Requirements
Digital ReportageSelf-Organisation in the Workplace - How does it Work?Using the example of 3 campaigns of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from 2004 - 2016 in the US
- Input & Discussion - Including Fellow Workers from Portland | Youtube
- Deutsche Version? - Hier lang!
Chapter 1 | RequirementsHow do we win?
- What happens in the preparation of such actions?
- How do I start, if I want to organize with colleagues?
- How do I start, if I believe to be alone at my workplace?
Chapter 1 | Requirements Do you ever feel powerless in everyday life?
Chapter 1 | Requirements Do you ever feel powerless in everyday life?
If I know what's coming, I can fight back.
At the same time, when we fight back with our colleagues, we feel a tension and excitement before the action, because it is unusual to fight back openly. Bosses invest a lot of time in thinking about how they can get us to do what they want. At the universities thousands of future bosses are trained for such a thing.
Control techniques in everyday life
On the company side these mechanisms are trivialized as "control techniques" or "management styles". This sounds neutral, but disguises some things. They are techniques of domination. In the campaigns examined here, there is technical help for the bosses: the shift planning software at Starbucks, no guaranteed number of hours at Jimmy John's. Or the yelling at Burgerville, because colleagues didn't prepare the ice cream the way the company wants it standardized. The US is the leading world power at the moment. Therefore many techniques of domination are copied from there and arrive in the German Language Area (and other areas). If we observe the strategies of the fellow workers in the US, we can also use them in our contexts.
Proletarian creativity vs. entrepreneurial control
Even if the bosses want to control our smallest movements of creativity, our feelings, our body: they never succeed completely. That is why they are always thinking up something new. In the hospital these techniques look different from those used in the automotive industry or in construction. However, in all areas the following applies: If we understand which techniques they use, this opens up spaces for our resistance. Sometimes laws help us, but often they stand in our way...
You can find more on the subject of techniques of domination & the current social conditions here.
Chapter 1 | Requirements Left Generation Conflict?
Chapter 1 | Requirements Left Generation Conflict?
Most trade unions are overaged, organise only certain sectors and have little to do with the reality of life for many of our colleagues.
2008/2009 was also the year in which the global economic crisis hit these groups the hardest. Many old wisdoms and world interpretations were shaken. As a result, various leftist movements emerged. Especially in the US and most parts of Western Europe there is a tendency for under-50s and especially milennials to think and vote left-wing. This is especially true for women, who sometimes vote much more left-wing than men in the respective age group. Material interests are a major factor here. We seem to perceive class relations more and more through the medium of "age". The common ground of a young part of the working class in the metropolitan areas is with a part of impoverished pensioners. On the other hand, there is a huge proportion of relatively well-protected men over 50 years of age with private property.
"New class politics?"
In recent years there has been much discussion in the german speaking left about with which part of the class should we organise ourselves with. It is often ignored that the composition of the population is changing. The working class looks different today than it did 50 years ago. Therefore, the confrontation of class vs. gender vs. migration is a cardboard mate. Perhaps it is simply a matter of lines of division within the working class and their respective experiences of struggle. For metropolitan regions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland these changes in class and its conditions of struggle are irretrievably part of it. To close oneself to this circumstance misses the reality. Correspondingly the fighting fields, focuses and methods are changing. Also our abilities as leftists must change.
An illustration of the tendency of the Milennials to use new methods to organize themselves under the precarious conditions, is this study. This does not mean that there can be no links across generations, but it does indicate that the balance of power is changing and must continue to change.
Possible ways of dealing with this situation
See the corresponding book for an analysis of the "Generation Left". A few strategic considerations to overcome the division of our class make some comrades from Plan C in the UK. Also in their podcast.
Chapter 1 | Requirements Nothing is as it seems
Chapter 1 | Requirements Nothing is as it seems
Images vs. Reality
- Size of the committees: Even in big campaigns with hundreds or thousands of strikers, the preparation groups are often small (2-10 people).
