| Protesters urge 'justice'
By Mark Arsenault and Lynn Arditi 
August 28, 2007
NORTH PROVIDENCE — Clenched fists raised, close to 200 protesters yesterday denounced the North Providence police and demanded "justice" for a protester seriously injured two weeks ago while demonstrating at an Asian restaurant on Mineral Spring Avenue.
"There's no labor picket line that should be attacked," shouted the star speaker, Billy Randel, an Industrial Workers of the World organizer from New York City. To the police officers keeping watch on the protest, Randel yelled: "Maybe you should get a little more training. Maybe you should join the IWW."
Local IWW members organized yesterday's protest to speak out against the police response to the protest two weeks ago, during which 22-year-old Alexandra Svoboda suffered a serious knee injury when arrested by the North Providence police. She had been part of a protest march down Mineral Spring Avenue toward a planned demonstration at Jacky's Galaxie restaurant. The IWW says Jacky's was targeted because the restaurant had done business with a New York vendor that is accused of abusing workers with low wages and long hours.
There's no doubt Svoboda, a Nebraska native and student at the University of Rhode Island who lives in Providence, suffered a serious injury — her parents say she has already undergone four surgeries.
How she was hurt is in dispute.
The protesters claim Svoboda is the victim of police brutality, and was jumped by the police merely because she was in the front of the march. Local IWW organizer Mark Bray, 29, of Providence, said yesterday that Svoboda was hurt when two police officers "grabbed her, one on either side" and one officer performed a "judo-like move" in which he "used his leg, swung it around her leg, and hurled her forward" onto the ground.
"It was a trip move similar to what you see, I imagine, in certain martial-arts training or police training," Bray said, in an interview after the protest. "Her knee had no place to go behind her leg." The officer then "kneeled down to cuff her and even put weight on her leg," Bray said, adding, "we have photos," which have not yet been released publicly.
The police claim Svoboda pushed an officer, swung a set of drumsticks at other officers when they tried to arrest her, then was hurt when demonstrators tried to pull her away from the police and the officers took her "down to the ground" out of concern for their own safety. Deputy Police Chief Paul Marino and Mayor Charles Lombardi have said they don't believe officers did anything wrong.
The office of Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch is conducting a review into how Svoboda was hurt.
Yesterday's demonstration, on a humid afternoon under occasional light sprinkles in the parking lot of North Providence High School, was noisy but orderly.
Randel, a 55-year-old truck driver and union representative from Queens, made the trip from New York with several other IWW organizers. He has light eyes and shaggy gray sideburns that nearly touch at the tip of his chin. He wore pressed jeans, work gloves and a blue bandana over his head.
"Raise the fist of the worker in the air and let Alex know that she is going to get justice," Randel shouted. ". . . The IWW will not back down. Justice will be won."
Four North Providence police officers and at least two state troopers watched the protest from the perimeter.
Jason Tompkins, 28, of Providence, who said he was with Svoboda at the time she was injured, read from a statement by Svoboda's parents, whom he said were participating in a similar protest yesterday in their hometown in Nebraska, which drew 150 people to the state capitol building in Lincoln.
The letter states that their daughter had undergone four trips to the operating room in seven days and still has not begun orthopedic reconstruction of her knee ligaments. "We've yet to hear of any athlete whose knee ligaments were torn with such violent force," he said, reading from the statement, "as to sever the main artery to the lower leg and necessitate a bypass operation to save the leg."
Svoboda's parents said that their daughter was protesting "a New York City restaurant supplier that paid workers only $4.95 per hour with no overtime." Her protest was not surprising, her parents wrote, because their daughter "has always had a big heart and followed her convictions with actions."
Svoboda was home from the hospital yesterday, recovering. She did not attend the protest.
The protesters yesterday included representatives from Rhode Island Jobs for Justice, the coalition of which the IWW is a member; DARE; Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Students for a Democratic Society, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association and AS220.
"We're all supporting Alex," said Donna Schmader, 56, of Warwick, who joined the protest with other members of the Westminster Unitarian Universalist Church in East Greenwich. "We don't believe this can happen accidentally."
