| Recession the Time to Organize
By Mykke Holcomb 
February 26, 2009
We started this year in the middle of the hardest economic times we've seen in decades. The real estate bubble popped, followed by the dissolution of longstanding financial institutions, the subsequent doling-out of taxpayer money to bail them out, and THEN the gouging of a weakened U.S. workforce. Tens of thousands of workers are now jobless, and thousands more lining up behind them every week. All industries are feeling the pinch, and the messenger industry is no exception.
In our precarious workforce, we now find ourselves on even shakier ground than before. With no net to fall back on, many are laying low to hold on to what they've got. Many workers who've been laid off have justified their bosses cutting them loose, naively assuming that their employers simply couldn't afford to keep paying them.
Most messengers know better. We know better than most how much capital we generate for our bosses, and how little we see of it. For example, as Citigroup sacked 30,000 of its workers, it would come as no surprise to us that just the year before, its CEO raked in $15,105,376.1 As Sotheby's so desperately sought to save $7 million to stay afloat by cutting a quarter of its U.S. workforce, we might have guessed that its CEO pocketed $10,341,357 in that same year.2 And of course we're not shocked to find that Richard K. McClelland, Director and Chairman of the Board of courier industry giant Dynamex, took home $1,222,513.3
There is no good reason these lay-offs are occurring. There is no good reason we should catch the brunt of a recession we did not create. We created the profits the bosses are protecting when they fire us. Or when they cut our hours. Or when they lower our commission.
And then of course we're expected to understand. The figures above should suffice to explain why usually our hardship is not necessary. But nonetheless, you may wonder what we can do about it. Working people have an inspiring history of struggle and victories, even in times of recession. In fact, in these tougher times it is all the more vital for us to be organized. To accept defeat now will only hurt us more later. In this historic time, we may find history has valuable lessons for us.
Our current recession has been compared to the onset of the Great Depression that began in the 1920s. The Great Depression was a time of increased union activity and worker militancy. When unemployment soared, rather than hunkering down and hoping for the best, workers stood their ground and fought back.
During this time, Teamsters in Minneapolis had organized an industrial union of truckers where there had been almost no union presence before. What union did exist was very small, divided by craft, and hindered by a dead-weight bureaucracy. This situation allowed the power to stay in the hands of the employers, and the prospect of making gains didn't look good. But the rank-and-file organized and fought for representation of all workers in the industry. In 1934, when the bosses refused to recognize the union, they went on strike, and many of the city's workers followed. For weeks the city was at a standstill, and what did function was at the strikers' call. They allied with farmers, the unemployed and the local public to strengthen support, and so that the bosses couldn't break the strike with scab labor. Decisions were made democratically, putting the rank-and-file in control of their own fight.
After a pitched battle that lasted weeks, the truckers won. The victory was a turning point, not only for the truckers, but for the city's workers in general. From then on labor had a strong voice where before it had nearly none.4
Around the same time in Detroit, IWW auto workers at the Hudson Motor Car Company were successfully using the sit-down strike to push their wages up. “‘Sit down and watch your pay go up’ was the message that rolled down the assembly line on strikers that had been fastened to pieces of work. The steady practice of the sit-down raised wages 100% (from $.75 an hour to $1.50) in the middle of a depression.”5
Today as then, as the economy recesses and bosses respond by threatening wages and jobs, many are taking the hint and standing their ground. The airline industry has been especially hot throughout the world, with more and more job actions fighting lay-offs and other grievances. IWW truckers are fighting back. Even Starbucks baristas are making gains!
Just this last December, UE workers at the Republic Doors and Windows factory in Chicago stood up and made history. The owners of the factory had been secretly moving operations out of state where they could employ cheaper, non-union workers. The factory's 260 workers were given three days' notice that it was closing. And the company's primary lender, Bank of America, had just gotten $25 billion in bail-out money but refused to lend any longer, thus denying the workers what they were legally owed. Not only would they be out of a job right before Christmas, but they would not get the vacation pay they had earned, and would not receive the severance they were due.
So the workers stood together and sat down, in the first factory occupation in the US since the 1930s. They demanded their vacation pay and their severance, and that the bank fork over the money they owed. “You got bailed out, we got sold out” was the cry of the strikers as they took on a behemoth, and it resonated far and wide. Support poured in from all over the world. It electrified labor and inspired millions. Even the mainstream press could not ignore it, and politicians lined up for their photo-ops and speeches of support. After only six days, they won their demands.
Messengers are in a much stronger position to win than many of us think. We know that without us, the cities shut down. And we've seen how when folks in other industries got together and flexed their collective muscles, even in times of cutbacks and job scarcity, they've gotten results. Even our bosses, who compete with each other, are organized.6 They've organized throughout the industry--even internationally--to protect their interests. Why haven't we?
