linking and coordinating their organizing across related industries, members of the IWW active in food, distribution and retail (Industrial Unions 460, 640 and 660) will be holding an Industrial Organizing Network founding convention in Portland, Ore., in late October.

Supported by the IWW’s Organizing Department, the weekend meeting will bring together organizers from but not limited to Jimmy John’s, Starbucks, and New York City’s warehouse and retail and grocery campaigns.

“We are laying the foundation for an unprecedented wave of organizing in the new mass industries, food service and retail,” says Starbucks organizer Erik Foreman who is helping to organize the convention.

In an effort to ramp up labor campaigns within these industries in Virginia, the Richmond branch of the Industrial Workers of the World will send two members to Portland for the convention.

For more information on the convention visit [ www.portlandiww.org/food-chain-workers-organizing-project/founding-convention ]