Workers at the company went public with their campaign this July and have been fighting for increased wage and benefits, better working conditions, respect and paid time off since. The campaign escalated over the summer with one-day work stoppages, pickets and leafleting of the company’s wholesale customers, bringing workers into the campaign and forcing management to give out raises.

Sydney Lankford, a member of the union committee said, “At our cafe, we’ve spent six months fighting for better ventilation and worker protections. I am not surprised we won our union with an overwhelming majority of yes votes. Workers everywhere need change – I am so angry and grateful to be a part of it. Let the contract fight begin.”

Throughout the campaign, Homegrown workers fought back against anti-union tactics by corporate. Committee member Kai Ortiz said, “Intimidation, bullying, every single trick management has will not be enough to crush the power we built. I’m excited for justice to be served for every single one of my coworkers.”

Looking forward, workers plan to win a contract that will guarantee safety, higher wages, respect and power with negotiations starting in the new year. Committee member Jamai Jackson said, “I am forever grateful for all those who stood in solidarity to fight when the boss retaliated.”

#SeattleWA #TradeUnions #newOrganizing #foodService

Labor is joining a new effort to hold the police accountable for the killing, wrongful conviction, and even torture of young Blacks and Latinos. On November 22-24, veteran human rights activist Angela Davis will be in Chicago to re-establish the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR). This week, the 29,000-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 in Chicago added its name to the growing number of unions that have endorsed the conference.

Local 73 has a new president, Dian Palmer, its first Black principal officer. Last week, Palmer and Local 73 joined President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis Gates of the Chicago Teachers Union in a rally with Bernie Sanders, who came to support the unions as they prepare to strike the public schools and parks to win contract gains. The 25,000-member CTU is a sponsor of the NAARPR conference as well.

Local 73 was moved to get involved in this cause because of the long list of their members who have been victims and survivors of crimes committed by the Chicago Police. Take the case of Armanda Shackleford, a lunchroom employee who retired from the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Her son, Gerald Reed, is one of the men tortured into a confession by the Jon Burge gang of cops in the 1990s.

Other union members include Charlie Hernandez, a retiree from the City of Chicago parking enforcement department. Hernandez’s sons, Juan and Rosendo, were framed by Detective Reynaldo Guevara, who has been exposed for more than 50 such cases in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Regina Russell, an employee of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a member of Local 73’s executive board, is the mother of Tamon Russell, who was wrongfully convicted in 2001, framed when cops, working under another member of Jon Burge’s Midnight Crew, ignored the alibi for Tamon provided by Russell and her daughter.

Sherry Nickerson, a retired Special Education Certified Assistant (SECA) from CPS, is the aunt of Rekia Boyd, murdered in 2012 by off-duty cop, Dante Servin, who had been drinking when he fired into a crowd of young Black people in Douglas Park on Chicago’s Lower West Side, killing Boyd.

And Sable Russell, another SECA, is the aunt of Darien Harris, convicted in 2013 solely by an eyewitness who the police and the prosecutor knew was legally blind when he identified Harris in a murder trial when the young man was two months short of graduating from high school.

Other unions involved in the conference include the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1177; American Federation of Teachers Local 1493; and locals 526, 2822, and 3800 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Prominent trade unionists including Coraminita Mahr, Executive Vice President of SEIU Local 1199 are also supporting the conference.

Unions began taking a stand on the issues of racist police violence after Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called for unions to rally for justice for Brown’s family. Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

#ChicagoIL #Labor #OppressedNationalities #SEIULocal73 #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #TradeUnions #NAARPR

Ludlow, CO – On June 23, a commemoration of the Ludlow massacre took place, sponsored by labor unions, local officials and Greek and Greek-American civic and religious organizations. They gathered here to unveil a remarkable memorial: a new statue of strike organizer and Ludlow martyr Louis Tikas.

“Louis Tikas plays an important role in our community’s local history for his contribution to the 1913-14 strike,” said Yolanda Romero, event organizer in Ludlow.

