Industrial Workers of the World

!!!!PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!!!!
Emergency Appeal – Please Help Support IWW Drivers Fired for Organizing
www.truckers.iww.org
Hi,
My name is Tom and I'm a volunteer for the IWW's Freight Truckers Organizing Committee.   I've spoken to many of you over the phone over the past couple of days.  For others of you, perhaps Fellow Workers Jake or Mark spoke to you or left you a message.   We thank you for your time and were hoping you could spare five more minutes.
Here's our situation: for the past year the FTOC has been organizing truckers in eastern North Carolina.  Although they are intentionally mislabeled "independent contractors" by the bosses, all of our drivers work for subcontractors of the giant paper and lumber company Weyerhaeuser.  This incorrect and exploitative designation means our drivers do not even have a legal right to organize or collectively bargain.  Complicating matters, North Carolina is one of many southern "right-to-work" states and has the dubious distinction of being the least unionized state in the nation.  As you can imagine, the campaign has been an uphill battle the whole way.  Despite such obstacles, we've had some major successes.  We've held two short work stoppages and even formed an organizing/negotiating committee.  The week prior to Martin Luther King Day, the FTOC, our organizers, and rank-and-file drivers were preparing to hold the founding convention for the IWW-affiliated United Truckers Union over the holiday weekend.  Yet in response to our growing power and organization, the bosses chose that week to fire 17 of our drivers.  The bosses deny the firings had anything to do with union activity, but it is clear they were targeting the Union's leadership.  Since then, drivers have been called into private meetings with management and told they better not join the Union.
We're writing you today to request that all IWW members donate two dollars per week for 3 month to support our fired drivers.  This will allow us to pay the fired drivers a small organizing stipend so that they can continue the important organizing work still going taking place on the ground.  Likewise, we are requesting each IWW GMB, Job Shop, and IUB offer whatever they can to help our drivers pay their bills and support their families.  To make donating easy we have set up a PayPal account accessible through www.truckers.iww.org.   However, if it's easier, checks can be made out to:
IWW FTOC
PO Box 274
Waukegan, IL 60079

We are also asking you to forward this appeal to every Wobbly in your address book and anyone else you think might be sympathetic to the plight of our drivers.
We thank you in advance for your time and generous donations,

Tom Levy
redandblack83@gmail.com

FTOC Volunteer

The FTOC can be reached at 847-693-6261
If anyone would like copies of the FTOC Newsletter "Trucker United" or would like to volunteer to help out, please do not hesitate to e-mail me directly or to call the FTOC hotline.