IWW union threat to picket Penn Pike Starbucks produces warning of tort action

The quirkly little Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or 'Wobblies' have received lawyers' letters from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and from the Pike's rest stop concessionaire HMS Host Corp warning them of damages claims if they carry out threats to picket Starbucks restaurants on the Turnpike.

Lawyers for the Turnpike and HMS Host have written similar letters if a socalled "IWW Starbucks Workers Union" picket and boycott of Turnpike Starbucks causes the loss of business. They say this would be illegal secondary activity and a violation of Section 8(b)(4)(ii)(B) of the National Labor Relations Act supporting a claim for tortuous contract interference.

A letter from HMS Host lawyers to an IWW organizer in Pittsburgh says: "Please be advised that Host will take all necessary action to protect its business interests and should any picketing and boycott activity occur as contemplated that Host will seek legal recourse to protect its rights, including seeking the recover of damages that will occur because of the union’s unlawful conduct. Historically, Hosts’ stores on the Turnpike do very well over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Therefore, Host will seek all lost revenues and costs associated with bringing such action from the union because of its unlawful secondary activity."

Mother Jones was IWW organizer

The IWW was something of a force in American labor relations and politics a hundred years ago as a radical alternative to the American Federation of Labor. Legendary labor figures such as Big Bill Hayward, Eugene Debs, Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones, and Daniel de Leon were IWW organizers. The IWW was way left of the communists in calling for immediate and constant class struggle and the violent overthrow of capitalism. Anarchists.

The Wobblies derided the AFL's slogan of "A fair day's pay for a fair day's labor" as capitulationism and the betrayal of the working class. They wanted to "abolition of the wage system."

They had some early success organizing itinerant workers and gaining publicity through protest demonstrations and riots. But they ultimately fell apart from faction fighting over tactics and war issues. CPUSA attempts to take over the IWW caused more strife. Some of their leaders were jailed for their support of draft-dodging.

A Wikipedia entry says they now have less than a thousand paid members in the US.

Their main activity in recent years has been anti-Starbucks. They claim: "Starbucks workers need to rise up out of poverty."

Most Starbucks workers we have seen are university students and other young people who by their clothing, coiffure and automobiles in the parking lot look like they come from homes with $100k+ household incomes.

Guess it's all relative. Osama bin Laden came from a family of Saudi multimillionaires, which doesn't inhibit him in claims to stand with the world's oppressed.

Maybe the Turnpike and HMS Host think there are some deep pockets at the IWW? George Soros? Could the Wobblies be forced to cough up enough money to make up for the Act 44 shortfall, if I-80 can't be tolled? Now that's alternative financing.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-11-16