| Flaum Workers Attempt to Return to Work
By Benjamin Ferguson 
Photos by Benjamin Ferguson
November 25, 2009
November 25, 8am: Workers along with members of the NYC-GMB march to Flaum, a kosher food distributor in Brooklyn, after a Labor Board ruling which ordered the boss to reinstate the workers with back pay. Instead, the boss wrongfully demanded that the workers reauthorize their immigration status and denied them their right to return to work.
The workers had been illegally fired for engaging in a work stoppage over the right to form a labor union and payment in accordance with the law.
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State Labor Department names Park Slope eateries that underpay staff
By Aleksandra Klassen, Jake Pearson and Ben Chapman 
Sotto Voce in Park Slope was one of the restaurants named by the state Labor Department for underpaying its workers. Photo: Warga/News
November 24, 2009
From NY Daily News
They ought to be ashamed.
Nearly two dozen Park Slope restaurants stiffed their own employees nearly $1 million - in some cases paying workers as little as $2.75 an hour.
"I'm disgusted to hear this," said Laurie Kellogg, 52, of Park Slope, a regular customer at the Olive Vine Café on Fifth Ave., where workers were underpaid more than $200,000, according to the state Department of Labor.
"I'm going to boycott until they change."
Labor Department investigators conducted a surprise sweep of 23 randomly selected Park Slope restaurants on April 29, sending16 state agents to interview employees and check payroll documents to make sure workers were being paid in compliance with state law.
All but two of the restaurants were charged with minimum wage, overtime and other basic wage violations.
The restaurants included some neighborhood favorites and longtime eateries including Sotto Voce, Sweet Melissa Patisserie, Baluchi's, Aunt Suzie's and Sette Enoteca e Cucina.
Two of the eateries, Olive Vine Café and Coco Roco, were so delinquent that Labor Department agents investigated sister restaurants in nearby neighborhoods, where they found even more violations.
In total, 207 workers were underpaid more than $912,237 at the 25 restaurants.
"This is an upscale neighborhood that likes to pride itself on political awareness," said state Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith. "We will get the workers every penny that they are owed."
At Coco Roco on Fifth Ave., delivery workers were paid less than $3 an hour; dishwashers were paid less than $6 per hour. New York State minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
A Coco Roco manager insisted there had been "a misunderstanding" and that restaurant owners were negotiating with Labor Department officials.
Investigators found conditions that were almost as bad at Olive Vine Café, which paid cooks less than $6 per hour. In total, the two Olive Vine Café locations underpaid workers more than $200,000.
"I don't have $200,000," said Zaid Demis, 35, owner of Olive Vine Café. "Where the hell am I going to get that?"
Demis said that he paid his workers fairly.
"Now I'm probably going to have to close my doors if they really insist on me paying," he said.
To date, 12 of the cases have been resolved and 13 are in negotiation, said Smith.
"My message to employers is this: This is the future," she said. "We will start doing these proactive sweeps across the city."
COMPLETE LIST OF WAGE VIOLATORS AND AMOUNT THEY UNDERPAID WORKERS:
Aunt Suzie's Restaurant: $10,196.69
Bagel World: $6,349.05
Red Hot Szechuan Kitchen: $5,830.17
Uncle Moe's: $25,515.28
Joe's Pizza: $21,727.66
Mr. Wonton: $23,502.39
Sette: $11,512.23
Mezcal's Mexican Restaurant (Court St.): $38.16
Mezcal's of 5th Ave.: $14,115.20
Baluchi's: $2,833.13
Bogota Latin Bistro $36,603.59
Coco Roco (Smith St.): $172,880.35
Coco Roco: $214,672.16
La Taqueria: $56,528.30
Miracle Grill: $26,283.55
Miriam Restaurant: $1,439.44
Nana Restaurant & Bar: $1,509.89
Olive Vine Café (7th Ave.): $88,196.43
Olive Vine Café (15th St.): $112,231.30
Rachel's Taqueria: $43,525.35
Song: $10,674.60
Sotto Voce: $3,766.21
Sweet Melissa: $382.10
Source: New York State Department of Labor
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Building on historic tradition, IWW opens Minneapolis office
By Deborah Rosenstein 
Local bands play at the opening celebration of the new IWW office. Photo by Deborah Rosenstein.
November 15, 2009
From Workday Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS - In 1905, William Bradley and Fred Henion, two railroad workers from Northeast Minneapolis, attended a conference in Chicago that led to the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World. Now, more than a century later, the IWW has opened an office steps away from where Bradley and Henion used to work.
The new space, located at 79 13th Ave. NE, Suite 103A, is housed in the bottling house of the old Grain Belt Brewery. Organizers have 24-hour access to the office and hope to host a variety of meetings, classes and cultural events.
Local historian and United Transportation Union officer David Riehle notes that the IWW had numerous offices in Minneapolis from 1905-1919. Plagued by government repression (the 1917 federal Espionage Act, Minnesota’s 1917 Criminal Syndicalism Law and the 1920 Palmer Raids), “the union hasn’t had an office in the Twin Cities for many generations,” Riehle explained.
