Tag Archives: worker’s rights

Striking Milwaukee Fast Food Workers Join A Growing Movement

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The Overpass Light Brigade kicked off the Milwaukee fast food worker strike on Tuesday night by displaying this message over I-43 for drivers leaving downtown.

The Overpass Light Brigade kicked off the Milwaukee fast food worker strike on Tuesday night by displaying this message over I-43 for drivers leaving downtown.

Milwaukee, WI - Hundreds of fast food workers didn’t show up to work in Milwaukee on Wednesday. Instead they decided to stand up in a one day collective action called “Raise Up MKE“ demanding a living wage ($15.00/hr) and the ability to organize a union without reprisal from bosses. They became the fifth city (Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and New York City) in the nation to organize and strike in the last month for better working conditions in what appears to be a growing movement.

Striking worker leave the Milwaukee County Courthouse after rallying for 45 minutes.

Striking worker leave the Milwaukee County Courthouse after rallying for 45 minutes.

Workers rallied in front of several local fast food locations successfully coaxing other workers to join them. After making several stops around Milwaukee many workers descended upon the Milwaukee County Courthouse, where they rallied for about 45 minutes before finally marching down Milwaukee’s most prominent thoroughfare, Wisconsin Avenue, where other striking workers met up for a massive rally in front of Grand Avenue Shopping Mall, shutting down Milwaukee’s busiest street. There several speakers spoke in support of the striking workers, including Wisconsin State Rep. Mandela Barnes, Jennifer Epps-Addison (Citizen Action of Wisconsin), and Rev. Willie Brisco (MICAH).

Hundreds of striking fast food workers rally in front of the Grand Avenue Mall in downtown Milwaukee.

Hundreds of striking fast food workers rally in front of the Grand Avenue Mall in downtown Milwaukee.

Striking workers state that their current wages are not enough to support themselves and their families. Many workers complain that their employers have limited their hours under the critical threshold of thirty hours to evade national healthcare law provisions that would require the employer pay health care benefits. This current dynamic pushes many fast food workers and other low wage workers onto government assistance programs. These costs are then passed on to the rest of society, while the corporations, who employ them, rake in record profits and pay out unprecedented bonuses. Current fast food wages have not kept up with inflation while corporate executive pay has ballooned for decades. It is more than time that low wage workers be paid living wages and given stronger protections to organize unions. After all, shouldn’t workers who get up everyday and contribute to society be afforded the ability to purchase housing and food for their family?

Wisconsin State Representative Mandela Barnes speaks to striking fast food workers.

Wisconsin State Representative Mandela Barnes speaks to striking fast food workers.

The Reverend Willie Brisco speaks to striking fast food workers assembled in front of a downtown shopping mall.

The Reverend Willie Brisco speaks to striking fast food workers assembled in front of a downtown shopping mall.

Before marching on Grand Avenue Mall, striking workers met up in front of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

Before marching on Grand Avenue Mall, striking workers met up in front of the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

Poster put together by the Overpass Light Brigade in response to the fast food worker movement.

Poster put together by the Overpass Light Brigade in response to the fast food worker movement.

Find more photos here:

Flickr Album

Striking Palermo’s Workers Take Their Boycott Message to Marquette University

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Milwaukee, WI - As a line of hundreds of Marquette University students continued to build for their home game basketball game of the year versus fellow Jesuit University rival Notre Dame a different line also began to form. This line was equally as loud and visible despite visibly less numbers than the huge student turnout for the final home game of the year. This was a Boycott Palermo’s Pizza informational picket line aiming to educate game goers about the ongoing strike and boycott at the local pizza company, where workers were illegally fired for organizing a union.

Striking Palermo's workers and MU students band together to bring their message to waiting students.

Striking Palermo’s workers and MU students band together to bring their message to waiting students.

According to their Facebook page, the informational picket was organized by the MU Coalition for Worker Rights to:

“…demand that Marquette University cut its contract with Palermo Villa, Inc.

Marquette University, despite being an affiliate of two international groups that support fair labor rights, has a contract with Palermo’s Pizza, a company that fired dozens of workers this summer for attempting to form a union.

The MUCWR stands in solidarity with the Palermo workers, and is urging Marquette to stand behind its principles and international agreements by cutting its contract with this exploitative company.”

