troymelquist.com » IWW

Free Geek Center TOXIC Disaster waiting to happen

admin — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:10:38 +0000

Hazardous Materials are being recycled by an unprofessional non certified group of e-waste individuals in Portland Oregon. Free Geek of Portland Oregon exposes it employee’s, friends and workers to these hazaedous materials.

Americium: smoke alarms (radioactive source).
Mercury: fluorescent tubes (numerous applications), tilt switches (pinball games, mechanical doorbells, thermostats). With new technologies arising, the elimination of mercury in many new-model computers is taking place.^[34]
Sulfur: lead-acid batteries.
PCBs: prior to ban, almost all 1930s–1970s equipment, including capacitors, transformers, wiring insulation, paints, inks, and flexible sealants.
Cadmium: light-sensitive resistors, corrosion-resistant alloys for marine and aviation environments, nickel-cadmium batteries.
Lead: old solder, CRT monitor glass, lead-acid batteries, some formulations of PVC.^[35] A typical 15-inch cathode ray tube may contain 1.5 pounds of lead,^[1] but other CRTs have been estimated as having up to 8 pounds of lead.^[19]
Beryllium oxide: filler in some thermal interface materials such as thermal grease used on heatsinks for CPUs and power transistors,^[36] magnetrons, X-ray-transparent ceramic windows, heat transfer fins in vacuum tubes, and gas lasers.
Polyvinyl chloride Third most widely produced plastic, contains additional chemicals to change the chemical consistency of the product. Some of these additional chemicals called additives can leach out of vinyl products. Plasticizers that must be added to make PVC flexible have been additives of particular concern

Free Geek E-waste posses TOXIC DUST to Portland neighborhood!

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:02:49 +0000

Free Geek Recycles and destroys thousands of PC’s a Year……are they exposing the volunteers to toxic dust?

Prison computer recycling put staff, inmates at risk, NIOSH finds

Federal prisoners and staff overseers were exposed for years to excessive levels of toxic heavy metals during computer recycling operations.

By Rutrell Yasin
Jan 22, 2010

Federal prisoners and staff overseers were exposed for years to excessive levels of toxic heavy metals during computer recycling operations, according to a report from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

A lack of biological monitoring and industrial hygiene data inside the prisons, however, prevented NIOSH from documenting any health problems from these illegal levels of exposure.

The NIOSH report was submitted to the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General in December as part of a systemwide review of all the federal prison recycling centers.

The report covered conditions at federal prisons in Atwater, Calif.; Elkton, Ohio; Texarkana, Texas; and Marianna, Fla., between 1997 and 2003. NIOSH investigators visited the facilities from 2008 through 2009.

NIOSH found that prison staff and inmates had been exposed to illegally high levels of toxins for years at all of the facilities it inspected, except the one at Marianna.

The recycling operations involved prisoners breaking up computer components, often with hammers, at for-profit prison industries. NIOSH concluded that, for years, these recycling operations lacked adequate containment to prevent workers from being coated with dangerous amounts of lead, cadmium and other heavy metals inside the hardware.

“Computer components came into loading bays, they were handed to crews of inmates who broke them up with hammers and the only containment was a cardboard box,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a service organization that focuses on employee-related environmental issues.

“It was difficult for NIOSH to document harm to individuals based on absence of any data,” Ruch said. His group has assisted the Bureau of Prisons employee, Leroy Smith, who exposed the hazard. The Justice IG review was prompted by complaints filed by Smith in 2004.

The NIOSH report concluded that managers failed to:

Conduct adequate planning and job hazard analysis before initiating electronics recycling operations.
Identify potential health hazard in a timely manner and, as a result, adequate hazard controls were not established for several years at some prison facilities.
Provide any training, guidance or oversight to address health hazards associated with electronics recycling to staff and inmate workers.

According to the NIOSH report, it appears that Smith’s disclosures have led to new hazard-reduction practices.

PEER officials hope that those responsible for the hazardous working conditions will be held accountable.

“When the Justice Department IG finally completes its investigation, we hope that it names the particular federal managers responsible for these dangerous conditions and recommends appropriate disciplinary action,” Ruch said.

Broken or outdated monitors, video game systems and keyboards may contain lead, mercury, and other toxic materials that could harm people and contaminate soil and water.

This is why I ask? WHY HAS DEQ NOT TESTED LEAD MERCURY AND OTHER TOXIC levels around the FREE GEEK facility! Where is OSHA?

Does a non profit not have to prove it is not a hazzard to the community like a for profit business?

