NLRB FINDS MERIT TO 13 UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE CHARGES AT ASHLAND FOOD CO-OP

A majority of workers at Ashland Food Co-op have been united since June of 2011 to improve their working conditions by organizing a union with United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 555. Ashland Food Co-op management learned of workers’ desire to organize and reacted swiftly with heavy handed tactics to try and sway workers away from unionization. The Employer’s actions included soliciting and promising to remedy grievances, providing benefits to employees that it previously refused to provide, disciplining union activists, threatening employees with more severe discipline if they voted for a union, instituting a rule that prohibited employees from discussing the union and then enforcing this rule only against employees who supported the union, and soliciting employees to sign an anti-union petition.

Image from Justice for Coop Workers -- Co-op Workers and UFCW 555

Over 100 people gathered on valentines day outside of the NS Market on SE Division in Portland Or to stand in solidarity and for the just rehiring of a worker - labor activist (Ryan Gaughan) who was fired for a petty issue. Ryan was involved with organizing for workers rights, safety and labor issues at New Seasons where he was employed. He recently had been participating in "coffee talks" where management and workers discuss common important work issues together. Ryan was terminated [for what appears obvious to anyone who looks into this,] for his strong involvement in organizing at his job site, where he has worked at for over 9 years {7 years at this store on Division that terminated him.} Ryan, the community New Seasons customers, friends and labor activists are all asking management to give him his job back. Full Report | Video (25 min)

Related: CWA's Valentine's Wish to AT&T

This morning, October 15, City Council is scheduled to vote on Jan Perry's proposal that would release developer Ralph Horowitz of the 2.6-acre green space requirement and make it easier for him to sell the property. And so the future of the 14-acre plot of land, at 41st and Alameda is once again under dispute. Previously the site of the famous South Central Farm, once known as the largest urban farm in the country, if the not world, the land has become the most disputed plot of real-estate in the city. (At the time of its demolition circa 2006, there was a massive community mobilization to save it, and the goal of the farmers to reclaim the land has not died.)

Are members of the City Council colluding with real estate moguls to illegally make bad real estate deals? The original deal to sell the land back to Horowitz was conducted in a closed-session meeting, a meeting which has recently been deemed illegal by a Superior Court judge, as reported in the LA Times. Not only has Horowitz underpaid for the land, he's now seeking to extract more value from it than agreed before. The City should demand the terms of the original agreement. That was the deal negotiated -- a community benefit of green space, the value of which cannot be measured in simple dollars and cents: our city needs more recreational space, particularly in the east side of South Central Los Angeles.

Full statement: Editorial: Jan Perry's Latest Offensive Against the South Central Farm Land (41st & Alameda) by LA Indymedia Collective

BREAKING UPDATE: City Council Votes Unanimously Against South Central Farmers by A | Report Back: City Council Unanimously Supports "Turning Land into Cash" by RP

Background: (video) Justicia Tierra Y Libertad Large by altla04 | Jan Perry's Attempt to Remove Green Space Requirement Gains Steam | Jan Perry Proposes Waiver of Green Space Requirement for South Central Farm Land by RP

Archival: Never Forever 21: Round 3 | Joan Baez, Julia Butterfly & John Quigley Begin Tree Sit at South Central Farm by Jennifer Morris and Christina Aanestad | Encampment at the Farm -- Day 8 by LA-IMC, A, and Free Radio Santa Cruz | Protests growing at Farm, activists call for more support | BULLDOZER RETURNS TO FARM, Direct Action Disables Bulldozer

Today, June 1, 2011, the 12-day hunger strike ended and Cub Foods stores in Minneapolis, Minnesota knows the seriousness of the workers united. CTUL eagerly anticipates the management's reaction to the continuing letters and questions that have been coming in from the public. When will the stores have a meeting with the workers?

CTUL asks that the public call CEO Keith Wyche to tell him of continued support for the boycott of Cub Foods: 651-439-7200

Please see www.ctul.net for more updates.

Sandwich Chain Seeks to Suppress Educational Poster on the Risks of Eating Food Prepared by Sick Employees

MINNEAPOLIS--JimmyJohnsWorkers.org--In an effort to silence employees who have blown the whistle on serious food safety hazards at Jimmy John's, the company fired six workers Tuesday, March 22 for putting up posters (see image) demanding the right to call in sick and paid sick days in order to avoid exposing customers to infection. Under current policy, Jimmy John's workers are disciplined for calling in sick if they cannot find a replacement, forcing many workers to make sandwiches while ill.

"It just isn't safe -- customers are getting their sandwiches made by people with the flu, and they have no idea," said Micah
Buckley-Farlee, one of the fired workers, "and now we're getting fired for blowing the whistle on this disgusting practice. Rather than safeguard public health and do the right thing for their employees and their customers, Jimmy John's owners Mike and Rob Mulligan are trying to silence us. These illegal and offensive firings will not stand."

Related: Call-in to Demand Paid Sick Days and Reinstatement | Cleaners at Cub Foods Demand Accountability After Leader is Fired

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The 2010 Hempstead Food Share Bonanza was the largest Food Not Bombs ever and the largest vegan Thanksgiving ever! On that day over 30,000 pounds of food was shared with thousands of people, and Long Island Food Not Bombs followed this with nearly a dozen consecutive Thanksgiving events throughout the rest of the week, sharing a total of nearly 55,000 pounds of groceries in 5 days!