Among the protesters was Eliezer Maca, an unemployed warehouse worker from New York who said he lost his job after he began organizing coworkers for the IWW. Maca, 29, a native of Mexico, said through an interpreter that he now supports his wife and four children on $400 a week.
One of the speakers, Senia Barragan, likened Svoboda to a martyr, who was targeted because she was "in the front."
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Wobblies March on Jackie's Galaxie; Solidarity Needed in Providence
By FW Stephanie Basile 
Police brutality at wobbly march - photo by Jonathan McIntosh
August 11, 2007
A group of about 40 people took part in a march Saturday in North Providence, RI. The march was organized by the Providence IWW in support of the HWH warehouse workers. HWH Trading Corp. (now called Dragonland) is a Queens warehouse known for its sweatshop conditions and flagrant disregard for the law. Jacky’s Galaxie, a restaurant chain located in Providence and surrounding areas, continues to do business with HWH/Dragonland, even after being told about the company’s illegal practices.
ONE INJURY, TWO ARRESTS
The march began down the road from Jacky’s, with the group walking on the right side of the road. Several police cars trailed the march, and the cops made a few requests for the march to be moved to the sidewalk. After ignoring the first few requests, the marchers eventually began to make their way to the sidewalk. Before they had a chance to get there, though, two cop cars suddenly sped in front of the group. More cop cars followed, and the cops eagerly got out of their cars, ran into the crowd, and tried pushing people back.
Alex Svoboda, a Providence wobbly, was violently pushed to the ground and injured her left leg. While she was pinned face down to the ground, her left leg was bent in a severely awkward position. While members of the crowd shouted that her leg was broken and begged the cops to let her go, their pleas were ignored and Alex was kept pinned down with her hands behind her back. She was finally taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where she was told she had a broken bone and a burst blood vessel in her leg. She had to stay at the hospital overnight while the doctors operated on her burst blood vessel. Though it was initially thought that Alex is uninsured, she does, in fact, have medical insurance. However, we’re still not sure how much of the operation will be covered by her medical plan. To add insult to injury, Alex was arrested on multiple charges.
Jason F, another Providence wobbly, was also arrested and is to appear in court on Wednesday, August 15th. Two other marchers were pepper sprayed by the cops.
CONFRONTING JACKY’S
Once Alex was taken to the hospital and things began to calm down, the march continued, and the crowd finally arrived at Jackie’s. John McCain, fellow worker from Boston, led the crowd in song, and Baltazar Ramos, an ex-HWH employee, talked to the crowd about the abuses he faced while he worked there.
Finally, a manager arrived on the scene with an invoice from a new supplier. He was told that in addition to the new invoice he would need to produce an old HWH invoice showing that they had previously purchased those same items from HWH. This is to insure that Jacky’s isn’t simply ordering certain supplies from a second supplier while they continue to use HWH. He said he’d be right back, but never returned. The Providence IWW will continue to put pressure on Jacky’s Galaxie to force them to stop doing business with the exploitative HWH/Dragonland.
SOLIDARITY NEEDED
Alex and Jason need money for bail, and North Providence needs to hear our complaints! To donate money, contact Mark Bray at 201-669-0714. To make a complaint, call the mayor and the police chief at the numbers below.
North Providence Mayor:
Charles A. Lombardi
North Providence Town Hall
2000 Smith Street
North Providence, RI 02911
Telephone: (401) 232-0900, ext. 226
Fax: (401) 232-3434
Police Chief:
Ernest C. Spaziano
North Providence Police Department
1967 Mineral Spring Ave.
North Providence, R.I. 02904
Business line: 401-233-1433
Fax number: 401-233-1438
More Photos: http://jonathanmcintosh.smugmug.com/gallery/3293537
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Two year report on IU 460 Activities
By Dan Elgin and Alex van Schaick 
August 10, 2007
Fellow IWW Members and Supporters,
For two years workers in New York food industry have been organizing with the IWW for higher wages, better conditions and respect on the job. The IWW IU 460's organizing drive has involved the participation of hundreds of workers and has significantly improved, directly and indirectly, wages and working conditions across the industry. Yet there is still a great deal of organizing left to do: in many sectors, sub-minimum wages and slave-like conditions still exist and the bosses have not been dealt a decisive blow. Today we urge you to pledge $5 per week to support this important campaign that has the capacity to build the IWW into a powerful force in the food industry, not just in New York, but also across the country.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
So far we have talked to our Fellow Workers in over locations in dozens of companies. As many as a thousand workers in the industry have heard about the campaign and over 70 have joined the IWW. In response to the campaign and numerous direct actions at these shops the bosses have given up the following wage gains (the NY minimum wage went up to $7.15 this January): Handyfat Trading from $4.50 to $8.00, EZ-Supply/Sunrise Plus Corp from $5.00 to $6.75, Amersino Marketing $5.00 to $7.15, and Top City Produce from $6.00 to $7.15. All of these shops now comply with overtime laws. And at Top City, a contract is waiting to be signed which stipulates that workers will make $8.50. Over the last two years bosses in the industry, who had grown accustomed to taking advantage of the workers, got a rude shock.
In response, the bosses have tried to bust the Union. 20 workers were fired from EZ-Supply and Handyfat in late December of 2006 and 5 temporarily suspended from Top City for a month at around the same time, for a total of around $10,000-11,500 in lost wages per week. Many of these workers have been able to find work in other shops, but some workers have been blacklisted in the industry and are having trouble keeping jobs.
In the NLRB supervised elections at Handyfat, three workers were bribed to vote against the union and at Amersino, a shift of non-workers were brought in by the boss to rig the vote. Countless other threats and intimidation have ensued including vandalism to workers property such as a car engine that was destroyed.
The workers and supporters have directly responded to the union busting with 10 strikes, dozens of pickets and demonstrations, and several marches, one with 125 and another with 200 participants. The longest picket was maintained for a full week, stopping several trailers worth of deliveries.
Now is your chance to join directly in this fight. The bosses have been stuffing their pockets with profits while the workers take home less than minimum wage and hours exceeding 60 hours per week. The bosses' parade must stop. We have a vision for this campaign to stretch across the industry and continue the gains of this movement to improve conditions everywhere. It will be a serious undertaking, but one that we believe the Union is ready to make.
Here is a run down of some critical details of the legal actions of this
campaign:
--Two workers were reinstated at Amersino (one with back wages) and a
third is waiting the appeal
--NLRB decision on the unfair Handyfat firings charges is expected in
late August
--NLRB hearing on unfair EZ-Supply firings charges is in July
--There are seven class action lawsuits filed against companies under the Fair Labor Standards Act and NY labor law:
1. 7-10k settlement for Bread and Co. workers
2. 25-35k awarded to EZ-Supply workers through the Dept. of Labor settlement
3. 1.2 million suit against EZ-Supply for the remainder of what is owed to the workers.
4. 2.2 million suit versus Giant Big Apple for approximately 20 workers
5. 600k suit against Handyfat for 6 fired workers
6. 810k suit against Amersino for 5 fired workers
7. 230k suit against Top City, Attorney General's Office is monitoring company for any possible future violations as well
WHERE ARE THE INDIVIDUAL DRIVES NOW?
1. Fresh Direct's Warehouse: First target, many workers became active and attended meetings, union wasn't strong enough to organize (1,000 workers in this warehouse) and defend against management's assault. Status: dormant with no appreciable gains and failure to build organization.
2. Bread and Company: Won NLRB election with all ten workers on board. Shop lost due to all workers quitting, likely due to the failure of the union to assign a competent organizer to the shop. Status: failure to force contract and no organization built.
3. Handyfat Trading: Negotiated first (minority) contract in Chinese food distribution industry in NYC. 6 workers covered out of 14. All 6 later fired in The Massacre. Status: organization built, but workers currently fighting for reinstatement.
4. EZ-Supply: Won election with 13 out of 20 voting for the union. Negotiated tentative contract in Nov '06, All 13 unionists fired in The Massacre. Status: organization built, but workers currently fighting for reinstatement.
