Philly’s long time organizer and radical journalist will address the WSA’s 40th Anniversary Congress, with reflections on group democracy, journalism and anarcha-feminism! Helping us look to our future!
to attend, write to us at
philly-metro-wsa@proton.me
At three different worksites, WSA members wrote short invitations to take part in solidarity actions for the fight against wage theft; each invitation included an accessible intro to the history of the IWA-AIT. The Invitations were tailor-made to the co workers at each workplace.
One of the invitations read in part:
“Many of us here have been in the US workforce for years, even decades. We’ve had the experience of having a boss not pay us what we were due, or trying to withhold benefits. We’ve heard from our families’ bad experiences, or we’ve had friends or co-workers who’ve had to go through this. Now is an opportunity for each of us in our own work situation to educate ourselves about how to act in solidarity when these situations come up!
“The world’s oldest anarcho-syndicalist international, the IWA-AIT, invites us to be part of an international week of action against unpaid wages, Oct 16- 22. Several of us here are excited to be part of this, and we plan to do a workshop on how we can teach ourselves about this issue, how we can act in solidarity, and how we can be ready to advocate for our friends and family when things happen!”
from Unicorn Riot
Philadelphia, PA — The unionized workforce that handles concessions at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex started to strike on Monday, September 23. Hundreds of Aramark stadium workers that bargain with the UNITE HERE Philly Local 274 union are demanding new contracts.
Unicorn Riot was told that Aramark, which is headquartered in Center City Philadelphia with a market capitalization value of $9.8 billion, has tried to prevent the unionized workers from qualifying for healthcare plans by dividing their hours between the three stadiums – Citizens Bank Park, Lincoln Financial Field and the Wells Fargo Center. (In a statement to NBC10 Aramark claimed it has now offered to count all stadium hours towards health coverage in a new contract.)
“Our contracts have all expired in all three buildings so we’re trying to consolidate the work. So, three different buildings doing the same job, you get different pay rates now. We want it to be the same pay rate. So if you’re a cook, a cook, a cook [at those locations] you get the same pay. It’s not like that. We want the hours to count from all three buildings to qualify people for health care. Right now they keep the hours separate.”
Kathy Hazel, Aramark concessions worker at Wells Fargo Center for 24+ years
“We might have worked all three buildings in a week, we still get one check from Aramark. But we get three different wages, that’s the issue here. […] They don’t want to agree to benefits like PTO. I understand it’s a ‘part time’ in one building, but when you’re in all three buildings you’re working like full time, you’re getting full time hours… but they’re still trying to treat us as if we are part time.”
Tarell ‘Doe’ Martin, Aramark concessions worker
On Sept. 24, outside a Phillies baseball game, union members called on fans to avoid purchasing food, drink and clothing inside the stadium, to pressure the company to negotiate a better deal. Aramark touts that “total income inclusive of wages and tips for this group of employees have risen 61% over the past five years,” while we heard from the workers that this is disingenuous because the tips have come from the public, not their employer. For an hourly cost of living increase, Aramark offered fifty cents a year, then another ten cents on top of that a year,
Many of the Aramark workers are not tipped at all, so they want to improve their base pay and benefits. “I noticed that they did not thank the Philadelphia fans for helping pay the salaries of their workers,” said picketing union member Kathy Hazel. “They don’t get any credit for any money I get from tips. […] There’s a lot of workers that are not tipped workers. And we’re here to support them, so that the hourly workers get an increase. They’re not getting tips, and we stick together.”
Down the street, independent vendors offered pretzels with notes on their carts saying that Aramark was on strike. Anthony Oliver with the striking Aramark workers pointed out that once again the ‘Counter Terrorism’ unit of the Philadelphia Police has turned up at Aramark labor protests. Forty-five Aramark workers were arrested in June by a force that included the same type of police we saw outside the recent presidential debate with ‘Counter Terrorism’ markings. Outside a Biden fundraiser last December, one officer on that team told Unicorn Riot that they are always deployed to protests but declined to name the specific policy which enables this.
UNITE HERE Philly Local 274 represents about 4000 private sector hotel and food service workers throughout the Philadelphia region, according to their website.