- There are small circles that initiate and sometimes colleagues join and sometimes not (it makes sense to find out why not)
- 3-5 people is a good size for a committee to start with. It is probably more important to keep this circle stable. Many of our members start out alone in a company. We practice how to do this together.
- The campaigns we studied started in shared flats of leftists. This can also be a playground or a pub or something similar.
- An environment of people with experience and a benevolent culture of interaction, sharing mistakes and learning, is necessary to be successful.
- 100 years ago it was probably no different. But in historiography there are often only a few male heroes who simply went somewhere and suddenly everyone revolted. It has never been so easy and it never will be.
- We don't want lone warriors(!) who burn themselves out in kamikaze actions. Our lives are too precious for that and it does not help our class. When these heroes are burned out, everything falls apart.
- Organizing drives have many ups and downs. That's normal. Probably we lose in 70% of the cases, but the 30% are all the more to celebrate.
- Political education in the sense of: "Why is the world as it is and why is it so difficult for us to win?" should be done at least from time to time. This prevents frustrated burning out and isolation.
- We recommend that you consciously decide beforehand, where you want to be in line and which industry you want to work in.
- "Hot shop" campaigns, where a colleague approaches us and the shop is already under fire, are worthy of support, but they should not be the main part of our considerations.
- If we decide on a company specifically, we determine the pace we want to go and can(!)
Chapter 1 | Requirements Findings
Chapter 1 | Requirements Findings
In the course of the study a few things stood out as special features. They can also help in planning new campaigns. 17 fellow workers were interviewed:
Previous experience
- All campaigns were started by politically experienced organizers. They had been active in trade unions and politics before
- There were more active than the organizers who started the campaigns. There were many changes. But as stabilization it needed a core of 3-5 people.
- Organizers in the IWW and the radical left were recruited specifically. Politically active people are helpful, because it's not so bad for them to lose their jobs if necessary. They take more risk because of that.
- The companies were selected because they play an important role in the branch/region and a successful organisation also changes the branch/region.
- All workplaces had a high fluctuation, the seniority of the organisers was partly the longest.
- In the branches with 5-25 workers, the number of members in the campaigns also fluctuated (2-25).
- The Starbucks Workers Union served as a model for the campaigns. Meaning: The SWU as a semi-autonomous organization, which is connected to the IWW, but can also act independently.
Chapter 1 | Requirements From here to revolution
Chapter 1 | Requirements From here to revolution
We organize our proletarian self-defense, but in doing so we also have the goal of finally abolishing all suffering in the world.
While in capitalism there are those who live from their wealth and we have to live from our wages - the question arises why everything should remain as it is. However, since the global right has been quite successful in many places in the last decades, we are dependent on contributing to a revolutionary movement in which we fight for a world that is organized according to our needs.
For this form of society we also need skills and solidary relationships to realize such a society. For us, this form of emancipatory organization means to form the seed forms of a new society within the shell of the old. In our struggles we are testing solidarity forms of behaviour that help us to learn how to build a culture of support in which everyone can be different without fear. These attempts have to fail under the given social conditions, but not in the long run. We organize ourselves according to our interests as a fighting class and not according to national borders. We don't ask for the permission of existing institutions, but take what we are entitled to. Always in negotiation with our colleagues and based on our idea of solidarity unionism.
More on this later in chapter 3
Burgerville Workers Union
Chapter 2 | The "Burgerville Workers Union" Burgerville Portland, Oregon
Chapter 2 | The "Burgerville Workers Union" Burgerville Portland, Oregon
Burgerville: Fast Food - but organic
Organic Fast Food
One of Burgerville's hallmarks is its focus on products that are regional, organic, sustainable and antibiotic-free. The chain advertises that all stores are powered by wind energy and that the health of the workers is taken care of. In this respect, the company is a major employer in the region, whose image as a liberal and cosmopolitan company is appropriate in a social democratic climate comparable to New York City. The company is part of the system catering industry, which grew rapidly in the 1970s.