For the full story with pictures, video and more please go to lifnb.com

As Pres. Obama set to sign bill authorizing payment of $4.6 billion to settle claims for Black and Native American farmers, Philly starts new trend. It will mean a lot to me and other blacks concerned with how our ancestors were and descendants are still being treated. I’m here in Philly, but my heart, mind and soul is stuck in South Carolina on an old plantation. Read More by Bob Shipman Jr

Pictured: Dr. John Boyd, President, National Black Farmers Association

The California coast, from Davenport south through Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Castroville, is brussels sprouts country. Most of this vegetable in north America comes from these fields, although a growing harvest now takes place in Baja California, in northern Mexico. In both California and Baja California, the vast majority of the people who harvest brussels sprouts, like those who pick other crops, are Mexican.

Chains have refused calls to establish standards against abuse

On Saturday, three hundred retail cleaners and allies marched through south Minneapolis to Lunds, Supervalu and Target.   The Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), the workers’ organization which called the march, says that cleaners in local stores have been systematically denied overtime, have lost wages over alleged “accidents” and  have steadily seen wages lowered while workload has increased.  Workers have submitted multiple letters to Lunds, SuperValu and Target asking for a unified code of conduct, but none of the retailers has responded.

Before the march, union representatives, student activists and an organizer from the Coalition for Immokalee Workers spoke to the crowd.  “When workers and students and people of faith and people from the community unite, the structure of any corporation starts to tremble,” said the CIW organizer.   The CIW has recently won a strong code of conduct with tomato growers in Florida, after organizing against withheld wages and abuse of workers. read more

Veterans of Foreign Wars "Bill Motto" Post 5888 announced that it is unable to hold Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinners, this year, at the Santa Cruz County Veterans Memorial Building. For 24 years, this event has helped needy people, veterans, seniors, students and lonely residents during holidays which are based in giving.

It’s been more than a decade since Black farmers filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, because of decades of discrimination. Thousands of farmers have not yet had their day in court or been allowed to file a claim even though the second phase of the suit (known as Pigford v Vilsack) was settled in February 2010. The reason for this is that Congress has not provided the $1.25 billion for farmers, who through no fault of their own, suffered discrimination from the same government that now denies them relief.

October 22 Election is Potential Turning Point for Labor as Millions in Service Sector Face Deepening Poverty

MINNEAPOLIS (JimmyJohnsWorkers.org)–The National Labor Relations Board confirmed today that it will conduct a union election for 200 workers at ten Minneapolis-area Jimmy John's on October 22, an historic first in the nation's almost entirely non-union fast food industry. The secret ballot union election could be a turning point for labor at a time of deepening poverty for millions of Americans affected by the recession, many of whom are employed in low-wage service sector jobs.

"People who thought of themselves as middle class or upwardly-mobile two years ago are now making minimum wage at Jimmy John's, with no real prospects for moving up. If these are the kinds of jobs that American workers will be stuck with, then we are going to make them quality jobs for working families," said Mike Wilkow, a union member at Jimmy Johns. read more

Related: Talent post office under attack | Labor Unions Rally to Create Jobs

Saturday 9/25 a coalition of Milk Not Jails and Prisoners are People Too set up a fun, cute, delicious, free, and informative ice cream shop outside Merriweather Library. Prisoners rights activists, local food enthusiasts, and local families gathered for the event.

Milk Not Jails is an organization combating the issue of Upstate NY economies depending on under-populated jails instead of their traditional income source, small farms. Dairy farmers are being forced to shut down their businesses because they are losing money to produce milk, while prison employees fight to keep their jobs in rural economies where there are few other consistent options for employment.

Milk Not Jails members served ice cream in traditional ice cream shop outfits, wearing Milk Not Jails hats. Two women took a break from serving ice cream to perform a theatrical explanation of the declining dairy industry and the prison industrial complex . . . and how consumers and voters can help change that. Milk Not Jails “insists that bad criminal justice policy should not be the primary economic development plan for rural New York.”

Prisoners are People Too provided further information on the correctional services industry, its costs, its economic inefficiency, and the influence rural Upstate NY politicians have on the length of prison sentences. Karima Amin educated attendants and answered questions about incarceration in NY, as she has consistently been doing at least once a month since 2005 with workshops about reentry after incarceration, family support, and other prisoner issues. Other Prisoners are People Too activists provided information about political prisoner Seth Hayes who was a member of the Black Panther Party and has consistently been denied parole and is currently being held in an Upstate NY prison.

On the 15th of September, protesters showed up at the Liaison Capital Hill Hotel, protesting 102 years of Congressional bribery and corruption by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, whose annual legislative Conference was scheduled then and there. Read More, Pics, Audio | Video: Protesters enter hotel, question NCBA running away previous night

The "Peach Tree Project" is a decentralized community agricultural program created by Long Island Food Not Bombs that is making strides in creating new ties of solidarity. From fruit trees to tomatoes, Food Not Bombs is upholding the truth that food does grow on trees, scarcity is a lie, and that food is a right & not a privilege!

The idea behind the Peach Tree Project is pretty simple. Each year we get people interested in gardening to help us germinate hundreds of fruit & vegetable seedlings – plants like peach trees, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, etc… We collect various containers to hold our newly germinated plants and once they’ve grown a few inches, or feet (depending on the plant), we share them with the community.