Prison labor is “remarkably common within the food system,” according to the Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center, and Aramark is at the heart of this game: it is notorious for its role in the food side of the prison-industrial complex. Its subsidiary Aramark Correctional Services provides services to hundreds of U.S. prisons and jails, privatized Immigration and Customs Enforcement jails operated by CoreCivic, along with contracts in at least 35 states, according to an investigation by American Friends Service Committee. It has long been notorious for substandard, contaminated and undercooked food.
Aramark investors benefit from prison labor used to prepare and package food in some prisons under the In2Work program. Students at Barnard College, New York University and Ireland’s Trinity College successfully got Aramark campus contracts cancelled. Georgetown University has been another site of pressure against Aramark both because of its prison labor and over on-campus workers’ contract in March.
In its corrections FAQ, Aramark says it’s in this business because “all people deserve healthy, nutritious meals.” A September 2023 Prison Journalism Project report by Justin Slavinski, “Meet the Company Getting Rich Off My Prison’s Awful Food,” described how the “100-or-so” residents in a Florida penitentiary who cook and clean are “wholly unpaid,” slashing Aramark’s labor costs to a small fraction of what legal employees would cost. Jail inmates have pushed for wages, and a prison strike protested Aramark.
This isn’t the only major political issue with the stadiums and sports construction in the city. The 76ers professional basketball team is seeking to move away from the Sports Complex and into Center City in 2031, by demolishing part of the Fashion District mall and building a $1.55 billion new sports arena site called “76Place” which is said to include 395 residential units.
This plan is opposed by many people involved with the Chinatown neighborhood a block away. “Save Chinatown” supporters argue that the 76Place project will displace and damage their neighborhood. Nonetheless, on September 18 first-term mayor Cherelle Parker announced her administration reached an agreement to move the Center City arena forward. On Sept. 25, the mayor announced more details in a community meeting, while further protests are expected.
Earlier this month, we heard from local activists trying to “ban artificial turf installation on city property including parks and recreation centers,” specifically in a huge set of proposed soccer fields at the large FDR Park which is directly west of the Sports Complex. (The FDR Park construction project has attracted opposition and protests since 2022.)
Another corporate giant in the city, Comcast, has its own designs on the Sports Complex. In February, Comcast Spectacor unveiled a $2.5 billion multi-phase master plan. Some observers suspect that Comcast will once again fleece the public coffers and obtain a development subsidy, like the tens of millions it obtained for the construction of their Center City skyscraper, along with tax breaks.
Philadelphia will be hosting six games at an upcoming FIFA World Cup in the Lincoln Financial Center, which runs during June-July 2026. FIFA scandals may have affected Philadelphia’s earlier bid in 2015. The push for this bid started in 2016. The city got up to $10 million in aid for the FIFA event from the state legislature via House Bill 1300 which was signed by Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro on December. In 2021 the city pitched using FDR Park for practice fields; however, as we heard at the PFAS protest, FIFA does not host World Cup games on artificial turf, so all 2026 matches will need to be on natural grass.
Coworkers, comrades, and fellow labor activists—wishing you a restful Labor Day weekend!
In keeping with our radical political traditions, we put our activist energies into May Day, not Labor Day. This doesn’t mean that we haven’t been craving a rest from the bone-aching grind of our labor. In our WSA branch, we are furniture movers, home workers, pink collar assistants, and healthcare workers. We all need a rest from exhaustion. This three day weekend is needed to recover.
Labor Day was fought for and won by workers. But we also know that this is far from enough. It’s a drop in the bucket.
Labor Day, with its parades and picnics, took the shape of a more capitalism-friendly alternative to the more radical May Day that was characterized by street protests and strikes.
While we focus our eyes on May Day, you will still see us with friends at local Labor Day events, re-affirming the community aspects of our work lives. We need to recuperate in preparation for amplifying workplace voices and building relationships. As we know, building relationships is the heart of organizing. So, strike up the grill. But tomorrow, we build the General Strike !
From Philly Metro WSA
“We are committed to building a future rooted in a classless and stateless society, where we, as working people, create workplace and community democracies that prioritize human needs over profits for the few. Our vision is a world free from the social oppressions of racism, sexism, and queerphobia. Through our revolutionary unions, we will transform the nature of work, paving the way to our collective liberation.”
