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We are the 99 percent

Articles tagged labor


Walmart Advises Against Unions

Posted 10 years ago on Jan. 21, 2014, 11:25 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: labor, walmart, capitalism

Join Team #WalMartStrikers

While the Waltons enjoy a life of epic luxury and entitlement, resting in the top 20 of wealth holders in the planet, the #WalmartStrikers are fighting for food at the table, sick days, and $15 dollars an hour (at the very least).

Last week, we introduced for public perusal a few of the training materials for Walmart managers. Missing in those slides, were some key talking points.

What does a loyal manager do if a Walmart Associate asks about the big bad union?

If you are a Walmart worker and you want to be involved in organizing your workplace, contact Making Change.

30 Comments

Show Your Solidarity on #BlackFriday While Supporting the #WalmartStrikers

Posted 10 years ago on Nov. 13, 2013, 12:14 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: direct action, labor, WalmartStrikers, Black Friday

If you want to participate in the Black Friday actions to protest working conditions at WalMart go to: http://blackfridayprotest.org

If you are a Walmart worker involved in organizing and you need financial assistance, please contact us.

If you want to support the workers by paying for essential living expenses, please consider buying the snazzy "Team #WalmartWorkers" tshirt, printed and fulfilled by the OWS Screenprinters.

Support a Striker

2 Comments

National Strike! August 29th

Posted 11 years ago on Aug. 20, 2013, 9:52 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: labor, strike, fast food workers

Imgur

via LowPayIsNotOK.org:

Thousands of workers are going on a national strike on August 29 to demand better pay and better treatment. Low-wage jobs are the fastest growing jobs in the nation and they need to pay more so that workers like us can make ends meet. McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC and other corporations are making billions in profits, but they’re paying poverty wages and keeping the entire economy down. We’ve had enough. And we’re not alone.

If you work in a fast food or retail store anywhere in the country, the most effective thing you can do right now is make plans to take to the streets on August 29. Encourage your friends, family, and neighbors to do the same. The more of us who go on strike that day, the louder our message will be that it is not right for companies making billions in profits to pay their workers pennies.

Email us to let us know you’re in – or if you want to talk with a fellow fast food worker who has already gone out on strike. You can reach us at (347) 974-3944 too.

HOW TO GO ON A ONE-DAY STRIKE
15 steps for $15 an hour and the right to form a union

Before you strike for $15:

1 - Talk to coworkers you trust and ask them to join you.
2 - Set the time to meet outside the store on the day of the strike.
3 - Call everyone you know to support you: friends, family, local social justice organizations, pastors, priests, and politicians and ask them to come to your strike line.
4 - Ask at least one of your supporters to walk back into to work with you at your next regularly scheduled shift after the strike.

Day of the strike for $15:

5 - Make signs that say why you are on strike.
6 - Print out and deliver the “Strike” letter to your manager (everyone who is on strike should sign it).
7 - Start your strike! Stand outside your store with your supporters and let people know you all are standing up for $15 an hour and the right to organize a union because low pay is not ok!
8 - Call the local TV station and newspaper and let them know you are on strike at your store.
9 - Call or text family and friends who aren’t there yet to come and support you.
10 - Chant, march, sing and let everyone who is on strike explain why they are there.
11 - Ask supporters to come with you when you and your coworkers return to work.
12 - Post pictures of your strike on Facebook at Facebook.com/LowPayIsNotOK and tweet them to @lowpayisnotok with the hashtag #strikefor15

After the strike for $15:

13 - Meet up with your supporter who is walking with you to work.
14 - Go back to work at your next regularly scheduled shift with your head held high.
15 - Tell your coworkers how it felt to stand up for $15 an hour and the right to form union with thousands of other workers across the country! Sign them up at LowPayIsNotOK.org.

11 Comments

Mobilize for Bangladeshi Workers: Mass Funeral Procession to SoHo Retailers

Posted 11 years ago on June 26, 2013, 4:06 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: solidarity, labor, 99 pickets, NYC

Bangladesh factory collapse

After the tragic deaths of over 1,200 Bangladeshi garment workers in factory fires and building collapses, U.S. retailers must take responsibility for the conditions at the factories that produce their clothing. The groundbreaking "Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh", will take meaningful steps towards ensuring safe working conditions in garment factories. Unfortunately, most U.S. companies won't sign the agreement.

Gap, Banana Republic, North Face, Timberland, American Eagle, Target, Sears, Old Navy, Walmart: STOP THE BLOODSHED. Sign the Accord.

Join 99 Pickets, Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM), United Students Against Sweatshops, NYNJRJB Workers United, the YaYa Network, Student Labor Action Movement, UAW, New York CLC, and the Rude Mechanical Orchestra in a mass funeral march to shame and call out U.S. retailers that haven't signed the Accord.

WHEN: Saturday, June 29 at 1pm
WHERE: Petrosino Square, near Spring St. & Lafayette St. in Manhattan.