5. Giant Big Apple: Failed to gain strong shop organization. Bribes from boss that include company product (beer) seem to be effective. Very large back wage settlement in federal court is proceeding after negotiations failed to yield a serious offer. Status: a couple of workers still very active, future unclear.
6. Amersino: Strong drive began 15 members strong. Conducted strike around non-workers voting in election, but 5 workers fired. Status: organization still has 7+ workers inside but some problems, future is unclear.
7. Top City Produce: The 'gang of five'. Very strong group of five workers. Contract negotiated and waiting signature. Status: organization strong with all members active and supporting.
8. Two drives outside of NYC where 460 organizers have a mentoring relationship with local wobs. Possibility of a third drive on the horizon.
9. One shop with slave-like conditions, HWH, requires excess of 80 hours and up to 115 hours per week with no overtime is being directly confronted as we write. See narconews.com video. [update] The 3 workers at HWH have been illegally terminated in retaliation for their union activity and demanding to be paid what they are owed. The Attorney General's office will be hopefully taking up their case in a week or so for the back wages and retaliation.
10. We will be marching on a food processing warehouse with 30 workers (15-20 supportive of the union already) and a specialty seafood distributor with 25 workers (15-20 supportive of the union) within the next three weeks. We are also meeting workers from two restaurants.
WHAT CAN I DO?
Supporters are committing to donate PayPal $5 per week to help with the organizing. Please visit http://www.iww.org/en/branches/US/NY/nyc/460 and scroll to the bottom of the page if you are interested in making the contribution.
Right now we have the following fundraising goals:
1. Rebuild our depleted defense fund, so that we will be able to have the funds to deal with firings in the future.
2. Raise enough funds to sustain our organizing.
3. Repay the Fellow Workers that lent us money during our time of need
Going forward, much of the money from IWW supporters will be going towards organizing expenses. We are in the process of fundraising from major business unions in the New York City area, however these funds are earmarked for the workers defense fund only. Money from IWW donations will fund primarily organizing costs and secondarily the defense fund and overhead.
The crisis in funds began after "the massacre" of EZ-Supply and Handyfat in Dec. 06. Our defense fund spent $20,230 in the first two months (Jan-march 07) after the firings. Over the next three months the defense fund spent $4,580, and probably another $1,000 since I did the calculations in early June. Thus, total defense fund expenditures have been $24,810 + around $1,000. Organizing costs and overhead, including trips outside of NYC to assist with other drives in the industry, has been $1, 074.50 plus probably a little more by now. The total spent by IU 460 according to my calculations on June 17, was $25,884.50.
We have received the following money to support the drive since the firings:
• Donations: $10,369 plus a bit more. This money comes mostly from Fellow Workers in the IWW. It's really a true indication of the commitment and solidarity of IWW members that we were able to raise this much primarily from within the union. We have yet to receive money from the assessments issued by GHQ.
• Loans (no interest): $19,301 - This money was borrowed from wobs who didn't want to see their fellow workers (or their families) thrown out in the street and we want to pay them back.
• Remaining in our paypal and the 460 account - around $3,000.
Please, Fellow Workers, support this campaign and these workers who have put much on the line and still have a long way to go to get conditions where they can make a living. $5/week is a small price to ensure the sustainability of one of our most successful organizing campaigns in recent years.
And we hope that in the next year we can start Wobbly Exchange program for wobblies from far off places to visit New York and get on the group experience helping to build One Big Industrial Union in the food industry. If any Wobbly's would like to move to New York, we can use the help.
In Solidarity,
Dan Elgin and Alex van Schaick
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Starbucks Behind the Brand
By Daniel Gross 
August 07, 2007
A multi-billion dollar corporation facing extensive allegations of illegal and relentless union-busting. Eight outspoken union employees fired on pretexts ranging from the absurd to the offensive. Human and video surveillance tracking the every move of union members or those suspected of union sympathies. Non-stop anti-union propaganda. Threats, bribes, interrogations, and discriminatory disciplinary actions.