From Greater Chicago WSA
from Instagram
By Greater Chicago WSA
Reprinted from WSA Discussion Bulletin # 75
1
Wednesday, May first, at 8 30 pm EDT, workers from around the country and Canada gathered for our third annual May Day online event.
The recent passing of our beloved Clarissa, who was pivotal in the first two years of our evening May Day, was frequently mentioned through the gathering.
The opening song, by Martin Traphagen, ‘Arrival,’ was inspired by Clarissa.
The third annual May Day Speech, this year delivered by Rebecca Croog, vividly described the impact that Clarissa had on her work: “As I find my way into this work, I am visited multiple times a day by the memory and spirit of our Comrade Clarissa, who we recently lost to long covid. I can hear her encouraging us:
‘Don’t mourn, organize!’ I can feel her galvanizing us: ‘Let’s build coalitions! Let’s make this moment bigger and bigger!’ Gathered together as an anarcha-syndicalist community, let’s invite her in to remind us: ‘ALL BUILDS TO THE GENERAL STRIKE’
Rest in power, Clarissa! Free Palestine!”
As attendance increased, speakers reported on recent health care labor struggles, and one of the founding members of WSA, Steve Rabinowitz, read from the history of the Haymarket Martyrs, specifically the words of August Spies.
After the formal program, attendees shared news of May Day events and Gaza actions in their areas, from Philadelphia, Asheville, Greater Chicago WSA and other cities.
Comrade Greg McGee shared breaking news of attacks on the Ceasefire Gaza encampment at Columbia University.
Rebecca shared news of her work with Jewish Voice for Peace, recent union drives, and workers standing up for Gaza.
At one point everyone joined in singing happy birthday to our comrade Alexandra, who is a May Day baby!!
2
As the meeting wound further down, comrades stayed for more informal discussion. Comrade Mitchell, (WSA zone 2 delegate in Oregon), asked what anarchist-syndicalists make of Rosa Luxembourg. This led to an energetic discussion on how anarchists can build relationships with anti-authoritarian Marxists, such as council communists and anti-state Marxists, outlining how Luxembourg’s work prefigured councilism, lamenting how Trotskyist groups have claimed her. Like later councilists, her criticism of anarchists seemed to be more that, at that moment, they were disorganized and had little capacity, different from criticism of organized libertarian communism itself.
By this point there were a few brave and sleepy comrades engaging in this conversion, and there were warm goodbyes. And for annual attendees not part of WSA, there were hopes to see everyone on May Day 2025!
Below is Martin’s opening song ‘Arrival’, in honor of Clarissa –
from Instagram
Another great event coming up at the shop! Did you know @muralarts is set to unveil a Ben Fletcher mural at 301 South Christopher Columbus on May 18th? Come out two days before to learn more about who this incredible Philadelphian was and why his impact on our city is still being felt today.A brilliant union organizer and a humorous orator, Benjamin Fletcher (1890–1949) was a tremendously important and well-loved African American member of the IWW during its heyday. Fletcher helped found and lead Local 8 of the IWW’s Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union, unquestionably the most powerful interracial union of its era, taking a principled stand against all forms of xenophobia and exclusion.Hope to see you on the 16th!
Dear Comrades, you are warmly invited to attend!
This Wednesday, May 1st , at 8:30 EDT
Here is the link:
https://meet.jit.si/WSAMayDay2024
Opening Song by Martin Traphagen: “Arrival”
Annual One-Minute May Day Speech, by Rebecca Croog
Heath Care Workers’ Struggles
Haymarket Historical Quotes
Relaxed Reports Back from May Day Events and Issues
See you there!
from Unicorn Riot
Philadelphia, PA — On Saturday, April 13, local groups protested Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed 33,000 Palestinians according to the latest figures. The march gathered in Clark Park.
Organizers say that workers and unions are sending the message today. The Philly Palestine Coalition says groups involved include the Labor for Black Lives Coalition, Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Philly IWW, TNG Local 10/CWA Local 38010, SEIU Healthcare PA, Unity Caucus, Philly Tenants Union, & Workers World Party. According to the post, “Our goal is clear: to stand in unwavering solidarity with Palestinian workers and communities. Together, let’s demand more than just a ‘ceasefire now’ – let’s demand justice and equality for all.”
