We’ll be changing our schedule a bit this coming week:
- 11am-1pm on Tuesday the 22nd & Friday the 25
- 3pm-5pm on Wednesday the 23rd & Thursday the 24th
If you’re new to the picket, try to show up half an hour early at Grendel’s Coffee, on the corner of 8th & E Burnside. The picket itself takes place around the corner at NE 7th & NE Couch St.
So, what’s happening at Janus?
The IWW has represented workers at Janus for 10 years, and the workers are currently fighting for a new contract. These negotiations have been going on for a year and a half now, with very little progress until recently. The workers are asking for a modest raise and very little else. However, Executive Director Dennis Morrow refuses to give any raise unless the workers agree to get rid of the Peer Review Panel which they’ve had since their first contract a decade ago. The Panel is the last step in a lengthy review process that workers have at their disposal if they are wrongfully fired. Janus wants to replace that Panel — a democratic body made up of 3 workers and 2 administrators — with mandatory arbitration, which will cost up to $1500/day, essentially in an effort to break the Union financially. And that arbitration isn’t binding, so even if the mediator finds that the worker was wrongfully fired, Janus won’t have to rehire them.
Two weeks ago, the Janus workers organized a picket outside the administrative offices, and we’ve been going strong there every day since. After all the stagnation in negotiations, Janus has finally started to budge since we’ve been outside making noise, and is moving closer to meeting our basic demands. We feel like this battle is close to being won, and so we’ve decided to keep up the pressure on Janus this week, February 22nd – 25th.
If you know you can make it any particular day or days, send us an email so we can keep track of our expected numbers. If you can’t schedule ahead of time, no big deal. Just come out and shout. We’ve got songs. We’ve got signs. We’ve got solidarity forever!