THE ORGANIZER

December 2009, Issue #21

Fired, after 10 YEARSProbation.

Fellow worker and local IWWmember Michele Rockne has workedas an AFSCME-organized clericalworker at University of Minnesotasince 2000. Just short of her ten yearanniversary, Michele was forced out of her position supporting the work of the Fine Theoretical Physics Institute.That she was vulnerable to this loss isthe partly the result of being on need-less probationary periods.Michele helped develop the Ca-reer Services Ofﬁce of the Institute of Technology, beginning in 2000. •

TenYears Probation, continued p.2 ANNUAL OFFICERELECTIONRESULTS WILL BEPOSTED IN NEXT MONTH’S ISSUEMembers Corner

O’Reilly schools us onhow to pay our dues

Page 3Organizing Tip

Holdren talks up thepractice of ‘Charting’ your workplace

Page 3“Eyes on the Fries”

A public meeting focused on organizing the fast food industry.

Page 3Largest IWW train-ing event to dateheld in Twin Cities

Aaron Kocher reports onthe recent “Training For Trainers” event

Page 5Wobblies learn how to party

Space Opening Party deemed a success

Page 6Upcoming Events

Our local calendar of public events

Page 6

Erik W. DavisOn Saturday, November 21st, TwinCities wobblies celebrated the annualsocial dinner we've learned to look forward to all year. Along with only afew other regular social events, RedNovember, Black November (RNBN) isone many local wobblies particularlyrelish. This year - the third we've cele-brated the event - was no exception.With delicious food, good friends, andgreat performances and sing-a-longs,the event was a rare opportunity tocelebrate our successes and enjoy eachother's company, over a common meal.Fellow workers, their families,friends, and community supporters, allbegan arriving at Walker CommunityChurch as early as six in the evening. Itwas already dark in the location justSouth of Lake and Bloomington Aves.,but there was lots of parking for thosearriving by car, and Walker is well-served by the buses, so the number of guests was unsurprising - nearly everyseat in the space was filled.The space was decked out in thebranch's red and black banners andguests were greeted with a deliciousbowl of pozole; for the vegetarians andvegans, vegan chili and cornbread filledout the bill. A variety of other deliciousfoods from all over the globe roundedout the fare, along with beer, wine, andsoft drinks. Speaking as merely onediner among many, this reporter heardextremely high praise for the food fromall quarters.Fellow workers gave reports onorganizing campaigns, and other recentevents we've been in, such as anti-fascist organizing in Minnesota, oursolidarity benefits and actions on behalf of new branch member Marie Mason, •

Fall Feast, continued p.2

FWs Holdren and Pilacinski, performing a dramatic reading of children’sclassic “Farmer Duck.” Photo E. Davis

RNBN Fall Feast Great Fun; No Surprise.

E O

RGANIZER

A bi-monthly publication of the TwinCities General Membership Branchof the Industrial Workers of theWorld.The IWW is a union for all workers,dedicated to organizing on the jobfor better conditions today, and aworld without bosses tomorrow.You are invited to contact the BranchSecretary-Treasurer or any Delegatelisted below for no-pressureconversations about your issues onthe job.

Branch Contacts

Twin Cities IWW 79 13th Ave NE Minneapolis, MN 55413Tel. (612) 336-1266email. twincities@iww.org web. twincitiesiww.org

Branch Secretary-Treasurers

Robert Adams rogead@rogead.comdb db@ri seup.net

Editors

Erik W. Davis John O’Reilly

Policy

Stories, letters to the editors, and belly-aching can be addressed totc-organizer@riseup.net Unless otherwise stated, the opinionsexpressed are not necessarily theofﬁcial position of the local branch or the union as a whole. Many of our members are engaged in active organizing campaigns, and some use an alias, occasionally their union card number, or ‘x’ number.We prefer transparency over secrecy whenever possible, but will alwayshonor requests for anonymity .

Education.Organization.

Emancipation.

