News & Rants
May 2022
There is power in a union…
power in the hands of the workers.
Here's a report from a Starbucks union organizer in New Jersey that describes the methods management uses in one-on-one meetings designed to intimidate workers and undermine their solidarity. At this Starbucks it failed, sometimes do to management bumbling.
https://labornotes.org/2022/04/add-personal-story-here-starbucks-anti-union-one-ones-fall-flat
Starbucks continues to retaliate against employees who are organizing Starbucks Workers United across the country.
https://labornotes.org/blogs/2022/04/retaliation-cant-stop-growing-starbucks-union
Starbucks and Amazon workers will talk about how they are organizing at the Labor Notes conference scheduled for June 17-19 in Chicago.
Labor Notes conferences bring together thousands of militant union activists to celebrate worker power and talk about how to put the movement back into the labor movement.
—Michael Funke
Sponsored by the Father's Group
Juneteenth is an annual holiday celebrated on June 19 and commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. The Father’s Group is hosting a two-day Juneteenth celebration on June 18 and June 19 in Drake Park in downtown Bend, Oregon.
Here’s their message:
Central Oregon Celebrates Freedom Day! This fun, family-friendly event will be a two-day festival elevating Juneteenth throughout the state of Oregon. It will feature unique entertainment, music, food, and dancing. There will be face painting for the kids, a variety of historical and educational exhibits, artistic displays, and recreation.
Make the Deschutes County Commission nonpartisan
As of May 15, only 847 signatures were needed to hit the target number. Go to this link to find out how you can help.
https://www.nonpartisan-deschutes.org/
The goal is to place the measure on the November 2022 ballot. County Commissioner Phil Chang supports this campaign and you can hear his argument for it in the interview with him that is available on the Archives page of this podcast.
Poster of the Month
Carlos Cortez (August 13, 1923 – January 19, 2005) was a poet, graphic artist, photographer, muralist and political activist, active for six decades in the Industrial Workers of the World.
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1923, the son of a Mexican Wobbly union organizer father and a German socialist pacifist mother, Cortez spent 18 months in a US prison as a conscientious objector during the World War II, refusing to "shoot at fellow draftees."
Cortez joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1947, identifying himself as an anarcho-syndicalist, writing articles and drawing cartoons for the union newspaper the Industrial Worker for several decades.
Learn more about Carlos Cortez at https://archive.iww.org/history/biography/CarlosCortez/1/