One key focus of Saturday’s march is the company Ghost Robotics which makes what organizers call “killer robots” for Israel’s military; the company’s Vision 60 “dog robot” was reportedly used for IDF experiments in the Gaza Strip.
On April 4 a rally at the University of Pennsylvania kicked off the “Shut Down Ghost Robotics“ campaign. Pics below from the April 4 event:
Since the April 4 event we have been checking more into Ghost Robotics and have some additional information to release later. We also have a report from a March 28 protest at Day & Zimmermann, a munitions manufacturer for the IDF headquartered in Philadelphia.
from Jersey Counter-Info
[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire article follow the above link.]
Thousands of members of the AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and Rutgers AAUP-BHSNJ at Rutgers University are on strike after talks between the unions and management have fell through. The strike is the first ever in the history of Rutgers University.
The following information below is taken from Rutgers AAUP-AFT for ways to support the strike.
Picket shifts: Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. and 1 p.m.–5 p.m.
If you are physically unable to be present on our campus picket lines, fill out this form to sign up for important remote roles you can play.
Our unions have established a merged strike fund, named the Rutgers Strike & Solidarity Fund, with the goal of supporting members in the event of a strike. We hope those of you who can best afford to give will do so generously to support your colleagues. Click here to donate, and click here for an FAQ about the fund (see part 4!).
from Unicorn Riot
PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Temple University Graduate Students Association (TUGSA) has gone on strike, and undergraduates who support them have organized a walk-out from class and campus work on February 15. The graduate students are demanding base pay of $32,800, dependent healthcare, longer parental and bereavement leave and improved working conditions. The university administration has already revoked the striking grad students’ tuition remission and health insurance coverage in retaliation for striking.
An undergrads’ press release said in response to organizing, “university administration responded with an intimidating email directed to all students, even threatening students’ academic progress for participation.”
Live coverage here:
The undergrads tell Unicorn Riot that while tuition was raised 3.9% this year, only 62 cents of every dollar are spent on instruction. A notice from the undergrad organizers reads:
“Forcing administration to give into TUGSA’s demands will take escalation involving students and workers across campus. In walking out from classes, undergraduate students show the way forward towards more and more workers in the Temple community taking escalating collective action.”
— Press release from undergrad students at Temple supporting striking graduate students
from Abolition Media
To my fellow imprisoned people:
Peace friend,
We at SPARC [Subaltern Peoples Abolitionist Revolutionary Collective] have been organizing in PA prisons for years.
We’ve been building our movement with focus on addressing the struggles going on right now. It’s clear from the failure to return to pre-COVID normal procuedure that the adminsitration intends to keep us under elevated restrictions indefinitely. Not only that, but there are many problems with the Pennsylvania injustice system that are not being remedied by politicians and lawyers. We intend to do our part.
Prisons are modern day slave plantations which only make profits for our exploiters if we do work. The more of us who refuse to labor for the slave master, the less the system can function. We have the power to shut it down and change conditions for the better.
On Friday January 6, 2023 we are going to use our power and go on strike. We are calling on you to get with your comrades and do this with us. Help us make it a statewide refusal to work.
We have been collecting feedback for our fellow captives and have compiled a list of demands. We have organized this labor strike to force the DOC and legislature to make changes. We are also standing up in solidarity with the prisoners that were on strike in all the prisons in Alabama. They are going to know that they are an inspiration and they are not in the struggle alone.
Neither are you.
Our list of demands:
SPARC
from Making Worlds Books
Join Kim Kelly in the launch of Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor
In FIGHT LIKE HELL, Kim Kelly tells a definitive history of the labor movement and the people who risked everything to win fair wages, better working conditions, disability protections, and an eight-hour workday. That history is a 1972 clothing company strike that saw 4,000 Chicana laborers start a boycott that swept the nation. It is Ida Mae Stull’s 1934 demand for the right to work in an Ohio coal mine alongside the men, and the enslaved Black women before her who weren’t given a choice. It’s Dorothy Lee Bolden’s 1960s rise from domestic workers’ union founder to White House anti-segregationist. It’s Mother Jones on the picket lines, and her militant battles against the ravages of capitalism. It’s the flight attendants’ that pushed to root out sexual assault in the skies. It’s the incarcerated workers organizing prison strikes for basic rights, and the sex workers building collective power outside the law. And it is Bayard Rustin, a queer civil rights pioneer who helped organize Dr. King’s March on Washington and help align the two movements.
