By Bill Reed, December 15, 2010

Perhaps you have heard about the Flaum Appetizing company cheating their employees out of large amounts of overtime pay and firing the workers for joining the IWW. Perhaps you were leafleting or picketing at supermarkets last summer or last spring to support the workers and get customers to boycott Sonny and Joe’s hummus. Perhaps you were in court or read about the National Labor Relations Board ruling against the owner.

The owner has simply refused to obey the federal laws including the NLRB ruling.

The Flaum company has been treating their staff badly and breaking the federal labor laws for a long time. This is business as usual in New York - and many parts of the U.S.

These workers have been standing up for their human rights. This shows that they are stronger and smarter than a lot of people who get cheated and unjustly fired. Lots of people just take it and move on with their lives. Look for a new employer. Hope that they are not repeating the situation.

When the labor union movement grew in the U.S., or anywhere, it was because labor united. People have to band together and try some ways to demand and get better treatment. It is just that simple. Sure, it is complicated in many ways, but the solid rock bottom basic truth of the matter is that people need to unite together and do something with as many of the other regular working people/taxed consumers as possible. We need to stick together to somehow force the wealthy powerful owners of the businesses and the government to stop their wicked ways.

The government is not normally enforcing laws when the wealthy break them. The law tricks us and deceives us. The rich - they have no legal obligations. We will always have some problems in our lives. If your problem is with an employer who does something wrong or even illegal – I’ve heard owners and managers tell my coworkers, “What are you gonna do? Call a cop?” We’ve got to help each other.

Emergency Action! Protest To Show Solidarity With Striking Georgia State Inmates!

Friday December 17, 2010
11:30am - 1:00pm
Richmond, Virginia Courthouse
701 E. Broad St.

To endorse this action please visit:
[ https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&pli=1&formkey=dHVBcXNrOFBIUmExM19TMVN4Z2daOEE6MQ#gid=0 ]

“A threat to justice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.” - Martin Luther King Jr

Webb wasn't at his office, but some good coverage was had. The Richmond IWW including fellow worker Andrew Ragland had good things to leave behind for Webb in this article. Check out the video here:

[ http://www.wtvr.com/videobeta/b2341456-ccfb-406c-b0b8-b847dbe916e1/News/Protest-At-Senator-Webb-s-Richmond-Office ]

Protestors- Webb Holding Everyday Americans 'Hostage'

WTVR Channel 6 News - Sam Brock Anchor

New York, NY- Legendary First Amendment litigator Martin Garbus and noted workers' rights organization Brandworkers have taken on the representation of gourmet coffee workers being subjected to a controversial defamation lawsuit by prominent Brooklyn-based coffee company, Gorilla Coffee and its owners. After sustained attempts to improve what they viewed as a hostile work environment, the workers caused a stir in the gourmet coffee community and in the news media by resigning their employment at Gorilla Coffee as a group and discussing their decision in a letter to the New York Times. The Times, which published the letter online, and one of its reporters are also defendants in the suit which erroneously argues that the letter was defamatory. The letter is available online here.

"Retaliatory, anti-speech lawsuits like the one from Gorilla Coffee have the potential to both harm innocent people who choose to speak out and chill the speech of others who would like to make their voices heard," said Martin Garbus. "This lawsuit is without merit and will be defended vigorously until victory."

A well-known Park Slope institution, Gorilla Coffee was shuttered for over two weeks after essentially the entire staff resigned en masse last April. The workers took issue with what they viewed as the heavy-handed management style of operations director Carol McLaughlin and finally had enough when it became clear that company owner Darleen Scherer was unwilling to remedy the situation. In their letter to the Times, the workers cited their repeated attempts to create a tolerable work environment at Gorilla Coffee, attempts which ultimately proved unsuccessful. Instead, they were left to deal with a workplace that in their view represented a, "...perpetually malicious, hostile, and demeaning work environment that was not only unhealthy, but also, as our actions have clearly shown, unworkable."

On June 29th, 2010 Park Slope, Brooklyn-based independent coffee shop Ozzie's Coffee & Tea fired IWW union barista Jeff Bauer for engaging in legally protected union activity. The NYC branch of the IWW has been engaged in a fight for justice for Fellow Worker Bauer, both through Direct Action and filing multiple Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

FW Jeff Bauer worked at Ozzie's for over a year. He is a hard worker with a strong work ethic. The quality of his labor was never questioned before his IWW union affiliation was leaked to management. In fact, FW Bauer was offered the General Store Manager position before it was given to Rafael Bernadine. Jeff turned down the management position on principle, as it went against his political beliefs as both an anarchist and a wobbly. “I do not want to have authority over other people’s lives any more than I want people to have authority over my life,” recalls Jeff as to why he turned down the much higher paying position.

Jeff was often praised by management and coworkers for how hard he worked until word got out that he helped book a benefit for the NYC branch of the IWW on May Day of 2010. When management was made aware Jeff Bauer was organizing with the One Big Union their response was harsh. Jeff was subjected to mistreatment, harassment and verbal abuse at the hands of the General Store Manager, Raphael Bernadine.

FW Bauer came under extreme scrutiny, was demoted as a key-holder and suffered a severe cut in hours when he stood up for a coworker. The coworker had been physically assaulted and threatened by the General Store Manager's boyfriend on the shop floor. Along with the demotion and slashed hours (from over 40 to below 20), FW Bauer was written up in what management termed “a first and final warning.” The warning was for discussing workplace conditions, which is protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In response FW Bauer led a legally protected union delegation of six people into the store to demand his hours back, his warning be retracted in writing, and for General Store Manager Raphael Bernadine to be reprimanded for his mistreatment of workers. The other purpose of this March on the Boss was to officially inform Ozzie’s Coffee and Tea of Jeff Bauer’s IWW union affiliation.