An immigrant from Greece, Tikas was murdered in 1914 during a strike by 13,000 miners. Tikas was responsible for the striking miners’ camp, including women and children, after they were expelled from coal company housing. An eyewitness, a sergeant, said Lieutenant Karl Linderfelt broke a rifle butt over Tikas’ head and ordered him shot during the raid on the miners’ camp. Tikas was later found dead, with two others, shot in the back.

The Ludlow Massacre occurred when the Colorado National Guard and company thugs burned the miners’ tents and shot people in the camp, killing 13 children, two mothers, and number of miners. Folk singer Woody Guthrie memorialized the dead in his famous song Ludlow Massacre.

Miners were demanding an end to company scrip (money), company stores, company doctors, and coal company security goons enforcing a closed camp, like today’s detention centers. The miners wanted an eight-hour work day, enforcement of Colorado mining safety laws, and most importantly – union recognition.

Coal miners in Colorado were ready to strike after hundreds were killed in the years leading up to 1913. In 1910, one explosion killed 79 miners in Colorado. Mine owner John D. Rockefeller wrote in his reply letter, “How come the company is not growing faster?”

In response to the Ludlow Massacre, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) armed around 1000 miners, who shut down more than six mines. For the next ten days, miners were in charge and shot anybody who dared to oppose them with weapons. The Colorado Coalfield War left around 50 coal company thugs and state militiamen dead. Federal troops were called in to prevent the miners from seizing control.

The coal miners called off the strike in December 1914 with no immediate victory. However, the miners soon made gains in safety standards, including an end to child labor in the coal mines. The Rockefeller-owned mining company soon created a company union.

“I used to be a coal miner, and I stand on the shoulders of these people. They set the table for addressing health and safety issues in the mines, as well as other benefits such as wage increases which have trickled down to workers in other industries,” said Bob Butero, Region 4 Director, UMWA.

Butero concluded, “All workers should remember the sacrifice of martyrs such as Tikas.”

National leaders and rank-and-file members of the UMWA, and Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO, attended the unveiling. Also attending were Louis Tikas’ relatives from Greece, members of several Greek-American organizations, and the Honorable Gregory Karahalios, Greek Consul General in Los Angeles, Also honoring Tikas were local government officials from Trinidad and Las Animas County, Colorado, and many supporters from across Colorado.

“If we ask if he lost the battle? At the end, we will say no. He didn’t lose. He might die, but he died for a cause. And his cause is still alive today! We need people like him to be our guiding light in everything we do,” said Consul Karahalios, who spoke with great pride.

Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said about Louis Tikas, “He is indeed a hero in the United Mine Workers. He is a working class hero. And he is an American hero.”

#LudlowCO #PeoplesStruggles #TradeUnions #UMW

National labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) welcomed the news that President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday ordered Peace Secretary Jesus Dureza to resume the stalled peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

“The President’s willingness to continue the peace talks is a positive step,” said KMU chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog. “The labor sector is a major stakeholder in this issue, and we have always supported calls to resume peace talks, recognizing the need for broad social, economic, and political reforms to improve the quality of life of all Filipinos.”

The Duterte administration unilaterally terminated the peace talks last November 2017, a move criticized by various groups and sectors in the country, including KMU. NDFP consultant and labor advocate Rafael “Raffy” Baylosis was also arrested on January this year on trumped-up charges.

“In order to demonstrate his sincerity and good faith, we call on the President to release Raffy Baylosis and all other political prisoners immediately,” said Labog.

KMU called on the Duterte administration to uphold and respect existing agreements with the NDFP, including the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

“The continuing detention of Raffy Baylosis violates those agreements. It is not a good note on which to reopen peace negotiations,” Labog added.

KMU also urged the government to prioritize the drafting of a joint Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reform (CASER) between the GRP and the NDFP.

“CASER is a major step forward in addressing the roots of armed conflict in the country,” Labog said. “Peace is not just a matter of laying down arms. There can be no genuine peace in the Philippines as long as the rights of marginalized Filipinos, especially workers and peasants, are not recognized and protected.”

#Philippines #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #Duterte #TradeUnions #Asia