Workers complaining about a wage leaving them in poverty and fluctuating work schedules interfering with family obligations. Employees relying on Medicaid for health care or just doing without insurance. Workers afflicted by repetitive stress injuries driven by understaffing and ergonomic neglect.
In some ways, you wish the multinational corporation described was Wal-Mart. At least with Wal-Mart, you know what you’re dealing with. A cold heartless corporation running roughshod over the workers it employs and the communities in which it operates. Wal-Mart succeeded in squeezing more profits out of its employees and suppliers than anyone else but it failed in creating a socially responsible brand.
Those who believed corporate social responsibility (CSR) represented an important and positive change within capitalism will be disappointed that the corporation described is Starbucks. Because Starbucks, unlike Wal-Mart, has succeeded in the social responsibility game. In fact, no corporation plays the game better than Starbucks.
On Monday, when opening statements are set to begin in the trial over Starbucks’ anti-union operation, in some ways corporate social responsibility itself will be on trial with broad implications for society in general as well as workers and activists in particular.
Joe Agins, Jr. will be in the front row. Maybe, Joe Sr. will make it down to New York from New Hampshire like he did during the preliminary hearing to support the son he raised alone after Joe’s mother passed. The son he is so proud of because he chose to fight back on the job and never stopped fighting back after a crude anti-union termination right before the holiday season almost two years ago.
Joe Sr. is proud because like his son, he’s a union person, quick to point out that his coffin will be draped in the flag of the longshoreman’s union in which he was a member.
Joe Jr. is a barista and he marches under the flag of the Industrial Workers of the World. He learned a few days ago that he will soon be a father.
Joe Jr. is one of three fired baristas at issue in the large trial against Starbucks currently taking place at the National Labor Relations Board in New York. A talented young organizer named Isis Saenz and I are the other two. The company will have to defend itself against these unlawful discharge allegations as well as a host of coercion and interference counts committed against other workers.
What’s remarkable is that socially responsible Starbucks faced an eerily similar complaint from the Labor Board less than a year and a half ago. To avoid the spotlight of a public trial, Starbucks settled the entirety of the charges against it. Among other things, the company was forced to reinstate two IWW baristas it discharged for union activity.
This “progressive employer” also had to rescind policies prohibiting the wearing of union buttons and sharing written union information on company property
Rather than retreating from at least the unlawful aspects of its union-busting effort (much union-busting is legal), the company went for the jugular. Once again, Starbucks’ conduct has landed it into hot water with the Labor Board. Only this time, the company has not settled and has pledged to defend itself vigorously.
Union baristas could not be happier that Starbucks has chosen to go to trial as we now have an opportunity to shine the light of day on its shadowy union-busting effort.
A union-busting effort that started when Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz sent a company-wide message, within days of the founding of the union, expressing how disturbed and disappointed he was that workers would choose to organize.
However, we don’t need to wait for the verdict in this trial to issue a judgment on corporate social responsibility from the vantage point of workers at Starbucks, the master of "cause branding.” Why are workers organizing at this darling of the corporate media that has responded with such intensity?
Starbucks workers struggle to make ends meet with a poverty wage of around $7 or $8 per hour. Wage increases amount to a few cents, if anything. The total number of full-time hourly café employees at Starbucks is zero. All baristas are part-time and not a single one is guaranteed any number of work hours per week. Employees are consequently left vulnerable to fluctuations in income and changes in their work schedule.
The company boasts about its health care plan but its own data reveal that it insures a lower percentage of employees than Wal-Mart. Baristas are excluded from care by a combination of a work hours qualification threshold and unaffordable out-of-pocket expenses.
It’s a testament to the resilience of my co-workers that despite the union-busting, the IWW campaign at Starbucks has expanded to multiple stores around the United States and has pressured the company to make some improvements. IWW baristas have taken action on the shop floor, in the community, and in the public arena to win on a wide variety of workplace issues from remedying religious discrimination to increasing the security of work hours. But there’s no doubt that the union-busting has been a monumental challenge.
So what is the verdict from the front lines of corporate conscience? Activists can and do make use of CSR by pointing out the hypocrisy behind the big brands. But that’s about all CSR is good for.
