<P> In California, union activities were based in Santa Cruz, where in 1977 the IWW engaged in one of its most ambitious campaigns of the 1970s: an attempt in 1977 to organize 3,000 workers hired under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) in Santa Cruz County . The campaign led to pay raises, the implementation of a grievance procedure, and medical and dental coverage, but the union failed to maintain its foothold, and in 1982 the CETA program would be replaced by the Job Training Partnership Act . The IWW would win some lasting victories in Santa Cruz, however, with successful campaigns at the Janus Alcohol Recovery Center, the Santa Cruz Law Center, Project Hope, and the Santa Cruz Community Switchboard . </P> <P> Elsewhere in California, the IWW was active in Long Beach in 1972, the where it organized workers at International Wood Products and Park International Corporation (a manufacturer of plastic swimming pool filters) and went on strike after the firing of one worker for union - related activities . Finally, in San Francisco, the IWW ran campaigns for radio station and food service workers . </P> <P> In Chicago, the IWW was an early opponent of so - called urban renewal programs (now more often termed as gentrification), and supported the creation of the "Chicago People's Park" in 1969 . The Chicago branch also ran citywide campaigns for healthcare, food service, entertainment, construction, and metal workers, and its success with the latter led to an attempt to revive the national Metal and Machinery Workers Industrial Union, which twenty years earlier had been a major component of the union . Metalworker organizing would largely end in 1978 after a failed strike at Mid-American Metal in Virden, Illinois . The IWW also became one of the first unions to try to organize fast food workers, with an organizing campaign at a local McDonald's in 1973 . </P> <P> The IWW also built on its existing presence in Ann Arbor, which had existed since student organizing began at the University of Michigan, to launch an organizing campaign at the University Cellar, a college bookstore . The union won National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certification there in 1979 following a strike, and the store would become a strong job shop for the union until it was closed in 1986 . The union launched a similar campaign at another local bookstore, Charing Cross Books, but was unable to maintain its foothold there despite reaching a settlement with management . </P>

An organization formed during the red scare to protect free speech rights