10:00 am to 4:30 pm

Butte Carpenter’s Union Hall

156 W. Granite (across from BSB Courthouse)

Free with lunch provided (donations accepted)

Please call to reserve a place or for questions

Mark Anderlik 1-800-859-2796 manderlik@igc.org

April 9-15, 2012 – 100,000 Americans will train for non-violent direct action.

Our country is at a crossroads. We have a choice to make. Greater wealth for a few or opportunity for many. Tax breaks for the richest or a fair shot for the rest of us. A government that can be bought by the highest bidder, or a democracy that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The choice is in our hands. This spring we will act on that choice.

In the tradition of our forefathers and foremothers and inspired by today’s brave heroes in Occupy Wall Street and Madison, Wisconsin, we will prepare ourselves for sustained non-violent direct action.

From April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to join together in the work of reclaiming our country. We will organize trainings to:

1. Tell the story of our economy: how we got here, who’s responsible, what a different future could look like, and what we can do about it

2. Learn the history of non-violent direct action, and

3. Get into action on our own campaigns to win change, including a Tax Day action on April 17th.

This spring we rise! We will reshape our country with our own hands and feet, bodies and hearts. We will take non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny one block, one neighborhood, one city, one state at a time.

Learn more at: http://the99spring.com/about/

Local Conveners (in formation): Montana Organizing Project, MoveOn.org, SW Montana Central Labor Council AFL‐CIO, UNITE HERE Local 427,

National Conveners (partial list): AFL‐CIO, AFGE (Federal Gov’t Employees), AFT (Fed. of Teachers), AFSCME (Local Gov’t Employees), Alliance for a Just Society, Change to Win, CWA (Communications Workers), Jobs with Justice, MoveOn.org, SEIU (Service Employees), Student Labor Action Project, Teamsters, UAW (Auto Workers), UFCW (Food/Commercial Workers), UNITE HERE (Hospitality/Service Workers), USW (Steelworkers)

Union Sisters Misty Albrecht and Angie Sizemore

After nearly a full year of conflict with the owner Virginia Karlsen and the management of the Butte War Bonnet Hotel, the hard-working housekeepers hoped that a new union contract could be bargained in relative peace.  Unfortunately this was not to be.

Early this year the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found in the Union’s favor over all but one of our charges from last year.  The Union and management met with a Federal Mediator several times to resolve the issues brought up by the NLRB charges. 

In a gesture of good faith, the Union dropped the NLRB charges.  Shortly after that, management started to revert to their old anti-worker ways.

First, housekeeper Misty Albrecht was fired.  Misty, our steward-in-training, has a toddler son who had to have a heart transplant in January 2010.  He developed life-threatening complications late last fall and had to be life-flighted to Seattle.   Although Misty kept the War Bonnet informed of her situation, she was fired when she and her son returned to Butte.  The reason: not filling out a written form for leave.  The Union has filed a grievance over this outrageous act, and it will be finally settled in an arbitration hearing Nov. 10 in Butte.

Then, another housekeeper was fired for trying to obey, to the best of her ability, conflicting orders from management.  War Bonnet managers later admitted that they had made a mistake, but refused to properly settle the grievance by making the housekeeper whole.  Instead they engaged in illegal “direct dealing,” attempting to sidestep the grievance by giving the member a job outside of the union contract.

Next, Angie Sizemore, Union Steward since 2008, was fired in June for the flimsiest of reasons: she was accused of speaking with a union member about union matters on the clock.

What she did was talk to one union member when she thought the member was on a break, and tell another member who had a grievance to speak with her after she finished her work. Even if the charge is true, it is insufficient reason to fire Angie according to the “just cause” term in the Union contract.

Having removed the union leadership from the hotel, the housekeeping supervisor then passed around a decertification petition, which the Union views as clearly illegal and has filed an NLRB charge.

Since these events the hotel has hired almost all of their new housekeepers from the Pre-Release Center in Butte.  One negative word from management and these employees can be sent back to prison.  Their only protection is a union contract with a “just cause” term.  But the War Bonnet has used this leverage, with the union leadership removed, to try to break the union.

For example, one housekeeper, within days of having just successfully finished her time with Pre-release was taken off the schedule.  When the union objected, she was fired.  Management gave no reason, so the only obvious reason was that she was not subject to being sent back to prison.

The Union has fought back in a variety of ways.  We have filed numerous grievances and charges with the NLRB.  We have leafletted numerous Butte events to explain what is going on at the War Bonnet.  We have initiated several phone call campaigns where the public is calling the hotel and demanding they stop their unionbusting.  We had a picket of fifty people outside of the hotel.  And more is coming.

The War Bonnet had also filed all kinds of frivolous charges against the Union.  These were all recently dismissed.

In the end, the Union will prevail in defending worker rights.  We will pursue justice and demand respect for all of our members.  We will last one day longer than the ownership of the War Bonnet!

UPDATE!

The War Bonnet has been sold to owners out of Washington State.  The Union remains at the War Bonnet and has asked the new owners to bargain.  Perhaps this will mark a new and better era in relations.

Occupy Wall Street has captured the imagination and passion of millions of Americans who have lost hope that our nation’s policymakers are speaking for them. We support the protesters in their determination to hold Wall Street accountable and create good jobs.   

We are proud that today on Wall Street, bus drivers, painters, nurses and utility workers are joining students and homeowners, the unemployed and the underemployed to call for fundamental change.  

Across America, working people are turning out with their friends and neighbors in parks, congregations and union halls to express their frustration – and anger — about our country’s staggering wealth gap, the lack of work for people who want to work and the corrupting of our politics by business and financial elites. 

The people who do the work to keep our great country running are being robbed not only of income, but of a voice.  It is time for all of us—the 99 percent—to be heard. 

As we did when we marched on Wall Street last year, working people call on corporations, big banks, and the financial industry to do their part to create good jobs, stop foreclosures and pay their fair share of taxes.

• Wall Street and corporate America must invest in America:  Big corporations should invest some of the $2 trillion in cash they have on hand, and use it to create good jobs. And the banks themselves should be making credit more accessible to small businesses, instead of parking almost $1 trillion at the Federal Reserve.
• Stop foreclosures:  Banks should write down the 14 million mortgages that are underwater and stop the more than 10 million pending foreclosures to stop the downward spiral of our housing markets and inject more than $70 billion into our economy.
• Fund education and jobs by taxing financial speculation:  A tiny tax on financial transactions could raise hundreds of billions in revenue that could fund education and create jobs rebuilding our country.  And it would discourage speculation and encourage long term investment. 

We will open our union halls and community centers as well as our arms and our hearts to those with the courage to stand up and demand a better America. 

Richard Trumka President, AFL-CIO

Occupy Missoula

Occupy Helena

Occupy Together for contact information of occupation groups in Great Falls, Billings, Kalispell and other places. This site also provide information so you can help organize actions in your own town.