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Radical Union Eyes Queens’ Laborers

The author of this article refers to the IWW's "violent" past, but he fails to note that the violence was caused by the employing class in reaction to the IWW at least 99% of the time.  Otherwise the article gives the IWW fair coverage. . .



As the transit strike drama has played out on television and in newspapers, the public eye has watched union members pack conference rooms in nice hotels, their angry leaders speaking loudly from a pulpit about the gall of government officials.

Far from the Grand Central Hyatt, down Grand Avenue in Queens, seven Hispanic men sat tightly together in a Dunkin Donuts this week and held a union meeting in sharp contrast to those that make headlines for their contract negotiations.

The men, wearing sweatshirts and intense looks, told two union organizers in muted Spanish about their employer’s newest attempts to lower their wages. There were also more threats to lay off employees who joined the union, which only formed in November. The organizers reassured the workers that the union would protect them like family.

This meeting, and the organizational movement behind it, was engineered by the Industrial Workers of the World, a union with a radical and even violent past that today appears to have at least partially reconciled its revolutionary ideals with modern labor laws. Once fading into oblivion at the extreme left of the labor movement, the IWW, known as the Wobblies, has staged a small comeback and found a niche helping smaller, disenfranchised working-class groups to battle for their rights.

Those values have brought the Wobblies to Queens, where the abundance of cheap immigrant laborers, many of who are undocumented, has bred the conditions for exploitation.

In a way, the role is fitting for the union, remaining consistent with their philosophy to organize labor very close to the point of production. Their goal has always been to mobilize the workers themselves, not to fight for influence among business leaders and politicians, said Jim Crutchfield, a member of New York’s IWW.

The Hispanic men who met Tuesday night are workers at EZ Supply Corp., a small Ridgewood-based company that distributes food supplies and containers. Before they unionized, employees worked 10-12 hours a day, six days a week for a flat fee that amounted to pay of $4 or $5 an hour, well below the current $6.75 minimum wage, workers said.

Jugo Flores, an employee at the company, said the move to form a union at first frightened the workers and their families, who feared retaliation from their boss. But eventually the poor working conditions caused the group to seek help from a Brooklyn advocacy group called Make the Road by Walking. Officials there eventually put them in touch with the IWW.

“It kept building until we couldn’t take it anymore,” Flores said. “When you see things happen to your companions, you can’t just turn your head and pretend you don’t see.”

With the help of the union, the workers have filed grievances with the federal Department of Labor and staged a brief strike on Jan. 2, first reported in the New York Sun. Although the IWW already considers them members, the employees plan to hold an official vote Feb. 9, a step needed to gain official recognition from their employer and qualify for protection under existing labor laws.

EZ Supply officials argue that the company has stayed in compliance with federal labor laws. Management would continue to follow legal guidelines as the workers participated in their election campaign, officials said.

“We respect the rights of the workers,” said Lloyd Somer, an attorney for the company.

Billy Randel, the lead organizer, said the employees wanted to work, not strike, but would fight for fair treatment. They were not above disrupting the supply chain with help from the members of other unions, Randel said.

“We look to support and help each other,” he said. “We are part of a much larger group in New York and nationally.”

As union membership declines around the country, many labor leaders have become frustrated with large-scale negotiations with business managers and have advocated for a return to traditional union actions involving workers, according to Brian Obach, a labor studies professor a SUNY New Paltz. The philosophical division was a motivating factor in the split of the AFL-CIO, he said.

“Some want the focus on grassroots, shop floor actions and to be more organizationally established as opposed to fostering relationships with employers,” Obach said. “It’s a ‘we want this, and want it now,’ more militant approach to the unionization.”

Brian McLaughlin, president of the Central Labor Council, said he also has noticed a trend toward stronger, more aggressive union tactics. “This is the way it was in the early stages,” he said.

The Wobblies were founded in 1905 by a group of anarchists and socialists, most notably Eugene V. Debs, and have advocated for abolition of wage structures and equality between salaries of laborers and those for whom they work.

The IWW membership grew internationally by 35 percent last year and nearly doubled in New York, Crutchfield said. But with only about 2,000 members in the U.S., the union mostly concentrates on smaller operations, appealing to workers with their low dues and democratic structure. It hopes to work with up to 50 or 60 shops in the city, organizers said.

Efforts at larger companies raise complications. Another unionizing effort in Queens, at grocery delivery business FreshDirect, was set back when it became embroiled with a simultaneous initiative by Teamsters to unite the company’s drivers.

After the strike at EZ Supply Corp., workers say their employers treat them better but pay them the same, despite a new system that gives the appearance of overtime pay. The workers, however, see progress.

“Every week [the employer] says he will lower the pay of union workers,” Flores said, “but every week he doesn’t.”