When most people think of recycling, they picture green bins full of glass, newspapers and plastic milk jugs set out on the sidewalk for trash day. But old electronics devices also contain valuable materials that can be reclaimed–along with poisonous substances that should be kept away from people and out of the environment.

Toxic TVs

As technology advances, consumers want the latest and greatest electronics. As a result, more and more e-waste is generated every year. Hazardous materials are contained inside most consumer electronics, including:

Computer CPUs and monitors
Keyboards
Power supplies
Speakers
TVs
DVD and VHS players
Cellphones
Video game systems
Printers
Telephones
Microwave ovens
Toasters
Pagers
Surge Protectors
Fax Machines

Color cathode ray tubes (CRTs), found in older TVs and computer monitors, contain several pounds of lead. The poisonous metal mercury is used in circuit boards. Other toxic materials found in electronics include chromium, cadmium, zinc, and brominated flame retardants.

What Happens to Old Electronics?

In 2005, the EPA estimated that:

45% of consumer electronics are stored or reused;
44% are sent to landfills or incinerators; and
11% are recycled.

When old electronics get thrown into the trash, the poisons inside them can leach into soil and groundwater through a landfill or be vaporized in an incinerator (see Turning Trash into Electricity). These contaminants damage human and animal nervous systems, and some are known to cause cancer.

IWW hires elderly to protest as Union heads stay home!

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:07:11 +0000

ALBANY — As Circuit City Stores Inc. Tuesday projected it will post a first-quarter loss of as much as $90 million, it wasn’t getting much sympathy from protesters in front of its local store.

They were members of the Industrial Workers of the World union, and on Tuesday they were protesting Circuit’s firing of 3,400 employees around the country. The company had dismissed the higher-paid workers in March, replacing them with lower-paid new hires as part of a cost-cutting plan.

“It’s the most incredibly outrageous act by a corporation today,” said Paul Poulos of Hartwick, who was passing out fliers that read “Boycott Circuit City.”

Circuit City has offered to hire back the workers after a 10-week “cooling-off” period, but at reduced pay.

“It’s an unprecedented way to trim costs,” said Greg Giorgio, an OTB channel announcer from Altamont who also produces a labor show on WRPI. He held up a sign that said “Circuit City — Ultimate Corporate Greed.”

The manager of the Crossgates Commons store declined to comment, except to say that the protesters — standing on the sidewalk in front of the store — were not on store property. A spokesman at the Richmond, Va.-based company also declined to comment.

Circuit City officials say the layoffs were part of the company’s attempt to save money in light of worse-than-expected earnings due to poor sales of large-screen televisions.

It now expects a loss from continuing operations before income taxes of $80 million to $90 million for the first quarter of its 2008 fiscal year. The company has also said it is closing seven domestic stores, a Kentucky distribution center and 62 company-owned stores.

Circuit City has long struggled for market share against Best Buy Co., and analysts have said each of Best Buy’s locations bring in about twice as much revenue as its smaller rival. Both have seen fierce competition from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

In a research note Monday, analysts at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. said Best Buy, the nation’s No. 1 electronics retailer, has “significant competitive advantages” and is “well positioned to take business from both Circuit City’s operational changes and closed Tweeter and CompUSA stores.”

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Inc. said last month that it is closing 49 of its 153 stores and laying off about 650 workers.

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IWW Thugs Terrorize 8 Star Bucks in Texas!

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:59:34 +0000

Steamed Baristas Shut Down Fort Worth Starbucks Drive-Thru, Demand Affordable Healthcare and Paid Sick Days for those with H1N1

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 12/18/2009 – 12:17pm.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IWW Starbucks Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World)
Contact: Michele Cahill, 817-368-5892

December 18, 2009

Steamed Baristas Shut Down Fort Worth Starbucks Drive-Thru to Demand Affordable Healthcare and Paid Sick Days for those Diagnosed with H1N1

Press Conference: December 18, 12:00 noon, 8th and W. Rosedale Starbucks, Fort Worth

Fort Worth, TX- Baristas and community supporters at the 8th and Rosedale Starbucks shut down the store’s drive-thru this morning and delivered a list of demands including affordable health care options and sick days for those displaying H1N1 or other cold and flu symptoms. Starbucks doubled the cost of the company health insurance plan in September, leaving many workers unable to afford treatment because of sky-high deductibles and premiums.

“We’ve had enough. Baristas should not be forced to expose customers to H1N1 or other contagions and stay sick longer, just in order to be able to make the money they need to support their families and pay astronomical health care costs. We’re making $7.30/hr., that’s a nickel above minimum wage,” said IWW Barista Michelle Cahill.