Good thing for us there's the IWW and the Messengers Union, growing and advancing in cities throughout North America. They've got our backs, now the rest is up to us. If we don't do something now, it may soon be too late. Stand up for yourself and your fellow messengers. Isn't it time you joined the One Big Couriers Union?
We organize all workers engaged in short-range transport, regardless of immigration status. Bikers, walkers, drivers, office workers, messenger centers. Even if you don't work in this industry, there's a place for you in the IWW. We're a democratic, member-based union where the members call the shots. Want to do something but stay under the radar of the boss? You can visit the website, or call us and ask how to get involved.
1,2,3 http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/
4 Subterranean Fire by Sharon Smith. Haymarket Books 2006
5 IWW website: http://www.iww.org/organize/strategy/strikes.shtml#sitdown
6 Employers in New York State are organized through the New York State Messenger Courier Association (NYSMCA), and throughout the Americas: Messenger Courier Association of the Americas (MCAA).
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Couriers Unveil New Assessment Stamp
By Wobbly City 
February 25, 2009
Bike messengers and other couriers around the US have been organizing with the IWW. For the past few years, courier organizing has been happening in Chicago and LA, and more recently there is activity in NYC.
To support these organizing efforts, the IWW is selling $3 and $10 assessment stamps. Proceeds go to Industrial Union 540 - Municipal Transportation Workers.
They look lovely on any red card.
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Protesters Charge Starbucks with Union-Busting
By Brian Ries of NBC 
Photo by Angela Cranford
February 17, 2009
From NBC New York:
Protesters call for "reinstatement of all fired union baristas"
With 10 or 15 current and former Starbucks colleagues by her side, former barista Sharon Bell stood dressed in a black winter parka holding a sign with the names of six recently fired baristas, including herself, and the words, "Rehire laid off baristas now!!!"
Last week, Bell was fired by Starbucks for what her managers said were issues relating to her tardiness and overall attendance, a charge she and her fellow union members adamantly deny.
Bell said the real reason for her "expresso termination" is recent activity with the Starbucks Workers Union. In a document given out at the protest, the union claims the popular coffee company "has illegally fired three baristas for organizing with the Starbucks Workers Union. Sheanel Simon, Sharon Bell and Neal Linder are excellent baristas and highly respected union members." The Union goes on to note that Simon has since been reinstated, while Bell and Linder remain unemployed.
Included with the documents are demands that range from the practical to the lofty, with calls for "severance packages for all laid off baristas," the restoration of benefit programs like personal days, vacation hours, and 401ks, "the reinstatement of all fired union baristas," and "an end to fear-based management and illegal union-busting."
Just last December, a judge found Starbucks guilty of union-busting.
Starbucks officials have yet to respond to a request for comment, and the protesting group plans to stay "until their message is heard." With enough expressos, that could be all week.
Copyright NBC Local Media
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A Letter to Howard Schultz
By Starbucks Workers Union 
February 16, 2009
Dear Howard Schultz,
We, the dedicated baristas of the I.W.W. Starbucks Workers Union, NYC Branch, are having some serious concerns with how Starbucks has chosen to behave as of late. We are disgusted that in a time of economic crisis, when we are feeling the crunch the most, that Starbucks sees us all as disposable. Sudden layoffs of seasoned baristas located in stores that are not set to be closing, where they have been told that this day is their last with the company and not offered so much as the severance package that was promised to them through Starbucks press releases is disturbing. Is this really how you treat your "partners"?
We realize that the company's profits are down but we also know that we, as already under-paid workers, should not bear the brunt of the company's short comings. Without the everyday hard work of thousands of baristas, there is no Starbucks. Any necessary financial cuts should come from above and not out of our pockets. The slashing of labor hours has financially destroyed many baristas, shift supervisors, bussers, and bathroom attendants. How is one supposed to live on being scheduled for a mere four hours a week of work in New York City while being required to be available 80+ hours of work per a week? "Optimal Scheduling" is a disaster. It forces us to sacrifice everything for the company with next to no return. We are forced into having open availabilities only to be barely on the schedule. Many baristas have lost their health care coverage due to these cuts and then add to that the gutting of our 401K program, lowering the partner discount on stock options, cutting our vacation hours in half and entirely eliminating our personal days ... this is no way to run a business.
The layoffs and many other concerns have brought us to this day, this action, and this letter of our demands.
