HOUSTON, TX – The Houston General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World is gathering at the Spanish Consulate to protest the unjust incarceration of eight union activists who work at La Suiza pastry shop in Xixòn, Spain.
The workers at the La Suiza pastry shop had been organizing with the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labor) in response to wage theft and humiliating abuse at the hands of their employer. In response to their demands for better working conditions, their employer retaliated against them, falsely accusing them of criminal organization and extortion. The courts ultimately turned against the workers, who have all been incarcerated for their activities in unionizing their place of work.
The CNT will stand strong in the face of unjust and illegal retribution for legal demonstration, and the IWW will stand with them, because an injury to one is an injury to all!
Workers from around Houston will gather on Friday, September 16th, 2022, at the Spanish Consulate, located at 1800 Bering Dr #750, Houston, TX 77057, from the hours of 9 to 11 am CDT. The gathering will be a peaceful demonstration urging the Spanish government to let our fellow workers go free, and to recognize that demanding fair and dignified treatment from an employer is something every worker should be able to do, free from worry that they will have their freedom and their rights stripped from them.
The Xixón workers, seven of whom were disproportionately sentenced to three and a half years in prison for protesting, with the eighth sentenced to eight months in prison simply for taking a video of the incident, will not be left to fend for themselves.
“The Houston GMB is proud to stand with our fellow workers in the CNT. Working class solidarity doesn’t end at any one nation’s borders, or at any coastline. By demonstrating outside of the Spanish Consulate in Houston, we hope to shock the Spanish government into overturning the unjust and false ruling against these comrades. We want them to know that this isn’t just a local affair that they can sweep under the rug by throwing everyone involved in jail. Workers all around the world are watching what the Spanish government does here, and we won’t forget it.”
On December 6, 2018, the IWW of North America voted to join the ICL. The IWW of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and England did the same on September 11, 2021.
For more information, please contact Houston IWW Communications and Outreach Committee Chair Andrew F. and Fellow Worker Avon P. by email at [email protected] or by phone at (713) 730-9846.