Articles tagged strike

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

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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.

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Mobilize for Striking Fast Food Workers

Posted 11 years ago on April 4, 2013, 9:47 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: solidarity, labor, strike, nyc

Fast Food Workers Strike

via 99pickets.org:

Today, Thursday April 4 , over 400 fast food workers across NYC are starting a second wave of strikes for better wages and a union, marking the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Like the sanitation workers that Dr. King marched with in Memphis, these workers are standing up for dignity and respect for all workers.

Will you support these courageous workers by mobilizing your friends, family and colleagues to come out today and Friday?

1) Join a picket line starting at 11am. Key locations:

Wendy’s in midtown Manhattan, 259 34th St.
Burger King in Harlem, 154 E. 116 St.
Wendy’s in downtown Brooklyn 425 Fulton St.

2) Come to the Fast Food Worker Justice rally at 5:30pm in Marcus Garvey Park (124th and Madison). RSVP here

3) On Friday April 5, walk the striking workers back to work. Collective action is protected under U.S. labor law, and the workers are asking the community to be on-site at fast food locations around the city to support them as they return to the job. Sign up here; shifts are available throughout the day.

Post your photos and videos to Facebook and Twitter:

fastfoodfwd

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Seeing Red: Chicago Teachers Elevate Anti-Privatization Fight to National Level

Posted 12 years ago on Sept. 10, 2012, 9:47 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: labor, strike, teachers, education, solidarity, union, chicago

"United We Bargain, Divided We Beg"

via the Occupied Chicago Tribune:

When a teachers’ strike started to look like a realistic possibility earlier this spring, CPS Chief Communications Officer Becky Carroll warned the readers of Catalyst, “Any talk of a strike is the wrong message to send our schools, students and taxpayers.” For her, and the rest of the privatization evangelists at CPS, the “right” message is simple—shut up and do what you’re told.

Of course, Carroll, who makes $165,000 per year, isn’t paid that kind of money to tell the truth. Luckily for us, neither Chicago teachers nor the larger education community are giving much credence to CPS talking points.

The corporate education “reformers” have been experimenting on Chicago’s most underserved students and schools for more than two decades, trying any quick-fix makeovers so long as such schemes keep the public out of the discussion on how best to educate our city’s children. The so-called innovations taking place in charter and turnaround schools are making chaos of students’ formative years and relegating the art of teaching to rote instruction.

Faced with such a dire situation, the Chicago Teachers Union’s decision to strike is perhaps the best lesson they could have planned—when the powers that be are shutting you out of your life, you must take a stand. And it’s a lesson that teachers themselves learned from the communities they serve.

Before CTU President Karen Lewis and members of the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) became the new union leadership in 2010, the CTU, like its national union, the American Federation of Teachers, was a willing pawn in the privatization game. CORE broke from the CTU leadership and won respect from the majority of union members by actively supporting parent- and student-led protests at schools across the city. After gaining office, they continued to organize against privatization with the already active education community, and to educate its own members about the importance of doing so.

Chicago students are already at the forefront of the fight. Dyett High School students, along with students from 16 other states, have petitioned the Department of Education to investigate racial disparities in the allocation of school resources. They’ve already met with officials at the Department of Education, and on September 20, they’ll be taking “Freedom Rides” to Washington, D.C., to bring more attention to their cause.

Meanwhile, hundreds of students at Social Justice High School in Little Village have disrupted their school day with sit-ins to protest the dismantling of their school. So CPS shouldn’t worry about the strike giving “wrong” ideas to students—the students are already leading the charge, and are just in their cause.

If anything, they should worry about these students further influencing the CTU. Unlike its portrayal as a selfish bully in the 1% Chicago Tribune, the CORE-led CTU has been a partner to community groups fighting for quality public education. Now, hostile contract negotiations have opened a window for the union to elevate the anti-privatization fight to a national level.

As former CPS CEO Arne Duncan continues to spread the hollow gospel of corporate reform as the nation’s secretary of education, and as his predecessor Paul Vallas preaches the same throughout South America, it’s about time that Chicago, the birthplace of this failed faith, denounces it publicly.

Parents for the CTU

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NYC: Solidarity March for Chicago Teachers, Monday 9/10

Posted 12 years ago on Sept. 9, 2012, 1:29 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: labor, strike, teachers, education, solidarity, union, chicago, nyc

Solidarity with CTU

Chicago teachers are likely to strike tomorrow, Monday, September 10th. Please join MORE (Movement of Rank-and-File Educators) and Occupy Wall Street to stand with them in solidarity!

When: Monday, September 10th at 5pm
Where: Meet at the south side of Union Square (14th Street)

Teachers in Chicago are striking for increased resources and quality programs for students and fair working conditions for teachers.

MORE sees the Chicago teachers’ fight as part of a growing national resistance movement against corporate-backed education reformers who bash teachers, push high stakes testing, and promote school privatization as solutions to the problems in our public education system. The destructive “reforms” being pushed in Chicago are the same as those we see here in New York.

Come early at 4:30 to make signs. We’ll have some supplies, but folks are strongly encouraged to bring extra poster board and markers. After a rally with speeches from several union activists, we’ll march at 5:30 to the New York office of Democrats for Education reform, a PAC made up of hedge fund managers seeking to profit from school privatization schemes. DFER has sponsored anti-CTU ads and petitions in Chicago and supports pro-charter, pro-reform candidates and policies here in New York. The DFER office is at 928 Broadway between 21st and 22nd Streets.

Links and Resources:

download flyer here
CTU: Strike Central
Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign
MORECaucusNYC.org

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