THE ORGANIZER

August 2009 • Issue #18.

On Saturday, July 25th, union members and supportersfrom around the Twin Cities turned out to celebratethe victories and honor the past of the labor move-ment. The One Day in July festival, put on by a group of unionists and sponsored by a variety of unions, washeld to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the1934 trucker’s strike in Minneapolis. With music andgood company all day long, the union movement cele-brated its proud history.

The event, sponsored by a variety of labor and politicalorganizations including the Twin Cities IWW, AFSCMELocals 34 and 3800, UTU Local 650, and Mayday Books,was held in the Warehouse District, where most of theevents of the 1934 strike took place. The afternoonwas dotted with rain, but local acts like 2 Tone Runtsand City on the Make kept the energy up throughoutgray skies. Speakers from different unions and organiza-tions spoke. Members from CWA, representing work-ers at AT&T, spoke about their struggle to renegotiate anew contract. An organizer from the UAW spokeabout the effects of the economic crisis on autowork-ers and the need for organization.

In a particularly moving moment, Gladys McKenziespoke about the two men who lost their lives in July of 1934 right around the corner from the festival site. Shecalled for a moment of silence as a brass band and vin-tage car from the era moved forward and two Team-sters removed a wreath commemorating the fallenunionists. The band then began a chorus of SolidarityForever, the old IWW song often called the anthem of the labor movement.

As the day proceeded, festival-goers saw the skies clearup and the afternoon become beautiful. The BrassKings got the crowd’s feet stomping to their folk rhythms and Mic Crenshaw laid down rhymes aboutworking class life. In a delightful surprise, two shopstewards from UE who work at Republic Windows,whose sit-down strike fascinated the nation last winter,showed up to talk about theirstruggle and victory. Speaker Ki-eran Knutson of the IWW gave aspirited speech about the needfor workers in all industries and inall situations to organize. Thecrowd cheered as he encouragedeveryone who works and is ex-ploited to join a union and bettertheir lives. Finally, the night wastopped off by a fantastic perform-ance by nationally-known rapperBrother Ali, who got everyone atOne Day in July on their feet andwith their hands in the air.By all accounts, the festival was ahuge success. Jeff Pilacinski, one of the members of the organizingcommittee and an IWW member,reﬂected on the day positively.“This festival not only honors thesacriﬁce and struggles of thosewho came before us, but it's alsomeant to inspire today's workingpeople towards change by meansof self-activity, direct action, andsolidarity - the foundation of the1934 truckers strikes,” he said.One Day in July brought out hun-dreds of union members and sup-porters, showing everyone that asuccessful festival for workers canbe put on by workers and in or-der to celebrate workers. Pilacin-ski summed up the day nicely: “It'sclear that the spirit of our class isstrong and very much alive in theMill City.” – FW John O’Reilly

Editorial

Editorial staff addition John O’Reilly detailsrecent changes to thefunctioning of TheOrganizer.

Page 2 Always Low Wages

A dual-card Wobbly givesperspective on UFCW union organizing at Wal- Mart.

Page 3 AT&T Workers StillWithout Contract

An AT&T worker gives anupdate from the inside onnegotiations between thetelecom giant and CWA.

Page 3What Next?

A Wobbly comments onshortcomings of “typical” activist organizations and poses questions for futureorganizing.

Page 4

Organizing Tips

Anxious to start ﬁring your boss? Get tips fromWobblies organizing intheir work places.

Page 5

One Day in July Festival a Success

Photo: Nate Weber

E O

RGANIZER

A monthly publication of theTwin Cities General Membership Branch of theIndustrial Workers of the World.The IWW is a union for all workers, dedicated to organizing on the job for better conditionstoday, and a world without bosses tomorrow.You are invited to contact theBranch Secretary-Treasurer or any Delegate listed below for no-pressure conversations about your issues on the job.

Branch Contacts

Twin Cities IWW P.O Box 14111 Minneapolis, MN 55414Tel. (612) 336-1266email. twincities@iww.org web. twincities.iww.org

Branch Secretary-Treasurers

Bob Adamsrogead@rogead.comdbdb@riseup.net

Editors

Errico Hedake Jake Bell John O’Reilly

Policy

Stories, letters to the editors,and belly-aching can beaddressed totc-organizer@riseup.net Unless otherwise stated, theopinions expressed are not necessarily the ofﬁcial positionof the local branch or the unionas a whole. Many of our members areengaged in active organizing campaigns, and some use analias, occasionally their unioncard number, or ‘x’ number. Weprefer transparency over secrecy whenever possible, but will always honor requests for anonymity .

Greetings IWW members, friendsof the union, and folks who justpicked up the paper! There are afew changes in the content of theOrganizer this month. First, weare entering a period of transi-tion. Our former editor ErricoHedake is stepping back from theproject and I will be taking thelead for the next few months. Ipersonally want to thank Erricofor all the hard work he has putinto the Organizer over time. Hehas done a wonderful job produc-ing a newspaper centered on theworking class, our struggles andour ideas. This paper would notexist still without his guidance andnever-ending support.

Second, the process of how thepaper runs is changing. At the Junemeeting of the Twin Cities Gen-eral Membership Branch, mem-bers voted to change our bylawsto have the Organizer EditorialCommittee become an electedgroup of at least three membersto serve a term of one year. Anymember in good standing can runin this election and it is hopedthat even members who do notserve on the Editorial Committeewill volunteer to assist the pro-duction of the paper. This paper,like the whole union, is volunteer-run, which means that we needyour help to make it happen. If you are interested in working forthe Organizer, please contact ouremail address at tc-organizer@riseup.net. If you would like to bepart of the Editorial Committee,elections will be held at the sametime other branch ofﬁcer posi-tions are held, the GMB meetingon November 3rd.