The protesting baristas are members of the Starbucks Workers Union, which is an international campaign of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) labor union. The store action makes the 8th and Rosedale location the first Starbucks in Texas to have a public union presence.

Baristas decided to move toward unionization after many workers were forced to continue working while displaying intense H1N1 and other flu symptoms, enhancing the likelihood of spreading the flu virus. The baristas are demanding that those who display H1N1 or other cold and flu symptoms be excused from work with pay to avoid exposing customers to Swine Flu.

Casey Keeling, another union barista at the store, said, “Watching our coworkers be forced to serve customers while they were sick with H1N1 was the last straw. Something needs to change- in our workplace and in this country. We have decided to form a union to fight for affordable health insurance, paid sick days, a fair wage, and secure work hours. And they could at least give us a first aid kit for the store.”

While portraying itself as a ‘socially-responsible’ employer, all of Starbucks’ retail hourly workers in the U.S. are part-time employees with no guaranteed number of work hours per week. According to Starbucks figures released to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 40.9% of its employees (including managers) are covered by the company health care package, a lower percentage than the oft-criticized Wal-Mart, which insures 47% of its workforce.

Since the launch of the IWW campaign at Starbucks on May 17, 2004, the company has been cited multiple times for illegal union-busting by the National Labor Relations Board. The company settled numerous complaints against it and a judge’s guilty verdict on more than 30 additional rights’ violations was recently upheld on appeal by the Board in D.C. Starbucks’ large anti-union operation is headed by CEO Howard Schultz and operated in conjunction with the Akin Gump law firm and the Edelman public relations firm.

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is a grassroots organization of over 300 current and former employees at the world’s largest coffee chain united for secure work hours and a living wage. The union has members throughout the United States and Canada fighting for systemic change at the company and remedying individual grievances with management.

Union baristas, bussers, and shift supervisors have fought successfully toward improved scheduling and staffing levels, increased wages, and workplace safety. Workers who join the union have immediate access to co-workers and members of the community who will struggle with them for a better life on the job.

###

www.StarbucksUnion.org

Free Geek Listed As IWW Collective!

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:11:13 +0000

The Website RED AND BLACK list Free Geek as IWW workers Collectives. Here is the Cut n Paste listing the ANARCHO Business groups Free Geek gives free stuff too! Free Geek Donations of hardware are frittered out to the ANARCHO groups under the arm of the IWW!

PDF copy here. The website proclaims this to Free Geek: PDF copies are provided as Proof since IWW teams routinely browse this site and remove incriminating links.

This group proudly flies the IWW Logo!

www.freegeek.org
A collectively-run non-profit that recycles and refurbishes computers and electronics. Free Geek provided our office equipment and the free computers in the dining room! Thank you, Free Geek

Has Free Geek gave your business free computers? Probally not! But they do live on donations. I wonder if any coffee shops in competition to RED AND BLACK gave free geek money or hardware? That would be a very sticky point…..give Free Geek money or hardware from your Coffee shop and then find it given to your competitor for free! NICE JOB FREE GEEK!

Worker Collectives

Free Geek
www.freegeek.org
A collectively-run non-profit that recycles and refurbishes computers and electronics. Free Geek provided our office equipment and the free computers in the dining room! Thank you, Free Geek!

People’s Co-op
www.peoples.coop
An all-vegetarian, member-owned, collectively-managed grocery store. People’s also hosts a great year-round farmer’s market every Wednesday!

Magpie Messenger Collective
www.magpiemessenger.com
Portland’s collectively-run bike messenger service.

Stumptown Printers
www.stumptownprinters.com
Portland’s collectively-run print shop.

A Better Cycle
www.abettercycle.blogspot.com
A worker-owned bike shop in Southeast Portland.

Muddy Waters
www.muddywatersportland.com
A newly non-profit, worker-run coffee shop in Southeast Portland.

Northstar Infoshop
www.northstarinfoshop.org
A worker-owned bookstore opening in Portland in the summer of 2010! A small selection of Northstar’s books is available for sale at the Red & Black Cafe.

IWW UNION THUGS RUIN STARBUCKS STORE

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:21:32 +0000

Starbucks spars over union [Seattle PI]

Submitted by SWU on Tue, 02/17/2009 – 2:06pm.

Drives to organize build to tense legal disputes

By ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTER

The scene: An off-duty Starbucks barista lounges at the East Ninth Street store in Manhattan, wearing a union button. A customer, who happens to be a manager at another Starbucks store, enters to buy a drink, sees the button and asks about it.