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/9uwY1

Dress for mourning

We'll let SoHo shoppers know about these corporations' murderous inaction. It's not as if the agreement is unworkable: H&M, Joe Fresh, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Zara, Primark and 40 other apparel and retail companies that have signed on to the Accord.

More about the Accord

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a new agreement between global union federations and 40 prominent apparel and retail companies, requires companies to participate in and fund a program of independent safety inspections, remediation, and worker safety trainings with the involvement of trade unions.

Visual map of the agreement: http://www.laborrights.org/sites/default/files/publications-and-resources/Visual_explanation_of_the_Bangladesh_Safety_Accord.png

The time for individual and ineffective “corporate social responsibility” programs is long over. The legally binding, multi-stakeholder Accord is the kind of framework that is much more likely to result in safer factories and better jobs for garment workers.

For more info, go to: http://99pickets.org/campaigns/bangladesh

https://www.facebook.com/events/525866820794337/

11 Comments

Artists Demand Fair Labor Standards!

Posted 11 years ago on May 8, 2013, 2:34 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: labor, union, frieze art fair, ows arts and labor

To artists, gallerists, workers, and fairgoers attending Frieze Art Fair New York:

For the second year in a row, Frieze Art Fair and its subcontractor Production Glue have hired low-wage, non-unionized workers to construct their fair, bringing in people from as far away as Wisconsin. This breaks with the industry standard: the major New York City art fairs including the Armory and the ADAA, as well as many other cultural and business expositions, employ unionized workers to construct and run their shows.

Frieze is a for-profit private event that takes over a municipal public park for two months to serve a global clientele of wealthy art collectors. The fair pays less than $1 per square foot to lease the land from the city. With a ticket price of $42 per day, Frieze is inaccessible to many working New Yorkers. However, despite the cheap rent and high admission prices to an event that generates millions of dollars in art sales (and not to mention the event's main sponsor, Deutsche Bank), Frieze still claims it cannot afford to pay decent wages to local workers.

Labor organizations including Teamsters Joint Council 16, NYC Central Labor Council, IATSE Local 829, IATSE Local 1, NYC District Council of Carpenters, and District Council 9 have all called on Frieze to employ their union members and guarantee local workers a fair, living wage with benefits. This demand has been repeated by City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito (representing Randall’s Island), as well as City Councilmembers Jessica Lappin and Mark Weprin, and U.S. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY12). As Weprin said recently, “Frieze NY Art Fair, or any private business that chooses to use public parks, should hire local New York workers and adhere to fair labor standards.”

If you are an artist or gallerist showing at the fair:

We ask you to refuse to serve as a fig leaf for exploitation. We ask you to decline to lend artistic cachet to an event that does not support New Yorkers, and that desperately needs the stamp of cultural seriousness to justify itself to the public.

Even if you cannot withdraw from the fair at this point, we ask you to consider speaking out publicly against Frieze’s unfair labor practices by making information about this issue available at your booth. We would be glad to provide you with a sign and/or flyers you can display.

We also urge you to tell Frieze organizers that you are an artist or represent artists in the exhibition and that you support organized labor.

If you are attending or work at the fair: Urge everyone you know to contact Frieze to demand they engage in fair labor practices, and consider not attending the fair until Frieze agrees.

It takes courage to speak the truth when many wish to deny it, but rest assured that should you decide to stand up and speak out, you will not be alone.

The arts are an economic engine for New York, bringing millions of people and billions of dollars to the city each year. Yet each year, more jobs become unpaid internships, artists are denied payment for their labor, real wages go down, and benefits are lost; meanwhile, the city becomes more expensive and the distribution of wealth more unequal. We believe in the importance of holding institutions such as Frieze accountable for their impact on New York and the people who live and work here. We want to see art bloom across our city, but we know there is a better, fairer way to foster this growth.

Sincerely, Arts & Labor

Arts and Labor

To contact Frieze:

Frieze New York Office 41 Union Square West, Suite 1623 New York, NY 10003 +1 212 463 7488 info@frieze.com

Production Glue www.productionglue.com Facebook

Directors Amanda Sharp Matthew Slotover

Assistant to Director Amanda Sharp Renee Browne +1 212 463 7488 renee.browne@frieze.com

Frieze London Office 1 Montclare Street London E2 7EU, UK +44 (0)20 3372 6111

Twitter [@FriezeNewYork](twitter.com/FriezeNewYork]

FNY13 #FriezeRatFair

For more information on this struggle, see:

Arts & Labor, “NYC Labor Leaders Demand that Frieze NY Art Fair Hire Local and Union”

Mostafa Heddaya, “Labor Issues in Spotlight as Frieze NY Prepares for May Art Fair”

Whitney Kimball, “Unions, City Council, Congresswoman Protest Frieze”

Rozalia Jovanovic, “New York Union Members Speak Out at City Hall Against Frieze's Labor Policies”

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