Strategic selection of the company
It is also strategically important for the IWW, as a change would also have a long-term effect on suppliers and other chains/stores in the region. The colleagues work there according to a minimum wage of $9.75 dollars per hour, sometimes in up to three jobs to secure their livelihood and even after several years of working there they have little chance of a significant wage increase, apart from the lack of job security.
Chapter 2 | The "Burgerville Workers Union" History
Chapter 2 | The "Burgerville Workers Union" History
Chapter 2 | The "Burgerville Workers Union" Further Consequences
Chapter 2 | The "Burgerville Workers Union" Further Consequences
What was the result of the experiences of the fellow workers?
- According to the Burgerville Workers Union, they are the first state-recognized union in the fast food sector in the USA. In their first strike in autumn 2018, they said they organised the biggest strike ever in the fast food sector: about 50 workers took part in it
- The BGWVU has grown considerably from 5 members to over 60 in the first year
- The first similar campaign in the sector has also been launched: the Little Big Union
Curious About Different Organizing Models?
- The Jimmy John's Workers Union in Minneapolis, Minnesota
- The Starbucks Workers Union in New York City
Outlook & Do-it-yourself tools
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY Tools Where do I begin?
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY Tools Where do I begin?
I want to organize. How do I start?
Some people when they first feel that they have been treated unfairly fly into a rage or start loudly crusading against the boss. This can be dangerous. Management jealously guards its authority in the workplace, and when you begin to question authority, you become a threat. In most workplaces, from the moment you begin to question authority, you become a troublemaker in management’s eyes. If you have never before made any waves where you work, you may be shocked, hurt or angered by how quickly management turns against you. This is a good reason to be discrete when you begin to talk to others.
Talk to your fellow workers and ask them what they think about what’s happening at work. What do they think about the problems you’re concerned about? Listen to what others have to say. Get their views and opinions. Most people think of an organiser as an agitator and rabble-rouser (and there are times when an organiser must be those things), but a good organiser is first of all one who asks good questions and listens well to others.
Having listened well, you should be able to express not only your own views and feelings, but also those of your colleagues. Almost inevitably there will be some people who are more concerned about the problems we face than others, and a few of those people will want to do something about it. Those few people now form the initial core of your “organisation”. You might ask the two most interested people to have coffee or lunch with you, introduce them to each other, and then ask, “What do you think about this?” If they are indeed ready to do something and not just complain, then you are almost ready to begin organising.
Source: wobblies.org
On the following pages you will find some tools for this.
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY Tools Organizing
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY Tools Organizing
Planning of Strategy
(1) IWW organizers almost always work in the shop they are organizing. We don’t rely on professional organizing staff. This means that the experience and knowhow gained through organizing remains embedded in the working class.
(2) While most unions simply ask workers to sign cards or vote in an NLRB election, we focus heavily on developing our coworkers as leaders with a high level of involvement in the campaign, with the goal of unleashing workers’ most powerful weapon: shop-floor direct action. The union is active on the shop floor every single day, shoring up confidence, addressing fears, and building solidarity among their coworkers in order to organize a guerrilla war of small-scale actions against the boss over shop-level issues.
(3) In IWW campaigns, the organizing committee of workers calls all the shots, rather than union officers, staff, lawyers, or PR consultants. These differences may seem minor at first, but they have profound implications for the kind of movement we are building. By building a union run by workers, IWW organizing prefigures a world where power is in the hands of workers.
Source: Forman (2014): 205-232
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY ToolsOrganizing TrainingsTool to do it yourself | #1
Look in the calendar for trainings
Organize a training
Become a Trainer
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY Tools Learning From Experience Tool to do it yourself | #2
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY Tools Learning From Experience Tool to do it yourself | #2
"The lives of us workers are full of stories of struggles, perspectives and aspirations that we share every day."
Stories change us
Stories do not only show their effect after we think and feel. Storytelling is an act of reflection and thinking. They do not simply represent what we think; telling a story generates new thoughts and changes the past ones. We have probably all felt a change after we have told others a story. When we engage with our partner, listen to him/her and put into words what happened to us, we experience new perspectives on our actions. Being criticized also changes our memories of a situation and mistakes. Well thought out things show themselves in a different light.