The dialogue grows hot. Starbucks employees don’t need a union because they get health benefits, a 401(k) plan and stock options, the manager says.

Things then start “to happen really fast and get really loud,” the barista recounts at a trial. “He was in my face, and basically we started having an argument. He got into my face and raised his hands up.”

The barista tells the manager, “You can go f*** yourself, if you want to f*** me up, go ahead, I’m here.”

This drama is part of an 88-page ruling that illustrates the ongoing tension between Starbucks Corp. and the Starbucks Workers Union.

In December, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. violated federal labor law by trying to stop union organizing at four Manhattan cafes. Starbucks is appealing the decision.

That trial, which took place between July and October 2007, produced a decision that reads at times like a reality-TV script, revealing Starbucks baristas and managers yelling at each other, mishandling blenders and cursing.

Union sparring at Starbucks cafes? It wasn’t supposed to be that way.
Both sides

In the 1980s, Starbucks unionized before Howard Schultz took over as chief executive officer in 1987. He gave baristas health care plus a share of the profit. When the AIDS epidemic was at its height, Starbucks paid for terminal illness care for employees for 29 months until the government took over.

By 1992, the company was union-free.

“I was convinced that under my leadership, employees would come to realize that I would listen to their concerns,” Schultz wrote of that time in his book “Pour Your Heart Into It.” “If they had faith in me and my motives, they wouldn’t need a union.”

To this day, the company prides itself on its treatment of workers — baristas receive the same health benefits as headquarters employees with business degrees.

So how is it that a perceived latte-sipping lefty company finds itself in legal disputes with union employees around the country? In recent months, Starbucks has tussled with the Starbucks Workers Union in cases in three states: New York, Michigan and Minnesota. The company has settled three unfair labor practice complaints.

The union says that the Starbucks reality has never been as shiny as its image.

“It’s always been a difficult place for baristas to make ends meet at Starbucks with the insecure work hours and low wages,” said Daniel Gross, a founder of the union organizing efforts who was fired in 2006. (A judge found his termination was unfair.) “The American people were deceived by Starbucks and Howard Schultz.”

Starbucks counters that it treats employees well, that a union wouldn’t necessarily do things better and that union participants make up a tiny portion of a 170,000-”partner” company.

“Starbucks is a pro-partner organization,” said Jim McDermet, senior vice president for Starbucks’ Northeast Atlantic Division. “We really view ourselves as listening to our people and creating an environment where our partners can communicate directly to us.”

Progressive activist Kim Fellner, author of the 2008 book “Wrestling with Starbucks,” said “the truth is somewhere in between.” In her book, she noted that Starbucks treats workers better than many other restaurant companies do and spends substantially on environmental sustainability. She gave the corporation a stamp of “above average.”

Hard economic times will make Starbucks more susceptible to union organizing, said Joseph Michelli, author of “The Starbucks Experience.”

“They’ve really been an amazing company in the way they treated employees,” said Michelli, who studied the company for two years.
Nontraditional union

The Starbucks Workers Union is part of the Wobblies, the nickname for the Industrial Workers of the World union. The IWW doesn’t operate like traditional unions, which focus on contract negotiations and formal bargaining. Instead, it focuses on what it calls “direct action” to win gains for workers.

The IWW says it is anti-capitalist and pro-worker. According to its constitution, “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. … Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.”

Since Starbucks employees began organizing with the group in 2004, that struggle has played out on company turf.

In April 2006, the IWW started a “nutritional initiative” and hired scientists to assess the dietary value of menu items. In June 2006, the union issued a news release on nutrition that generated worldwide publicity.

“The model we’re using is quite different than the mainstream model; it’s a model called solidarity unionism,” Gross explained.

When union member Anna Hurst, a single mother from the Bronx, suffered heat stroke on the job in August 2008, her store manager took her off the schedule for two weeks.

“Anna brought this to the union, and we discussed it as co-workers and began to carry out our action plan,” Gross said.

A dozen baristas and supporters marched in during peak hours to hand a written demand to the manager that Hurst be compensated for the two weeks she was not permitted to work. The union also leafleted customers and picketed on New Year’s Eve.

At the 2007 trial in New York, Starbucks testified that union demonstrations have intimidated customers and employees. The IWW supporters “at times engaged in conduct such as spitting at managers, name calling, various acts of vandalism and blocking access to the stores. In addition, the leaflets distributed by the IWW frequently contained the phone numbers of managerial personnel,” court documents say.

