This site is a static archive. Visit the current IWW website at iww.org ▸
Skip to main content

Madison Downtown Workers

Industrial Worker - February 2006 

The Madison (Wisconsin) General Membership Branch has launched a campaign to organize the 400 or so businesses in the downtown area. The campaign began last Fall by canvassing the district, gathering contacts in dozens of shops, and is now well on the way to mapping the entire district.

The IWW Downtown Workers Union has opened an office at State and Gilman streets, produced a brochure on Workers’ Rights in Madison, and is working to build a strong union presence among these low-paid, hard-working, unorganized workers. They are working to establish new industrial union branches in IUs 640 (restaurant and building service) and 660 (general distribution), and to build an ethos of solidarity unionism that will give these workers the tools to win some of the good things of life.

The December 2005 issue of Prairie Fire, the Wisconsin IWW newsletter, reports on this campaign, local IWW centenary events, local fall-out from the split in the AFL-CIO, announces the “One Big Blend” of coffee available from the IWW-organized Just Coffee, and offers a look at Whole Foods, “the Walmart of Organic.”