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IWW vs Berkeley Ecology Center
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Dan Clore
Jan 17, 2013, 12:31:32 AM1/17/13
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=10856
Berkeley Ecology Center Battles Workers Over �Oldest Existing IWW
Contract in the Known Universe�
by Marc Norton� Jan. 15� 2013
Brothers and sisters from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) put
in a lot of legwork on the Hotel Frank picket line, so it was only
natural that I responded to their call to join an IWW picket line at the
Berkeley Ecology Center last Thursday, January 10. The Ecology Center
brags on its website that they �provide good, green-collar jobs.� Try
telling that to the thirty workers and supporters who were on the picket
line last Thursday.
The IWW has had a contract with the Ecology Center since 1989, but it
looks like it might be a fight when that contract expires on February 1.
The San Francisco Bay Area Branch of the IWW may not have the clout of
the venerable AFL-CIO, but they ain�t pushovers either. According to
Bruce Valde, the Branch Secretary, the Ecology Center contract is the
�oldest existing IWW contract in the known universe.�
The City of Berkeley contracts with the �non-profit� Ecology Center to
do curbside recycling for homes and small apartment buildings. The
Ecology Center in turn employs about ten drivers who do the heavy lifting.
And heavy lifting it is. This is a job that is notoriously hard on the
body. Thus it is particularly insulting to the workers that the Ecology
Center wants to drastically increase the cost of health care. �The
Ecology Center facilitates urban lifestyles consistent with the goals of
ecological sustainability, social equity, and economic development,�
says their website. Apparently healthy workers and affordable health
care isn�t part of their brand of ecology.
Nor are good wages. The Ecology Center wants to give their curbside
recyclers small raises in the first and second years of the contract,
and then a wage freeze for the next three years. And they want to stop
their modest $2,000-per year contribution to an annuity for each worker,
and replace it with a dollar-for-dollar match with whatever their
workers can afford to pay.
Martin Bourque, the Ecology Center�s Executive Director, has bluntly
proclaimed that he expects employees to �work harder for less money,�
according to John Reimann of the IWW.
So workers, supporters and IWW comrades waved picket signs and banners
on Thursday along busy Gilman Avenue, getting plenty of honks from
passing motorists and trucks. Then everybody crowded into the 2nd Street
entrance to the curbside recycling facility for a short rally. Several
Ecology Center workers spoke, and the message was the same: �Enough,
already. No concessions. We will fight.�
The IWW was founded in 1905, a very different time. But then, like now,
the labor movement was at a low ebb, faced implacable enemies, and
desperately needed a new direction and an infusion of rank-and-file
militancy. The IWW set its aim high. The original preamble to the IWW
constitution read, and still reads: �The working class and the employing
class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger
and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who
make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.�
The IWW took on the bosses with a vengeance, primarily with direct
action and rank-and-file leadership. The IWW had both victories and
defeats, but shook up the country like few have since. Wobblies, as they
were called, unswervingly opposed sending American boys overseas to
fight in World War I, which they correctly saw as another �rich man�s
war and poor man�s fight.� This courageous stand brought them increased
repression, and the organization essentially collapsed as an organized
movement. But the IWW banner has been raised again and again by workers
who share their aims, and has had a bit of a rebirth in recent years.
The IWW-organized workers at the Ecology Center are building on a rich
and long tradition. I have a particular affinity for small groups of
workers who are in a serious fight, but don�t necessarily have the
solidarity of the more mainstream labor movement behind them.
The next negotiations between the Ecology Center and their workers are
set for Tuesday, January 15.
Copyright � 2013 by Marc Norton
Marc Norton has been a rank-and-file member of UNITE HERE Local 2, the
San Francisco hotel and restaurant workers union, since 1976. He is also
a member of the IWW. His website is www.MarcNorton.us.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord We�rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=10856
Berkeley Ecology Center Battles Workers Over �Oldest Existing IWW
Contract in the Known Universe�
by Marc Norton� Jan. 15� 2013
Brothers and sisters from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) put
in a lot of legwork on the Hotel Frank picket line, so it was only
natural that I responded to their call to join an IWW picket line at the
Berkeley Ecology Center last Thursday, January 10. The Ecology Center
brags on its website that they �provide good, green-collar jobs.� Try
telling that to the thirty workers and supporters who were on the picket
line last Thursday.
The IWW has had a contract with the Ecology Center since 1989, but it
looks like it might be a fight when that contract expires on February 1.
The San Francisco Bay Area Branch of the IWW may not have the clout of
the venerable AFL-CIO, but they ain�t pushovers either. According to
Bruce Valde, the Branch Secretary, the Ecology Center contract is the
�oldest existing IWW contract in the known universe.�
The City of Berkeley contracts with the �non-profit� Ecology Center to
do curbside recycling for homes and small apartment buildings. The
Ecology Center in turn employs about ten drivers who do the heavy lifting.
And heavy lifting it is. This is a job that is notoriously hard on the
body. Thus it is particularly insulting to the workers that the Ecology
Center wants to drastically increase the cost of health care. �The
Ecology Center facilitates urban lifestyles consistent with the goals of
ecological sustainability, social equity, and economic development,�
says their website. Apparently healthy workers and affordable health
care isn�t part of their brand of ecology.
Nor are good wages. The Ecology Center wants to give their curbside
recyclers small raises in the first and second years of the contract,
and then a wage freeze for the next three years. And they want to stop
their modest $2,000-per year contribution to an annuity for each worker,
and replace it with a dollar-for-dollar match with whatever their
workers can afford to pay.
Martin Bourque, the Ecology Center�s Executive Director, has bluntly
proclaimed that he expects employees to �work harder for less money,�
according to John Reimann of the IWW.
So workers, supporters and IWW comrades waved picket signs and banners
on Thursday along busy Gilman Avenue, getting plenty of honks from
passing motorists and trucks. Then everybody crowded into the 2nd Street
entrance to the curbside recycling facility for a short rally. Several
Ecology Center workers spoke, and the message was the same: �Enough,
already. No concessions. We will fight.�
The IWW was founded in 1905, a very different time. But then, like now,
the labor movement was at a low ebb, faced implacable enemies, and
desperately needed a new direction and an infusion of rank-and-file
militancy. The IWW set its aim high. The original preamble to the IWW
constitution read, and still reads: �The working class and the employing
class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger
and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who
make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.�
The IWW took on the bosses with a vengeance, primarily with direct
action and rank-and-file leadership. The IWW had both victories and
defeats, but shook up the country like few have since. Wobblies, as they
were called, unswervingly opposed sending American boys overseas to
fight in World War I, which they correctly saw as another �rich man�s
war and poor man�s fight.� This courageous stand brought them increased
repression, and the organization essentially collapsed as an organized
movement. But the IWW banner has been raised again and again by workers
who share their aims, and has had a bit of a rebirth in recent years.
The IWW-organized workers at the Ecology Center are building on a rich
and long tradition. I have a particular affinity for small groups of
workers who are in a serious fight, but don�t necessarily have the
solidarity of the more mainstream labor movement behind them.
The next negotiations between the Ecology Center and their workers are
set for Tuesday, January 15.
Copyright � 2013 by Marc Norton
Marc Norton has been a rank-and-file member of UNITE HERE Local 2, the
San Francisco hotel and restaurant workers union, since 1976. He is also
a member of the IWW. His website is www.MarcNorton.us.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord We�rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_
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