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WORKED Discussion Nights

WORKED Discussion Nights are a space for workers* to learn, share and act. Come share struggles and successes, learn from peers and allies, and strategize ways to take action on our dreams of fair and democratic workplaces.
6:30-8:30pm
Back Stage Bar – 3702 SE Hawthorne Boulevard
Kimball Room on the 3rd Floor

Three different Discussion Nights include:

  • May 29 – Office Space: Surviving the Modern Workplace
  • June 12 – Serving the Community: Work in the Nonprofit and Public Sector
  • June 26 – Precarious Life: Internships, Temp Work, and Underemployment

Free food and drinks!

RSVP here to let us know that you can make it to any of the WORKED Discussion Nights.

*Work doesn’t always get a paycheck! Students, interns, and volunteer and unemployed workers are encouraged to join the conversation. To build a space for all workers, we ask that employers and supervisors with hiring/firing power not attend. Please be prepared to be respectful, supportive, maintain confidentiality and promote a safer space.

May Day 2014 in PDX!

Fellow Workers!

On Thursday, May 1, we invite you to march with the I.W.W. during the May Day celebration in downtown Portland!

ALL WORKERS are welcome to join us! Our strength lies in our numbers, and working class solidarity is our goal and the tool with which we will create a better society within the shell of the old.

We’ll see YOU on May Day, at Park Ave. & SW Main St. in downtown Portland, at 3:00pm!

(look for the red balloons!)

May Day 2014 – People Over Profit! on Facebook

March with the I.W.W. on May Day!

Portland Teachers support authorizing strike

Portland teachers vote to stand up for their students
Overwhelming majority supports authorizing strike

Portland, OR

Tonight, nearly 3,000 Portland teachers voted, by an overwhelming majority, to call for a legal strike in order to support the schools Portland students deserve.

As a result of the vote, the Portland Association of Teachers will issue a strike notice to the Employment Relations Board (ERB) and the Portland Public Schools District calling for a strike beginning Thursday, February 20, 2014.

“No teacher ever wants to go on strike, we want to be in classrooms with our students,” explained PAT president Gwen Sullivan. “But Portland teachers are united and resolved to stand up for our students’ learning conditions. It’s time to move this to a conclusion so that we can have a contract that is fair for teachers and good for students.”

Portland teachers have been negotiating for 10 months for a contract that:

  • results in meaningful class size relief,
  • does not force teachers to teach to the test,
  • supports the students and schools who need it most, and
  • provides fair compensation after years of sacrifice.

Teachers and the district currently have a mediation session scheduled Sunday, February 9th. The PAT bargaining team has asked the district to meet sooner, offering to be available Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The district has not agreed to any meeting times prior to the Sunday mediation session.

“This vote shows that teachers are serious about addressing the growing crisis in our schools,” said bargaining chair Bill Wilson, a teacher at Grant High School. “We hope that Superintendent Smith and School Board leaders understand this and will come to the bargaining table as soon as possible prepared to make meaningful progress toward addressing the priorities of teachers, parents and students.”

Source: Portland Association of Teachers’ Facebook page

Industrial Worker – November 2013

Interested in labor news and I.W.W. activities throughout the world? Our excellent newsletter, The Industrial Worker, will help keep you updated about working class struggle and the continuous growth of the One Big Union. Articles in this issue: The Story And Struggle Of Starbucks Workers In Chile, In November We Remember, a special on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and more!

Read Issue #1760, Vol. 110, No. 9

Print subscriptions are available. Copies are also available at the Red & Black Cafe.

Industrial Worker - November 2013
Industrial Worker – November 2013

Music for the Working Class – Sept. 2013

The Portland IWW’s monthly Music for the Working Class returns on Wednesday, September 25 at the Red & Black Cafe!

7:00-10:00pm

Special guests: The Synthicalists, and more!

AND don’t miss a special presentation by the Portland IWW’s Food and Retail Workers United!

Every Wednesday is Worker Wednesday at the Red & Black Cafe! All union members and service industry workers get discount prices on food and drinks!

I.W.W. Picket at Chicago Lake Liquors

Solidarity with our Fellow Workers in the Twin Cities!

From TCOrganizer.com:

On Saturday, April 6th, passers-by will be treated to the sight of a large picket outside of Minnesota’s highest volume liquor store, Chicago-Lake liquors. Picketers will hold signs and chant slogans of support for the workers of the store, five of whom were fired after asking for higher wages as a part of a union drive with the Industrial Workers of the World.

Although workers had been discussing forming a union and acting for better conditions in their workplace for almost a year, the event will mark the first time any of them publicly declare their IWW affiliation. This declaration and action comes on the heels of the firing of five union employees–Hallie Wallace, Arella Vargas, Max Specktor, Davis Ritsema, and Joe Giwoyna–shortly after they presented a petition signed by the majority of the shop’s workforce asking for a dollar raise and elevating its $10.50 pay cap to $13 an hour. In January, the workers also turned in a petition asking for holiday pay.

“If there’s anywhere that needs a union, it’s a store like Chi-Lake,” said Wallace, “Despite the immense amount of money that we bring in, our wages are incredibly low. We have no paid sick days or holiday pay, scheduling is inconsistent, and we put up with unsafe working conditions and sexual harassment on a daily basis. We’ve come together to demand respect and dignity on the job for everyone working at Chi-Lake, and they’ve responded with nothing more than aggressive union-busting.”

At the picket, the workers and supporters will make clear their demands, which are to rehire those fired illegally, provide raises to all employees as initially asked, and that management stop union-busting.

In addition to the picket action on Saturday, the five fired workers also filed Unfair Labor Practices with the National Labor Relations Board.

“We will keep fighting until they rehire all five of the fired workers and give us all the raises we deserve,” said Specktor, “We’re not going to allow ourselves to be bullied by management. We’re going to win this fight.”

The campaign at Chicago Lake Liquors represents a new step for Food and Retail Workers United, an organizing committee of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks and Jimmy Johns workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.

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