Putting experiences into language
There is something very powerful in the process of finding a language for the experiences of those involved in struggles. This process involves both the things that have happened to us and how we put them into words. In the transformation of memories into reality an emotional and imaginative transformation takes place. As a reader, we are amazed by great work, which can carry us away, fill us with strong feelings, motivate us and change our perspective on what is possible and necessary. The reconstruction of these stories moves us to watch this process from two sides. As participants in social struggles and as a way of participating in them.
Source: Nappalos, Scott (2013); p. 2
Read about class struggles
Find other IWW members near you
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY ToolsBrochure: How to fire your bossTool to do it yourself | #4
Extract:
"Having to finance our livelihood through wage labour can be very humiliating. This is probably known to all colleagues who were or are in this situation. The basic principles of freedom, equality and solidarity, on which our society should be built, end at the latest when we enter the workplace. We must not have a say in what is produced, and certainly not in how production is organised. We cannot decide how much time we have available for caring for those in need of care or for children. But we should work hard and keep our heads down. "
Download the brochure
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY ToolsSolidarity NetworksTool to do it yourself | #5
Excerpt:
"The emergence of Solidarity Networks has led to experiments and debates not only in the USA but also internationally. As far as we know, their emergence is due to the Seattle Solidarity Network. Simply put, a Solidarity Network is a group that takes direct action to support struggles of individuals or groups, typically workers or tenants. Unlike traditional union organizing, the Seattle Solidarity Network began to mobilize an environment willing to work on problems that working class people have, no matter where they live or work. This also means fighting where there is already a union, where someone is on their own, or where many tenants* and workers are involved. "
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Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY Tools The Last Years of the IWW
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY Tools The Last Years of the IWW
Successful organizing also includes the evaluation of defeats, not just successes.
While only a few of these went public as IWW, we tried to conserve and pass on our experiences. We know that these committees were often initiated by 1-3 people and the committees fell apart again. Some of the organizers ended up in other organizations, other campaigns or left the IWW. To a certain extent this is normal, the development also follows the historical line of the IWW. But this is also the reason why there was little public action or perception of us. We are testing a lot and therefore we agreed on some basic things at our strategy conference in Hamburg 2018.
Since we primarily want to encourage colleagues to become active themselves and preferably to do this with us, we have published some reports on our experiences. The list is incomplete and will be extended when colleagues write something new.
- Hello Pizza Leipzig
- Eurest Frankfurt a. M.
- Call Center in Rostock
- Chemical industry Hamburg
- Ecological agriculture
- German Red Cross in Cologne
- Memorial in Brandenburg
- The "nursing experts" in Frankfurt a. M.
- See also: wobblies.org
- Social and educational services in Bremen
- Social and educational services in Berlin
- Processing industry in Bern & Zurich
- Social and educational services in Vienna
- Participation in Women*strike - Committees in Germany, Austria, Switzerland
- Deutsche Bahn SSC Germany
- Callcenter in Kassel
- English Shop in Cologne
- Plastics industry Kassel
- Car rental Sixt in Rostock
Chapter 3 | Outlook & DIY ToolsSome Active Campaignsof the Industrial Worker of the World
Going public vs. stay under the radar
We recommend that all colleagues build up sufficient strength and a resilient network of colleagues within the company. Only then does it make sense to go public. As a result, there are far fewer campaigns visible here than actually exist. This is also the case in the German Language Area.
Stardust Family United
"Ellen's Stardust Diner" is a restaurant on Broadway in New York City where the colleagues who serve the food are also singing actors in the store. Since 2016 they are organized in the IWW.
Deliverunion
The Europe-wide campaign of Deliveroo riders* launched in the UK by the IWW and IWGB has received a lot of publicity and has shaken up some things in the so called gig economy. In Germany this was driven forward in particular by FAU. Labournet.tv has compiled videos. Thanks a lot!