Management’s response was one of further retaliation. After Ozzie's co-owner Melissa Azulai received the demand letter, Jeff Bauer was immediately removed from the schedule and then terminated days later. After Jeff was removed from the schedule, he placed several unreturned calls to Ms. Azulai, who never informed Jeff personally, that he was fired. He had to find out from his friend, comrade and legal advisor Daniel Gross.

In a related note, Daniel Gross, along with legendary First Amendment litigator Martin Garbus, is currently defending the former workers of another well-known Park Slope coffee establishment, Gorilla Coffee. The gourmet, fair-trade coffee shop was shuttered for over two weeks after the entire staff resigned en masse last April over the heavy-handed management style of operations director Carol McLaughlin. The former workers of Gorilla Coffee are being slapped with a retaliatory, anti-speech lawsuit for speaking out about the “perpetually malicious, hostile, and demeaning work environment” at Gorilla Coffee. In a similar move, Ozzie’s Coffee and Tea’s law firm, Livoti, Bernstein & Moraco has threatened the General Headquarters of the IWW with a frivolous anti-speech lawsuit designed to make us cease and desist from engaging in the time-tested tactic of phone call-in actions. We doubt that either Ozzie’s Coffee and Tea, or their corporate lawyers, are familiar with the IWW’s long history of engaging in Free Speech Fights or they would have picked their battles a little more carefully. The IWW fights to win.

Fellow Workers are encouraged to call Ozzie’s Coffee and Tea to demand that Jeff Bauer be reinstated immediately. Ask for Melissa Azulai or Raphael Bernadine. (718)398-6695.

Park Slope Food Coop to Discontinue Sale of Sonny & Joe's Hummus Brand

For Immediate Release: Brandworkers - Contact: press (at) brandworkers.org, December 1, 2010

New York, NY- Members of the Park Slope Food Coop, a highly-regarded Brooklyn market, voted last night to stop selling Flaum Appetizing Corp. products, including Sonny & Joe's hummus, over workers' rights concerns. Flaum, a kosher food company, and its owner Moshe Grudhut illegally fired seventeen of their Latino workers en masse after the employees stood up against over a decade of unlawfully withheld overtime pay, denial of benefits, and abusive treatment from management. Though Flaum's retaliatory conduct was judged illegal in February 2009 after a full trial, the company is resisting compliance with the judge's order including the payment of over $260,000 in lost wages. Flaum has profited for years from the hard work of its immigrant employees but only raised the question of immigration status in a discriminatory bid to avoid the lawful court order.

"I was grateful for the opportunity to share my experience with almost two hundred members of the Coop yesterday evening," said Placido Romero, a Flaum worker whose firing was held to be illegal. "I worked at Flaum for 13 years and my co-workers and I didn't receive a penny of overtime, working sometimes as many as 80 hours per week. After all those years, Flaum didn't hesitate for a moment to throw me out of work leaving me incredibly worried about how I would pay rent and support my family. But we're campaigning with energy to win respect for our labor, the respect every worker deserves, and this decision by the Coop is an important step toward that goal."

In addition to cutting off orders of Flaum's Sonny & Joe's hummus brand, the Coop will refrain from purchasing Flaum-branded hummus, pickles, and Middle Eastern salads in addition to Tnuva diary products and Bodek cut vegetables which Flaum distributes in New York. The Flaum workers are part of the Focus on the Food Chain campaign, a joint effort of the IWW labor union in New York and non-profit organization Brandworkers. Focus on the Food Chain is organizing with recent immigrant workers to overcome sweatshop conditions in an industrial corridor of food processing and distribution warehouses that snake through Brooklyn and Queens. Flaum is emblematic of the working conditions in the sector where violations of basic workers' rights, exploitation of recent immigrants, and relentless retaliation against worker organizing are the norm. Still, workers have shown a steely resolve to speak out and take action for positive change.

Featured is a nice piece featuring Flaum workers Maria Corona, Gloria Torres, and Jose Pani; you can listen online here - (starts at 23:14).

Note how co-host Ken Nash ends the piece:

"IWW is Industrial Workers of the World; they have a great history, and a great present, and a better future."

Note: Maria misspoke on one point; in 2007, the workers joined the IWW and went on strike. Brandworkers got involved in 2010.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 2, 2010

12/2/2010 The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) has officially voted to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in support of Palestinian rights. The “Resolution in Support of the Workers of Palestine/Israel” was adopted in an overwhelming vote both at the IWW’s convention in Minneapolis and by the membership via referendum. This vote makes the IWW the first union in the US and the third union in Canada to officially support the Palestinian United Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

Inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the BDS movement calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until such time as fundamental Palestinian rights are recognized. The BDS call is supported by a broad cross-section of Palestinian society, including Palestinian unions.

The resolution to support the BDS campaign comes out of the work of the IWW’s International Solidarity Commission and the IWW Friends of Palestinian Workers Group, a grassroots network of Wobblies supportive of the Palestinian, Israeli and international struggle against Israeli apartheid. Support for the BDS campaign was also stressed by all the Palestinian workers who met with members of the IWW on the IWW delegation to Palestine, particularly the Independent Workers Federation of Palestine, with whom the IWW shares a close bond of solidarity.