Stops here include the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (immigrant, women laborers); Mississippi’s first successful unionization effort, the Washerwomen of Jackson, MS (post-war freedwomen); Latinx and Asian-American victories like the Delano Grape Strike; the influence of the United Auto Workers’ Arab Workers Caucus in the 1970s, up through queer and trans rights protections earned through labor action. FIGHT LIKE HELL concludes in Bessemer, AL where Kelly has been stationed to report on the ongoing efforts to unionize an Amazon warehouse for the very first time.
As America grapples with the unfinished business of emancipation, the New Deal, and Johnson’s Great Society, FIGHT LIKE HELL offers a transportive look at the forgotten heroes who’ve sacrificed to make good on the nation’s promises. Kim Kelly’s publishing debut is both an inspiring read and a vital contribution to American history.
Advance registration required so we can gather safely amidst the ongoing COVID pandemic.
[April 29, 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM
from Google Calendar
Join us for the Philadelphia virtual book launch of Peter Cole’s Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly on Wednesday, January 13th at 7pm EST hosted by Wooden Shoe Books and co-sponsored by the Independence Seaport Museum and Philadelphia IWW. Peter will be joined by labor journalist Kim Kelly and Royce Adams, a Philadelphia native and longshoreman in ILA Local 1291. Details and free registration link to be announced.
Ben Fletcher, an African American who helped lead the IWW’s most militant and effective interracial branch, epitomized the union’s brand of anti-capitalism and anti-racism. Fletcher (1890−1949) was a tremendously important and well-loved member of the IWW during its heyday, the first quarter of the 20th century. A brilliant union organizer and a humorous orator, Fletcher helped found and lead Local 8 of the IWW’s Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union. When founded in 1913, this union was a third African American, a third Irish and Irish American, and a third other European immigrants. Despite being hated by the bosses and redbaited by the government, Local 8 controlled the waterfront for almost a decade.
Peter Cole, a Professor of History at Western Illinois University and Research Associate in the Society, Work and Development Program at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the author of Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive Era Philadelphia and the award-winning Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area. He also is the founder and co-director of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19). He tweets from @ProfPeterCole.
from Unicorn Riot
Philadelphia, PA – An employee of the Starbucks at 1900 Market St. delivered a National Labor Relations Board form stating she’d been retaliated against for ‘Protected Concerted Activity’. The worker filing the complaint alleges she was punished via a reduction in hours for organizing a strike and told not to discuss working conditions with her coworkers.
The worker filing the NLRB paperwork told Unicorn Riot she “filed an Unfair Labor Practice with the [NLRB] regarding retaliation for union activity and protected concerted activity… I organized a sick-in strike with some coworkers – following that I was punished and told not to talk about workplace conditions w my coworkers on the floor” and experienced a serious reduction in working hours, threatening her income and access to healthcare.
The strike was also brought on in part by baristas’ concerns for coworkers living with weakened immune systems due to conditions like asthma, the worker told Unicorn Riot. Starbucks management’s insistence on reopening indoor cafe seating was reportedly “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, with the location’s staff becoming frustrated enough to agree to strike together by calling in sick.
“We’ve had hour cuts, we’ve lost our hazard pay even though the [COVID] numbers in Pennsylvania have still been going up… When i brought my concerns up with my manager, I was told that this was going to happen eventually, we knew this at the beginning that Starbucks was eventually going to reopen the indoor seating, and that they’re a company and they need to make money…It just doesn’t feel like they care about us at all and it’s all security theater type stuff.”
She also mentioned added job stresses due to the COVID-19 pandemic such as more intensive cleaning and dealing with customers who don’t want to wear masks.
See Unicorn Riot’s full livestream of the delivery of the NLRB complaint and the short protest outside this Starbucks location (14 mins):
Earlier this year, baristas at a different Philly Starbucks at Broad and Washington successfully demanded a manager’s resignation over “discriminatory practices” and issues involving “schedules and paid sick leave”, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In 2019, another local Starbucks location (at 18th and Spruce) because embroiled in national controversy after a manager called the police two Black men were sitting and waiting for a colleague for a business meeting, leading to their arrests.