Little Big Union
With the inspiration of the Burgerville Workers Union, fellow workers have organized themselves at the restaurant chain "Little Big Burger".
Organizing App 'Wobbly'
Fellow Workers from the UK are working on an app for organising colleagues, which was also developed from the experience at Deliveroo.
Youtube Playlist
All Videos of this documentation + bonus material
Further links & literature
Chapter 4 | Further LinksRead more & Contact
Interview & event requests
If you have any feedback/questions/criticism, or you'd like to invite us? Please send us a mail. If you want to have the original study, please ask (only in german available). organizing@wobblies.org
Archives | Recomposition
For many of us organizers*, the blog of IWW members from North America was a great inspiration and helpful to get a new perspective on our own working relationships. Unfortunately the blog is offline. You can still find the archive of articles on Libcom.
Book | 'Lines of Work'
From the material of the blog Recomposition, the editors have made a book in 2013. Some of the texts can also be found translated on wobblies.org
Blog | Organizing.Work
Parts of the former editorial staff of Recomposition have brought this follow-up project to life. They continue to write about their experiences of class struggle.
Blog | New Syndicalist
Inspired by Recomposition, among other things, organizers* of the IWW in the UK write here about their work experiences.
Book | 'Riding for Deliveroo'
The former Deliveroo driver, Callum Cant, writes about his working conditions and the struggles at Deliveroo in the UK that he has had with the IWW and IWGB unions.
Book | 'Class Power on zero hours'
Evaluation of the experiences of fellow workers from West London about their organizing experiences. Parts of the group are IWW members.
Chapter 4 | Further Links Who are the IWW?
Chapter 4 | Further Links Who are the IWW?
- Education
- Organizing
- Emancipation
Further Information on wobblies.org
Many thanks for the Assistance & Inspiration
- Organizing Department IWW GLAMROC
- Technik Commitee IWW GLAMROC & Arne, Jennie, Tobias
- Patriarchy Resistance! - Commitee IWW GLAMROC
- Organizing Department IWW North America
- Organizer Training Committee IWW North America
- Organizing Summit 2016 in Bay Area/San Francisco, California
- All interview partners and courageous fellow workers
- Brandworkers International NYC
- Editors Recomposition.info
- Leftcommunist Alliance ...ums Ganze!
- Group Zweiter Mai Hamburg
- Bremer Erwerbslosenverband
- Editors 'Material for a new Anti-Imperialism'
- All friends of the IWW and the labour movement
- Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation
- Dedicated to all colleagues who daily fight for a better world.
Social conditions
Social conditions The Technological Attack
Social conditions The Technological Attack
Technologies of domination today: The technological attack as an attempt to absorb subjectivity
Change of capitalist rule
In the past decades they have written a lot about techniques of rule and describe how rule develop and change in the history of capitalism. At the beginning of Fordism and the introduction of the assembly line, bosses understood the confrontation with us workers as "war". They try to make use of our subjectivity: feelings, mentalities, forms of thinking in advantage of their interests. Our rhythm of life must first be trained for wage work, otherwise we would not 'work' at the workplace to get up 'on time' in the morning, take instructions from strangers and spend a large part of our lives doing things we have hardly any control over. This system has been tried to enforce with a lot of open and hidden violence. The IWW had it's peak in this phase.
People and machines
The idea that people should function like parts of an assembly line also led to mathematical models of how companies are controlled. If bosses combine factor X with factor Y, economic success is the result. At least as far as their calculation. This model should not only apply to production, but to all areas of society. Some called the conditions under which we live therefore also factory society.
The global revolution of 1968
With the successful global revolt of 1968 against this mechanical model of domination, this form of domination could no longer be maintained for the class of bosses. They clearly changed their approach. The mathematical model was abandoned. Today, in the global North, the attempts to understand the subjectivities of customers and workers and to cause subjugation through 'voluntary incentives' dominate. Small control mechanisms and the emphasis on 'voluntariness' are part of this. This fact we call the technological attack.