THE ORGANIZER

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Changing theGuard

by Erik W. DavisBoth John O’Reilly & Erik Davis stepdown as editors of

The Organizer

after thisissue. In the last year and a half, we havechanged the layout of

The Organizer

, movedfrom bi-monthly to monthly publication, andbrought radical union news to more of ourfellow workers in the Twin Cities area.

The Organizer

has also become a largerpart of our branch’s identity - non-membersincreasingly encounter our branch ﬁrstthrough a medium like our newsletter. Weare a democratic union that brooks no un-accountable authority. Therefore, as I writethis, fellow workers from the branch arecasting votes for two new ofﬁcer positions:co-editors of

The Organizer

- along withother established positions like BranchSecretary-Treasurers. Neither of us arestanding for the positions.Beginning next month, then, new edi-tors will be at the helm of our branch’s offi-cial newsletter. We are excited to see theresults of new leadership on the project,and hope for increased regularity of publica-tion, improved quality of writing, and rele-vance of analysis to the working class.Davis and O’Reilly will undoubtedly assist inthe production of early issues as new edi-tors find their balance, but rotation of officeis a central tenet of our organization’s guar-antees of democratic practice, and both of the current editors are looking forward totaking part in other roles of branch work.Greetings to the new editors!•••

10 years probation, cont. from p.1 •

After many years, IT management re-duced operations and laid Michele off.Michele found new employment within theUMN system at the Fine Institute. Unfortu-nately, Fine Institute management refused toset clear expectations for her position, orto provide training in for new tasks. Allworkers have had the experience of beingheld responsible for tasks for which we arenot given the necessary authority.Michele asked for clear expectationsand necessary training repeatedly, and wasrepeatedly turned down or ignored. Now, ina period when the University is balancing itsbudget on the backs of workers and stu-dents throughout the system, and after al-most 10 years of service to the University,Michele was failed on probation, and forcedout of her job.As a long-term employee, Michele hasworked to solve problems and streamlinethe work of the Career Services Ofﬁce of the Institute of Technology, and the FineInstitute for many years. Michele was activewith the AFSCME union, and once Fine In-stitute management refused to clarify theirexpectations, she sought help from her un-ion. Management took this opportunity tofail Micheleon probation. Management wentso far as to say that “setting standards andclarifying expectations in advance would beunfair to a University employee.”It's clear that this near 10-year em-ployee was removed from her new positionwithout receiving the proper feedback andsupport from Fine Institute managers. OnceMichele approached the union, managementfelt threatened and took negative actionagainst Michele, who now faces unemploy-ment as the sole wage earner of her family.Michele's supporters within AFSCME,the IWW, and within the University'sWooden Shoe Club (an IWW-afﬁliated project) have begun a public outreach campaignto support Michele in her efforts to regainher job. If you are interested in joining thecampaign, please read the statement andsign the petition athttp://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/reinstate-micheleWhile University of California studentsand staff are organizing and occupying theircampuses in response to administrativecuts, we in Minnesota are feel the pinch aswell. Thankfully, we're also organized, andstanding up for workers like Michele. Wecan win this one. Join us. •••

Includes contri-butions from the Wooden Shoe Club, MicheleRockne, John O'Reilly, and Erik Davis

Michele Rockne of the University of Minnesota

THE ORGANIZER

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Fall Feast, cont. from p. 1 •