 

The Boycott Palermo's informational picket line ran right next to the student line waiting to get into the basketball game

The Boycott Palermo’s informational picket line ran right next to the student line waiting to get into the basketball game

A group of about 40 workers and their supporters held signs, marched, chanted, passed out literature explaining the labor dispute, and generally made themselves visible engaging many passersby and game attendees into perhaps pondering why their university was drawing such a spirited protest. Check out our video below from Saturday’s event.

Bringing Palermos Boycott to Marquette from Occupy Riverwest on Vimeo.

Peace Action of Wisconsin Joins OLB and Voces in Calling for Full Investigation of Milwaukee County Deputy

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This was the message being displayed by the group when they were swarmed by Milwaukee law enforcement.

Milwaukee, WI - Peace Action Wisconsin has joined the Overpass Light Brigade (OLB) and Voces de la Frontera’s call for a full investigation in to the outrageous actions of Deputy Callies last Friday on an overpass bridge over I-43, while the group held a “PALERMOS – NEGOTIATE!” message. OLB and Voces have also begun the process of opening up a Freedom of Information (FOI) request and sent formal letters to local politicians calling upon them to also ask for an investigation into what happened. In addition to these actions, the two women whose camera phones were illegally confiscated have also filed formal complaints against Deputy Callies.

Here is the letter drafted and released by Peace Action Wisconsin today:

Peace Action of Wisconsin Letter of Support

_________________________________________________________________________

Peace Action Wisconsin Demands Investigation into Police Action on August 24, 2012

Peace Action Wisconsin, a community organization in its 35th year, has long been involved in our state’s various struggles for civil and individual rights. This work has confronted injustice in many forms, including racism, xenophobia, violence, and the stifling of labor rights. Thus, Peace Action-WI finds particularly troubling the events that occurred on Friday, August 24, 2012, around 9:00 pm on the Ring Street bridge over highway I-43. Workers, families, and supporters of the Palermo’s Workers Union joined with Milwaukee’s Overpass Light Brigade (an organization known for presenting over 70 illuminated messages of social justice over Milwaukee’s freeways in the past 10 months) in an effort to present the slogan “PALERMO’S – NEGOTIATE” to travelers below the bridge. In response to this action, nearly 20 police vehicles arrived at the scene, including six Milwaukee police squads, two bike patrols, two motorcycle police, a paddy wagon, a K-9 unit, and nine sheriff’s vehicles (according to Georgia Pabst’s Journal Sentinel article of August 27, 2012). This extreme response is both puzzling and disturbing. Further, Rosemarie Molina, the national coordinator for the Palermo’s boycott effort, had her cell phone ripped from her hand by a Sheriff’s Deputy (this was captured on video, and Ms. Molina has since filed a complaint for illegal confiscation of property, harassment, and physical harm to her hand). Eventually, upon leaving, officers explained that the police presence on the bridge was a result of a “misunderstanding” and allowed those gathered to return to their light project. Peace Action Wisconsin calls on the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department, the Milwaukee Police Department, and Milwaukee County’s Board of Directors to conduct a full investigation into this matter. We demand that the rights of assembly, free speech, and freedom from police intimidation be respected and preserved.

 Here is the video of Deputy Callies illegally and aggressively confiscating a camera phone.

Occupy Riverwest Stands in Solidarity with Union MPS Food Service Workers

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The MPS School Board will be voting on a measure January 26th to privatize the district's union food service workers, which would slash hundreds of living wage jobs in exchange for hundreds of poverty wage jobs.

Milwaukee, WI - The attack on workers continues in Wisconsin! This time it is the MPS (Milwaukee Public Schools) school board who will be voting on whether or not to privatize their food service workers. The current food service workers are SEIU(Service Employees International Union) members

Another fight for Wisconsin workers!

who make $12 an hour with some benefits. If the food service contract is privatized then these positions would be stripped down to minimum wage contributing further to an already dire economy in the city of Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Public Schools has over 200 schools and with staffs of several workers to many for larger schools this slashing of wages will have profound affects on the city of Milwaukee. Milwaukee has long held the unfortunate tag of being the “Most Segregated” city in the United States. According to MPS school board Director Terry Falk, who actually seems to understand the implications this action would have on Milwaukee’s economy and social fabric, recently stated on the matter:

A high percentage of food service workers are black and Latino at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. Like the sanitation workers in Memphis, school food service workers see themselves fighting for their civil rights. The false choice is that money saved from the cuts in pay and benefits could be used to help fund kindergarten or lower class sizes.