Revolutionary subjectivity
These techniques of domination represent effective ideologies, but their full implementation remains the imagination of their executors. Historically, it is possible to reconstruct how resistance is always formed in opposition to new techniques and how it escapes their control. The question is rather: can this resistance be generalized and used effectively. Whether we succeed in this, is unfortunately, not foreseeable.
Social conditions The current situation
Social conditions The current situation
Learning to understand, in order to fight successfully: Current conditions for trade union organizing.
Militant Sectors
Sectors such as social and educational services, health care, catering and other services grow in numbers. In these areas either new union strength is developing or old experiences of defeat are being turned into new successes.
World champions in domination techniques
The US, Germany and China are among the world leaders in social division techniques. With many years of experience of divisions by means of technology, wage groups, residence status, gender and origin, claims to power are enforced here in a particularly delicate manner. Previous trade union strategies are being put to the test and it seems to be more and more important that the workforce proceeds strategically and tactically in a planned manner, in order to react to the attacks by bosses.
Experiences of defeat
40 years of neoliberalism, 10 years of austerity and the resulting experience of defeat have, however, left deep social and psychological traces. Especially among long-time activists. Experienced activists become tired or frustrated, younger activists are confronted with great insecurity in their lives, but also with little experience of success. In this documentation we ask ourselves how we can organize ourselves under these conditions and look at the USA, because there the neo-liberal restructuring began a few years earlier. We let you take part in our journey.
Social conditions About the position of the left ...and our challenges
Social conditions About the position of the left ...and our challenges
In 2020: On the situation of the (trade union) Left (especially in there german language area - but has similarities to other regions)
Different aspects of left-wing historiography
Against this background, different historical narratives of the last 30 years emerge. These often run along the lines of gender, origin and age. They are based not only on different perspectives, but also on real material conditions. The relatively well-secured core workforces in key industries and the public service are shrinking and with various lazy compromises a division of class along gender, origin and age has deepened. A huge low-wage sector faces relatively well-secured industries. Often in the same company with the same activities.
Changed world situation
These old core industries industries such as the automotive industry, coal and mining industry employ fewer people. So it is no coincidence that growing sectors such as the women-dominated social and educational services, health care and various service sectors even provide a larger share of the labour force. New struggles are also developing in these sectors, sometimes with little previous experience. In this part of the class many female fellow workers are active, those who are immigrants and/or bring their struggle experiences into the country. Historically, this part of the class was the main group of which the IWW consisted.
Learning to win
Since every generation has to learn to fight new and is also confronted with new techniques of domination and challenges, we are looking for ways to successfully build up counter power. Especially as a do-it-yourself union, we continue the long tradition of transnational networking. Thus we can observe how within the IWW in North America and the UK a new generation of activists between 25-35 is trying to regain their union fighting power. In the US the generation change started around 2004, in UK around 2012 and in the German Language Area around 2015.
Search with uncertain results
Many things are untried, many things are unclear, many experiences of defeat have to be dealt with. Many of us lack the imagination and hope for a better future. Of course not everything has to be reinvented, but previous experiences are helpful companions. It is also unclear whether the lines of division according to gender, origin and age can be productively overcome and what the result might look like. We want to share the journey in search of such counter-power with you.
Analysemodelle
Model for analysis The Business Modell Canvas
Model for analysis The Business Modell Canvas
Business Model Canvas: a tool of technological attack from the business side
Research-based learning
The iPhone from Apple is a good example for such a research-based learning. With playful methods and the attempt 'to make you want to do more', the needs of customers are explored and accustomed to a different practice. Instead of focusing on the traffic, I let my app do that for me. Instead of addressing my friends directly, I do this via a platform. The arrangement of the buttons and the choice of colors steer me in a certain direction. At least that's the idea. And often enough it works. The openness of this model and also the eagerness of the entrepreneurs to learn is, from a left-wing point of view, something we know, maybe even invented. Because we want to organize the social conditions according to human needs.