currently held in WasecaFederal Correctional Institute as a Green Scare prisoner, andour recent Training for Trainers event, inwhich we hosted organizers from allover the world and shared skills witheach other, to return and train evenbetter trainers in our local environ-ments.We also about the huge success of this past Summer's One Day in Julystreet festival, commemorating the1934 Minneapolis Teamster's Strike, inwhich teamsters controlled the streetsin running battles with police ofﬁcersand the national guard, and which con-solidated Minneapolis' existence as apro-union city. And this is where thenext generation of future workers cameinto high focus. A number of fellowworkers have recently become newparents. Many of them were there anddid not get up and perform. Some of them did.We were treated to jaw-droppingperformances by fellow workers andnew fathers Nate Holdren and Jeff Pilac-inski, on vocals and accordion, respec-tively. They performed adaptations of "Click, Clack, Moo," and "Farmer Duck,"both of which celebrated the humorous organized direct ac-tion of exploited animals against their exploitative farmerbosses. The Mesaba Chorus performed a song from the Span-ish Revolution “¡A Las Barricadas!,” and the kid's skit, titled "75Years!" took a variety of workers from 1934 to the modernskylines of downtown Minneapolis in 2009 - before returningto the more familiar sights of NorthEast Minneapolis in 2009.No matter where they went, the kids in the skit were clearlyrunning the show.Minnesota fellow worker and folksinger, Bemidji radical,and member of the RiotFolk Collective Shannon Murray gen-erously came down to play two sets of excellent music for us, ranging from oldclassics "The Preacher and the Slave," topersonal works on family and her re-sponse to learning for the ﬁrst time thatWoody Guthrie's "This Land is YourLand" was actually a truly radical song.Nate Holdren summed up the nightidentifying the highlight as "seeing somany people I don't know personally.Our branch started off as basically onesocial group or so now it's big enoughthat not everyone has a direct personalrelationship to everyone. There aresome challenges that go with that, butit's exciting to be part of somethingthat's grown so much and continues togrow. That also makes events like thiseven more important, to help people getto know each other."This last month has seemed like awhirlwind of parties and events: fromthe T4T event and the grand openingparty to the community events of RNBN, we've had a chance to experi-ence both the highs of organizing suc-cesses, and community warmth. Perhapswe don't offer ourselves those opportunities often enough, butit seems hard to justify throwing a party given the scale of thetask ahead of us. Regardless, events like these provide the vitalsustenance our branch needs to keep working and organizingfor the year to come. If you weren't there, we'll see you nextyear!•••

“Eyes on theFries” Event

Jeff PilacinskiMembers of the Twin Cities IWWworking in the service industry sharedtheir organizing experiences and strate-gies with a packed house at the Min-neapolis Community and Technical Col-lege Library on November 10th. FellowWorkers Jake Bell and Angel Gardnerdid the IWW proud as they discussedthe tactics that that they use to im-prove conditions at their job. Those inattendance had a chance to first view afilm about organizing in the food/retailindustry, and then hear from theseIWW organizers.Fellow Workers Bell and Gardnerdetailed actions they had organizedwith their co-workers – actions thatsupported workers who weren’t gettingenough hours, or those who had beenwritten up for petty reasons, and ac-tions that focused on getting more payand paid sick days for service food/retail workers.Following this presentation, theIWW organizers fielded questions fromthe audience on the union’s strategiesof “solidarity unionism” and “directaction”. Audience members (includingseveral business union officers) thenchallenged the IWWs about thesestrategies. FWs Bell and Gardner re-sponded with confidence about theIWW’s role in organizing in the serviceindustry and how our union was im-proving conditions in workplaces thatthe big unions label as “unorganizable”.This event also brought togetherindividuals interested in the IWW atMCTC. FW Jason Evans – a studentand IWW member- used the event asan opportunity to launch the WoodenShoe Student Group at MCTC, wherestudents, staff, and faculty could connectaround the IWW’s vision of a betterworld for working people. Evans saidthat the event “brought together doz-ens of students who are forced to findmultiple jobs in the service industry topay for school. Sadly, most people seemto think that it’s alright for these jobsto be low-wage and for the conditionsto be rough – without sick leave oranything. The IWW believes workers inthe service industry should receive thepay and benefits that others enjoy – Imean, would you like some serviceworker making your food as they’reforced to be at work with the flu?”

To ﬁnd out more about making thingsbetter where you work, please contact thelocal IWW branch at twincities@iww.org.

Bemidi-based siner Shannon Murra. Photo E. Davis