For those who don’t know, theOrganizer is named after anotherpaper, a strike bulletin from theMinneapolis trucker’s strike of 1934, which marks its 70th anni-versary this year. The One Day in July Festival, a day-long street fes-tival sponsored by the IWW andother unions that celebrates thelegacy of this strike was held on July 25th and was a success. It isoften said that the trucker’s strikemade Minneapolis, and beforelong, St. Paul, union towns. Todaymore than ever we need largestruggles like the 1934 strike toremake the cities we live in and torebuild the labor movement. Weneed a labor movement that isdemocratic, strong, and has a vi-sion for the future. I hope that theOrganizer serves as a small partof this powerful idea, providingcoverage and analysis of workingclass issues that escape the bigcorporate papers and their proﬁt-motive. If you have feedback,ideas, or just something to sayabout how we run this paper,please send us an email. – FW John O’Reilly

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Editorial

Cartoon: J. Pierce

Wal-Mart usually ranks near the top on the list of For-tune Magazine’s most admired companies. But, as mostof us know, Wal-Mart’s predatory corporate practicesextract a high cost from communities and workers.

For several years the United Food and CommercialWorkers (UFCW) has been attempting to organizeWal-Mart employees. This has led to some occasionalshort-term success stories. Hopes were high when twostores in Quebec, where labor laws are more worker-friendly than in the rest of North America, voted toorganize. Wal-Mart dealt with the situation by perma-nently closing both stores.

Emboldened by the election of Barrack Obama and the

continued on page 4

After 5 years, the Starbucks or-ganizing campaign is still goingstrong. What began in New York City, through a number of growthspurts and set backs, is publiclyactive in New York, the Twin Cit-ies, Grand Rapids, Chicago, andQuebec City, with more organiz-ing in a number of other cities.Here in the Twin Cities, the cam-paign is about to reach the oneyear mark for public organizing.Over the past year, Star-bucks workers in Min-neapolis have had tofight hard simply forthe right to organ-ize, and are cur-rently winning thatfight. Workershave focused ongetting out to storesoften to reach out toworkers and to let themand bosses know our rights. Thathas not all happened without anumber of Unfair Labor Practicecharges against the companythough. The Union recently wona settlement with Starbucks re-quiring the company to put up aNational Labor Relations Boardposting in almost twenty storesabout workers' right to organize."The posting has helped," sayscampaign member Angel Gardner,"but the most important thingremains visiting stores regularlyand talking to them about theirrights. The company can't betrusted not to lie, exaggerate, andmanipulate its workers into think-ing that they can't organize a un-ion".In recent months, the campaignhas focused on the basics of or-ganizing - one on ones, phonecalls, and other outreach - to con-solidate its contacts and momen-tum and prepare for more bigdirect actions. "One thing I'vedefinitely learned is the impor-tance of the basics, of being or-ganized in our organizing," saysGardner. "We have to have a clearstrategy and execute on all thesimple things. This translates to allaspects of organizing, from net-working, and actions, to researchand legal strategy. You have tohave all the basics in place, andpreparations well lined up."The Minneapolis Starbucks Work-ers recently hosted a nationalstrategy retreat for the campaignto help execute on the basics andset a clear direction moving for-ward. Workers from several cit-ies nationwide came to theTwin Cities to, set upbylaws to help withexecution of allcampaign activity,and discuss theirvision. "The cam-paign now has amuch more clear,cohesive structure."Says Gardner. "This willreally help us get the jobdone and continue to grow."Some of that growth is alreadybeing seen, as workers from Que-bec City just recently joined thecampaign and filed for union rec-ognition at one store. Of thestore in Quebec, and the cam-paign's general direction, Gardnersaid, "Starbucks should watch out.There will be plenty more of thatto come." – SWU Twin Cities

THE ORGANIZER

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Starbucks Campaign Poisedfor Growth

National Strategy Retreat Helps Set Direction

Heading into the 17th week without a contract,Wobbly dual-card members of the CommunicationsWorkers of America at AT&T are attempting tomaintain the solidarity needed to defend their bene-fits. Despite billions in profits last year, and again inthe first quarter this year, AT&T is still demandingsharp concessions in employees’ healthcare cover-age in addition to other areas.For their part, dual-carders have helped lead theCWA contract campaign at the rank-and-file level.IWW members have been among the main workersencouraging mobilization actions on the floor. Formore than two months, workers on three floors atthe AT&T Tower in downtown Minneapolis stood intheir cubicles every hour and pressed "clickers" orother noisemakers as a loud and visible show of force. Wobblies strongly encouraged the CWA tocall, and then helped organize, worker marchesaround the office floors – including up to 60 work-ers at once.IWWers have continued to try to instill a sense of solidarity and struggle with their co-workers, medi-ating disputes that arise between workers in thistense atmosphere, and elaborating about the “bigpicture” importance of this struggle.Recently, in a break of unity, the Midwest District(comprised of the old Ameritech) of CWA settledwith AT&T, taking some concessions. This followsthe earlier settling of the AT&T Wireless group. TheIWW opposes capitulating to AT&T's divide andconquer negotiating. Solidarity unionism, based onrank-and-file democracy, direct action, and fightingto win is what is needed going forward today and inthe future. – FW x359209