Californian Ideology
This model is dangerous because here, in the guise of playfulness, an agility and openness is created by companies to use the results against us. Methods such as "agile management" or "Scrum" are among the techniques of this ideology. Mediated through some of the most important IT companies in the world, these assumptions are generalized to large parts of the entrepreneurial world. In a nutshell, this is called Californian ideology. With reference to Silicon Valley in the Bay Area/ San Francisco region of the US-American California.
Worker Association Canvas to build counter-power
Worker Association Canvas to build counter-power
Modifications
The categories should help to break down our own conditions for practice and research to find out what divides us, what helps us and how we can defend ourselves against attacks. Of course, such a state of affairs is always only temporary and has to be adapted again and again. But the model should help us to ask ourselves as early as possible the questions that will help us to build up successful counterpower. Otherwise, an attempt can quickly backfire.
Can it work?
Skeptical and fascinated at the same time, we asked ourselves if it could work. To test whether the model helps us and our fellow workers in practice or has to be changed, one of our members could go on a research trip through the US. He interviewed organizers in some of the most successful IWW campaigns of the last 14 years.
The result: The model was helpful, but has been changed a little bit .
You can find the modified model in chapter 3.
Models of analysisFeedback on the 'Worker Association Canvas
Requirements & goals:
- Fellow workers who have already been in campaigns find the tool helpful. To others it seems too far away from everyday practice
- The class composition has little space
- Helpful systematisation of questions that arise during a campaign
- Section on social techniques as divisions is important
Background to the study
Background to the study The Fellow Workers
Background to the study The Fellow Workers
Background information on the 17 interview partners:
- About two thirds of the interviewees spoke English as their mother tongue. Most of them white and male, among them also mixed with Latina and Jewish as further backgrounds. They were not threatened by deportation and had no children. Spanish was mentioned most often as a second language, but with few skills.
- The majority of the participants had at least a bachelor's degree.
- Weekly working hours: many of them have had two or three jobs and have worked between 50 and 70 hours a week, but have not earned enough money to survive.
- 10 of 17 colleagues* were previously active in other campaigns inside and outside the IWW
- 9 of them were previously IWW members
- 8 of them are still in the IWW. 5 joined because of active campaigns and 2 are not members
- Reasons for working for the employer: 9 specifically to earn money; and to improve working conditions for themselves and the class
- 6 learned about the campaigns through the IWW or friends
- 6 were fired because of their organizing
- In all campaigns some of them had worked there from 6 months to 7 years before and joined the campaigns.
Background to the study System Gastronomy About fast food in bulk
Background to the study System Gastronomy About fast food in bulk
On the emergence of a new low-wage sector: System gastronomy in the USA
More workers were hired for lower wages and longer hours, which also created a new need for cheap food. Companies saw a new opportunity to make a profit, while investment in other areas declined. The low-wage sector was inflated. The number of fast-food restaurants exploded from 1960 to 1970. McDonald's grew from 710 branches in 1965 to more than 3,000 in 1977.
As a clear sign of its time, McDonald's employed more than twice as many workers in the US steel industry in 1972. Chains like McDonald's are a good example of what is known as system gastronomy. They sell food standardised as a franchise, with a uniform logo, work processes and offers.
Source: Forman, Erik (2014), p. 209
Jimmy John's Workers Union
The "Jimmy John's Workers Union" Jimmy John's in Minneapolis, Minnesota
The "Jimmy John's Workers Union" Jimmy John's in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jimmy John's: "Sandwiches so fast, you'll freak."
Political position of the boss
The boss Jimmy John Liautad, who is also the boss of Milklin Enterprise, the company Jimmy John's chain is part of, is openly belonging to the (right-wing) conservative spectrum, which is also reflected in the daily interaction with the workers. This is relevant because, in terms of the conditions of the fight, he presents himself as a person who is more likely to accept legal penalties than to guarantee his employees health insurance, for example.