WE DEMAND:
* Severance packages for all laid off baristas
* Restoring all gutted benefit programs; personal days, vacation hours, 401K, SIP
* The reinstatement of all fired union baristas; Joe Agins, Jr., Sharon Bell, Cole Dorsey, Daniel Gross, Neal Linder and Isis Saenz
* Immediate and full disclosure of all closing store locations
* An end to fear-based management and illegal union-busting (spying, interrogation, intimidation and threats)
* Two weeks back wages for Union Sq. East barista Anna Hurst from when she was wrongfully removed from the schedule entirely in retaliation for leaving work ill
We hope that you decide to do the right thing
I.W.W. Starbucks Workers Union, NYC
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Celebrating Six Months of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union in the Twin Cities
By Erik Forman & Aaron Kocher 
February 12, 2009
From Southside Pride
On a freezing but bright Minnesota morning, on Jan. 8, baristas gathered on the sidewalk in front of the Franklin and Nicollet Starbucks in Minneapolis. Mittens clutched the splintery handles of picket signs. The baristas started to chant, “Starbucks Union, here to stay; these lattes are union made!”
Almost six months prior, in the first public action of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union in Minnesota, baristas at the Mall of America Starbucks had stopped work to protest the closure of 600 stores. A week earlier, barista Erik Forman had been fired for discussing unionization with his peers. Despite the firing, the idea stuck, and baristas at the Franklin and Nicollet Starbucks soon joined their fellow workers at the Mall of America as public union members.
After six months the growth of the union was evident as workers from several Minneapolis locations came together to give Starbucks a “Big Review.” Standing almost 6 feet tall, the “Review” was indeed “Big.” Aside from the tongue-in-cheek wordplay, the action had special meaning for Starbucks workers.
One union barista ex-plained, “Normally, baristas are nervous about getting their reviews. Management always finds some way to devalue our hard work. The most you get for a raise is 30 cents. Most people aren’t so lucky, getting 20 cents or less. It doesn’t nearly keep up with the cost of living, but there’s not much you can docommunication is one way. We started a union in order to have a voice, and this action shows us talking back.”
Over the last two weeks, the Twin Cities Starbucks Workers Union gathered input from baristas locally and across the U.S. through an online survey, scoring the company on a scale of 1-3 (the same as Starbucks’ own review system). According to the union’s review, Starbucks scored a dismal 0.6, with baristas alleging illegal misconduct in many categories, including discriminatory hiring practices, contracting with sub-minimum wage plantations in the Third World and disrespecting labor law.
Two days earlier the IWW Starbucks Workers Union filed 11 charges encompassing 25 violations of federal labor law with the National Labor Relations Board. Union baristas alleged a pattern of abuses, ranging from interrogation of workers for suspected union sympathies, to instru-cting supervisors to spy on the union, and disciplining workers for participating in the union. The charges are similar to allegations brought against Starbucks by IWW baristas in New York City, where a federal ruling against Starbucks concluded a two-year legal battle between the coffee giant and union baristas.
Workers at the Franklin and Nicollet Starbucks have borne the brunt of much of management’s retaliation. Since they declared their union membership in protest of unsafe working conditions on Nov. 14, 2008, management fired back with a campaign to keep workers, particularly those in the union, compliant and fearful.
Just a day after the union’s press conference, the manager of the Franklin and Nicollet store was replaced by a known anti-union manager from a downtown Minneapolis store. Many of the workers feel the transfer was in response to union activity.
Also, just days after the press conference, one worker was unfairly written up for being late to a meeting, even though she arrived around the same time as nearly everyone else, and nobody (including her) was recorded as being late for payroll. Luckily, that worker saw through management’s attempts to create an atmosphere of fear in the store and immediately decided to join the union to fight back.
About a week and a half after the press conference, Starbucks management held a captive audience meeting with workers to discuss safety and security at the store. They scheduled nearly an hour of time to explain why Starbucks absolutely will not hire a security guard, even going so far as to bring six police officers to the meeting to take management’s side. The workers were originally scheduled only five minutes for questions and answers but were able to get in much more, they say, through their persistence.
During all this time, for about two weeks after the press conference, district manager Caroline Kaker greatly increased her number of visits to the Franklin and Nicollet location. While management again will not admit that this move was directly in response to the press conference and the union, the pattern is one that many workers believe indicated an attempt to intimidate workers and increase surveillance on the store due to its new union presence.
Despite these attempts by management to weaken the union, the union says it is still going strong at Franklin and Nicollet. They have a strong membership core, and are continuing to take action to improve everyday working conditions at the store.
To show their determination to increase safety in their store, and the area in general, they have been active in the community by attending Whittier and Stevens Square Community Organization meetings regularly.
“We just hope being involved will make us safer in the long run, since Starbucks won’t use its resources for a more effective immediate solution,” explains union member Aaron Kocher. “We go to these meetings because we care about our community. Starbucks hasn’t actually sent any representatives, though it proposed the idea.”
As the six-month anniversary of the union nears, the IWW Starbucks Workers Union plans to continue reaching out to workers at Starbucks locations across Minneapolis. Organizers app-arently plan to make good on the promise of their chant: “Starbucks Union, here to stay; these lattes are union made!”
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