Occupy Riverwest will be present and stand in solidarity with these workers in their fight. Come out Milwaukee and stand up for ALL union workers whether they work in the public or private sector because, whether you are pro-union or not, this type of decision will have devastating consequences for an economy already in an economic state of emergency. These are the battles that we need to be fighting for both the children in our public schools (who will be directly on the receiving end of these reduced services) and in solidarity with all workers in our community who are under attack and being asked to shoulder the burden of a tanking economy that they did not create.

Occupy Riverwest is encouraging all Occupiers to attend this Thursday's MPS school board meeting to demand they not privatize our children's food service workers

Please attend the January 26th board meeting at the MPS Central Administration Office (5225 W. Vliet Street, 53208) at 6:30 p.m. to voice your opposition to this motion and or call your board members to support living wages with benefits and the right to negotiate.

School Board Director Map to help contact local school board members and voice opposition privatizing food service workers.

Occupy Coalition Engages Bus Riders In “Bus Chats” About Occupy Wall Street

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The Occupy Coalition is using Bus Chats to spread the Occupy Wall Street message to more of the 99%.

Milwaukee, WI - The Occupy Coalition, a collection of Occupy Wall Street groups in Milwaukee (Occupy Riverwest, Occupy The Hood, Occupy Milwaukee, Decolonize The Hood) have allied together to fight foreclosures / evictions, joblessness, and neighborhood underdevelopment in the city of Milwaukee. The Coalition seeks to engage and activate Milwaukeeans into becoming part of a solution to the problems mentioned above by joining in and working with the Coalition. To more effectively work towards fighting these problems the Coalition has organized several actions in their neighborhoods including the use of “Bus Chats”. The Bus Chats involve Occupy Coalition members riding Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) buses in an effort to engage and facilitate meaningful discussions with riders about what Occupy Wall Street is and means and how the movement is connected to them. Avenues are then provided to riders through which they can get involved locally through activism and involvement in the Coalition. The Coalition is also building momentum for a coming “Take Back City Hall!” Rally at Milwaukee City Hall on February 6th to hold publicly elected leaders accountable for a growing economic crisis in the city of Milwaukee and to make two demands:

  1. The Coalition demands the city complete and make public audits on the dispersal and allocation of Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The Coalition wants to  trace money spent on public transportation, determine how HUD / Housing money is spent, and analyze how the money is being used to incentivize the creation of family-supporting jobs.
  2. A City-wide Moratorium (temporary stop) on all foreclosures. Over 20,000 properties have been foreclosed upon in Milwaukee since 2007! The Coalition finds this current dynamic unacceptable and feel that until banks and governments can foster more socially conscious terms by which homeowners can remain in their homes, the  a halt to all foreclosures must take place.

The Coalition’s first Bus Chats took place on the evening of Sunday, January, 22nd. The group Livestreamed (Occupy Wisconsin) and Ustreamed (Occupy Riverwest) some of the conversations they had with riders displaying the profound power that personal conversations with the people can have towards growing the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

The Occupy Coalition plans to conduct future actions including using Bus Chats on a regular basis as an essential component of their organizing strategy for neighborhoods. They also plan to expand the chats to other venues that enable access to the 99% who have yet to be introduced to the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The Coalition hopes other Occupations and community groups around the country will also reach out to the people not just only on city buses but everywhere they go. The Coalition believes these are the conversations people need to be having in order for the Occupy Wall Street Movement to continue to grow.

Literature piece created by Occupy Coalition to give to bus riders during Bus Chat (Front side).

Back side of literature piece created by Occupy Coalition to give to bus riders during Bus Chat.

The Occupy Coalition Bus Chats have also inspired a new Facebook page “Occupy Our Buses“.

If interested in contacting the Occupy Coalition about involvement:

mkeoccupythehood@gmail.com

Continue to follow occupyriverwest.com for coverage of future actions by the Occupy Coalition.