Source: Forman, Erik (2014), p. 209
The "Jimmy John's Workers Union" History
The "Jimmy John's Workers Union" History
Working for the minimum wage
The interviewed fellow workers* worked for the minimum wage of $7.25 US dollars at the time, now $9.25 US dollars, and usually had two or three other jobs to ensure survival. The campaign at Jimmy John's was very inspired by the Starbucks Workers Union and followed the idea of organizing in a strategically important chain.
Inspired by the Starbucks Workers Union
The Jimmy John's campaign represents an attempt to learn from the mistakes of the SWU and to organize in a similarly coordinated way. In 2016, the nationwide Fight for $15 Campaign has launched attempts to organize in low-wage sectors such as the foodservice industry, which have similarities to the campaigns presented here.
Die "Jimmy John's Workers Union" Further consequences
Die "Jimmy John's Workers Union" Further consequences
- According to the JJWU, they were the first union in the fast food sector in the USA.
- A year after a campaign highlight, two fellow workers went on a Europe-wide tour and took the Organizing Training Programme to different regions. This development triggered a closer cooperation and exchange of experience between the regions of the IWW.
- The campaign was also a great inspiration, as it was carried out by several politically active organizers over several years.
- There are still active organizers at Jimmy John's and new ones regularly join (and stop again).
Starbucks Workers Union
The "Starbucks Workers Union" Starbucks in New York City
The "Starbucks Workers Union" Starbucks in New York City
Starbucks: "A third place between work and home"
Network of Stores
The majority of the company's stores are located in the USA, and the company is present in over 60 countries. They sell coffee as well as other cold and hot beverages and snacks. In 2013 the company had a turnover of $14.89 billion US dollars. One of the brand's specifics is that they want to create a "third place between work and home," according to their own statement.
Technological attack
Simultaneously, the company invests a lot of money in technical innovations, such as apps that help to order coffee on the run. Using an app-driven shift planning system, the company advertises that it can plan how many workers are needed in a store. Starbucks is one of the forerunners of this technological offensive in the field of system gastronomy and the design of work processes. They have been experimenting with various forms of apps since 2011.
Part-time employees
The company thus keeps its mostly part-time employees on call or orders them in. This convenient function for the customers, above all, has the effect of increasing the work density for the colleagues working there in order to keep the profit rate as high as possible. As the interviews will show, the Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) takes this technical innovation particularly seriously because it plays a major role in the everyday life of baristas.
Source: Geereddy (2013)
The "Starbucks Workers Union" History
The "Starbucks Workers Union" History
The SWU went public in New York City at the end of 2004 after a preparation period of about one year. Unfortunately, this report is only about the SWU in New York City. Other sections existed or exist in Chicago; Grand Rapids/Michigan, Cincinnati, Quebec City, Bloomington, Minnesota and Omaha, Nebraska. It is one of the first major approaches of organizing in the IWW in the last 40 years.
Model character
It had exemplary character for IWW, as well as for other unions. This industry was previously considered unorganizable. Today it is different. The SWU also caused a renewal effect within the IWW, which had a model character in various regions of the world. This effect unfolded above all through the "Global Day of Action against Starbucks" on 5 July 2008, in which workers from Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Ireland, Argentina, Chile and France participated.
Renewal of the IWW
Through these campaigns, the participating workers revived the old principle of the IWW, which consists in being employed by important companies for strategic reasons. In order not only to improve conditions in their own shops, but also to have an effect on the entire industry through their special position in the value chain. At the same time, there are no records of how many members the SWU actually had.
The "Starbucks Workers Union" Further consequences
The "Starbucks Workers Union" Further consequences
What was the result of the experiences of the fellow workers?
- The model of the SWU as a relatively autonomous organization, linked to the IWW, is considered a foil for further organizing projects
- The worldwide solidarity campaign of the International Workers' Association supports the colleagues and helps the IWW to become better known and motivates other colleagues
- The SWU follows the model of one of the most successful IWW sections, which only exercised power through direct action
- Until today, new colleagues at Starbucks regularly refer to the SWU. However, the organization does not seem to have a comparable power at the moment.