Corporations are profit-maximizers period. We’d do well to remember this axiom when a company is telling us about its respect for employees or its commitment to global warming solutions, etc. The following may sound self-evident but it’s important: when we hear anything about a corporation we’re almost always hearing from management, not employees. Workers have a very different story to tell.
The marketing gimmick known as corporate social responsibility or cause branding or any other business initiative will never serve as a replacement for the independent voice of organized workers secured by shop-floor and community power.
Far from being less relevant in the global brand-centric economy, labor unions remain as critical as ever.
Daniel Gross is an organizer with the IWW Starbucks Workers Union, StarbucksUnion.org. He can be reached at dgross@iww.org.
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Workers need to fight for rights
By Sheryl McCarthy 
August 01, 2007
The next time a delivery man shows up at your door with Chinese food, a cheeseburger deluxe or a pizza, think about Gil Santiago.
Santiago, 27, came to New York from Mexico six years ago. To support his wife and three kids back in Mexico, he worked for five years at Flor De Mayo restaurant, on Amsterdam Avenue at 84th Street, until last September.
He made deliveries, did janitorial work, hauled groceries, and worked six days a week, 12 hours a day, with no breaks, for $90 a week. That averages out to $1.25 an hour. Even with tips from deliveries averaging about 30 a day, Santiago earned less than New York's $4.60 an hour minimum wage for tipped employees.
Despite his minuscule wages, Flor De Mayo required him to provide his own bicycle, which cost him $330.
"They treat us like slaves, and I'm fighting for my rights."
In May, after a union organizing dispute at the nearby Saigon Grill Restaurant called attention to the pitiful wages and poor working conditions for restaurant delivery workers citywide, the management at Flor de Mayo raised the salaries of its deliverymen to $184 a week and reduced their work week to 40 hours, its workers said. Even so, last week Santiago, Fernando Lopez, Adolfo Lopez and Venancio Galindo sued the restaurant. They're asking for more than $500,000 total in back wages, unpaid overtime, reimbursable work expenses, and punitive damages for being exploited.
Flor de Mayo's owners, Jose Chu and Phillip Chu, did not return a call for comment.
Legal challenges by workers in the city's low-paid industries to their working conditions are growing. The exploitation of workers in Chinatown has been reported for years. But last week former employees of celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who owns upscale Manhattan restaurants, filed lawsuit in claiming he paid them subminimum wages, cheated them out of overtime and forced them to share tips with their bosses.
The exploitation of low-wage workers is one of the biggest social issues of our time. A study of low-wage jobs in New York City released by The Brennan Center for Social Justice last month found a widespread pattern of abuses in certain industries - ranging from restaurants, groceries and retail stores, to building maintenance and security, laundry and dry cleaning, domestic work, and beauty salons. The most common abuses are paying workers below the minimum wage, forcing them to work long hours without paying overtime, ignoring health and safety regulations, failing to buy workers' compensation insurance, and retaliating against workers who complain. The study found that the exploited workers are often immigrants and people who've been released from prison.
I'm told that New York State has some of the most progressive labor laws in the country. But its department of labor is understaffed. Even when workplace abuses are discovered, critics say, the department often settles for settlements far less than the workers are owed.
But when it comes to wages and workplace treatment, it doesn't matter the workers are here legally or illegally. All workers should be paid and treated according to the law.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has demonstrated concern about workers' issues, and created a bureau for immigration workers in the labor department. Last fall, after a number of highly publicized deaths at construction sites, most of them involving immigrant laborers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg funded a task force to address safety issues.
The way for workers to get relief from oppressive work conditions is to sue or to complain to the right agencies. But plenty of immigrants don't know what the labor laws are, and if they do, they may be afraid to complain for fear of having their illegal status revealed. That's why more community groups like National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, a workers advocacy group, need to educate workers about their rights. Once workers start talking about their problems, they start organizing.
"All New York delivery workers need to open their minds and realize we have rights," Fernando Lopez told me. "We have the right to fight these conditions."
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