Hundreds of labor and community activists turned out on Nov. 7 to celebrate the historic opening. Many, like 11-year old Sage Doring, who was attending with his mother, expressed appreciation for the IWW’s commitment to fighting racism and other forms of oppression. Greeting people at the front door, Doring explained that he often listens to IWW-inspired music while raking leaves and doing other household chores. “And I come to IWW events because they give you ideas about how to solve stuff.”
Sophia, another young person, busied herself with decorating the walls of the new IWW office with social justice-themed slogans. She also participated in an all-ages scavenger hunt and labor song sing-along. D.B., a member of the Twin Cities branch, observed that the scavenger hunt mirrored the IWW’s organizing model. “The twelve year olds were mobilizing the eight-year-olds and the eight-year-olds were focused on the five-year-olds.”
The notion that everyone is an organizer was a theme of the IWW’s national train-the-trainer workshop held in Minneapolis to dovetail with the office opening. Thirty-five IWW members from Texas, New York, Illinois, British Columbia and elsewhere attended the workshop, eager to lead IWW organizing trainings in their home locations. Like their predecessors, the train-the-trainer participants articulated their vision of “one big union” that unites all workers.
At the turn of the 20th century, the IWW opposed the American Federation of Labor’s practice of organizing only specific “skilled” workers and welcomed members of all backgrounds. Today, this means reaching out to coffee baristas and other service economy workers.
With more than 300 members, the IWW Starbucks Union fights for respect on the job, improved scheduling, affordable health care, wages and a safe working environment for Starbucks baristas.
This summer, the IWW organized support for Azmera, a worker fired from a Starbucks in St. Paul. An immigrant mother from Ethiopia, she had two years of positive reviews and no write-ups. Still, Azmera was accused of stealing from the store (the company cannot provide any proof of this) and dismissed. The local branch of the IWW brought attention to Azmera's case, highlighting the discrimination that immigrant workers face throughout the service sector.
Jason Evans, a Twin Cities IWW member attending the office opening, said that the Azmera support campaign exemplifies how the union views its work: “An injury to one really is an injury to all.”
Deborah Rosenstein is on the staff of the University of Minnesota Labor Education Service.
For more information
Twin Cities IWW chapter website
Starbucks Union website
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UAW rejects new concessions to Ford; no new talks
By Soyoung Kim and Bernie Woodall 
November 02, 2009
From Reuters:
DETROIT (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers union overwhelmingly rejected a proposed cost-cutting deal with Ford Motor Co (F.N) on Monday, delivering a setback for the automaker as it seeks to bring down labor costs in line with U.S. rivals.
The UAW said that 70 percent of production workers and 75 percent of skilled trade workers voted to reject a proposed agreement the union leadership and Ford negotiated in October to change the 2007 four-year contract.
The deal would have brought the automaker's labor costs in line with General Motors Co GM.UL and Chrysler Group LLC, both of which won additional concessions as part of their government-financed bankruptcies.
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement the union's past concessions have positioned Ford to be a strong competitor in a tough market and its surprise quarterly net profit announced early on Monday provided further evidence of the contributions the workers have made.
"While we will not be returning to the bargaining table, our ... membership will continue to work with Ford on a daily basis in an effort to keep new products coming into our plants," Gettelfinger said.
Analysts said that the relative health of Ford compared with domestic rivals GM and Chrysler was a key factor in the rejection of the proposed terms, but Gettelfinger said that was not a factor.
The UAW represents about 41,000 U.S. factory workers at Ford.
The current contract expires in 2011.
Gettelfinger said last Friday that there was no need to return to the negotiating table with Ford until 2011.
In a statement issued after the UAW announcement, Ford said it was "disappointed that the additional changes were not ratified."
Ford said it wanted to keep the tradition of "pattern bargaining," in which the UAW and the automakers maintain similar contracts among major automakers that do not favor one over the other.
Ford, like the UAW, said it will continue an ongoing dialogue on the major issues between automaker and the union that represents its workers.
"Moving forward, we will work with the UAW to discuss the next steps to ensure Ford remains competitive so we can continue to make product commitments and invest in our manufacturing facilities here in the United States," Ford said.
The proposals rejected by workers included a "no-strike" provision on wages and benefits that became a lightning rod for opposition.
The contract would have given workers a one-time bonus of $1,000 to be paid in March 2010. That would have cost Ford $41 million.
It would have frozen wages of entry-level workers who are hired at $14 per hour. And it would not set a cap on the number of entry-level workers Ford could hire until 2015.
CANADA OK
Over the weekend, the Canadian Auto Workers union voted 83 percent in favor of a separate agreement with Ford that freezes wages for about 7,000 workers into September 2012 in return for protecting most factory jobs in Canada.
About 10 percent of Ford's North American output comes from its plants in Canada.
(Reporting by Soyoung Kim and Bernie Woodall; editing by Bernard Orr and Matthew Lewis)
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