The union denies allegations of spitting and vandalism.

The documents don’t paint Starbucks as innocent — the company developed a national response to the union, collected information on what unionized workers did in their spare time and kept a list of which employees were union sympathizers.

The company transferred employees it labeled as “pro-Starbucks” (least likely to join the union) to keep stores from being too heavily weighted toward the union, court documents say.

The IWW has “learned what Howard Schultz dreads, which is when you use Starbucks’ name, you get a kind of instant publicity effect,” Fellner said.

“I personally think that we progressives would be better served by targeting those corporations that have a much more negative impact on our communities and the global economy. You know, Wal-Mart does spring to mind,” she said.

But Fellner also said Schultz’s pro-partner mantra comes across as benevolently paternalistic.

“It’s a problem because it means that whoever runs the company believes they know what’s better for their workers than their workers,” she said.

Starbucks says it surveys workers to gather their views.
Anti-union?

A 1999 attempt to unionize Starbucks roasting-plant workers in Kent led to a two-year struggle for a contract.

“They were doing union busting,” said John Thompson, current president of International Union of Operating Engineers local 286. “All of the HR department that was hiring, their questions were, ‘Have you ever belonged to a union, has any of your family members belonged to a union, or has any of your friends belonged to a union?’ If you said yes to you or your family, at any time, you were never even considered for employment.”

That bargaining unit dissolved. Thompson said Starbucks was the “worst employer we ever had. They basically did anything and everything in their power to keep the unions out.

“We haven’t gone back after them.”

In fact, no union besides the IWW has tried to organize Starbucks in the U.S. in recent years, the company says. The IWW Starbucks union says it has some 300 members.

Gross, 29, began working for Starbucks in 2003 and had been involved with the IWW before.

He said that he did not choose to work at Starbucks just so he could organize it. Variable work hours are one of the union’s major points of contention, Gross said. An employee must work 20 or more hours per week to be eligible for health coverage at Starbucks. Seventy-one percent of Starbucks employees are eligible, and 65 percent of those in the U.S. take advantage, the company said Thursday.

Starbucks uses an automated scheduling system, where employees indicate which hours they are available. Someone who wants full-time work of more than 32 hours weekly must be open to work at least 70 percent of a store’s operating hours.

“Starbucks can schedule you on any day, at any time within those hours,” Gross said. “How are you supposed to get a second job or plan for child care if you have to be available 80.5 hours?”
Union in a big way

Employees tend to care most about respect and dignity — and they tend to unionize when they’re not getting it, said Mark Theodore, a Los Angeles-based labor law partner at Proskauer Rose LLP.

“It’s rarely about the money,” Theodore said. “It’s usually about giving a person a voice in the workplace. Most people decide for themselves whether they are treated the right way or not.”

Unions, which have diminished in relevance for years, are about to become a lot more relevant, experts say. President Barack Obama won major endorsement from the nation’s labor unions, and he appointed union-sympathetic Hilda Solis as labor secretary.

She supports an Employee Free Choice Act, which would eliminate private ballot voting and make union organizing easier.

“We’re about to go union in a huge way in this country,” said Clarence Belnavis, managing partner at the Northwest office of the national labor and employment law firm Fisher & Phillips LLP.

And Starbucks, with centralized management rather than franchisees, is an easy target, he said.

“Name me one state where there’s not a Starbucks. Wouldn’t you want to be the union handling those issues?” Belnavis said.

“Wouldn’t you want to be the entity in there? They’re everywhere.”

P-I reporter Andrea James can be reached at 206-448-8124 or andreajames@seattlepi.com.

See Starbucks Union here

Free Geek attempts Covers UP IWW Involvement!

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:37:31 +0000

We have uncovered emails on the Free Geek network that show Free Geek is covering up IWW involvement! The IWW is under constant investigation by the Federal Government.

Free Geek is worried that further IWW involvement will cause Free Geek to be close by the Secretary of State for violation of the non profit business laws!

Here is the cover up email:

[Commits] richard’s iww stuff no longer cluttering list

commits@lists.freegeek.org commits@lists.freegeek.org
Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:38:42 -0700 (PDT)

Previous message: [Commits] made sure all tables are in ddl with foreign keys
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

Commit by: rfs
Modified files:
CVSROOT/freshCfg 1.22 1.23

Log message:
richard's iww stuff no longer cluttering list

Index: CVSROOT/freshCfg
diff -u CVSROOT/freshCfg:1.22 CVSROOT/freshCfg:1.23
--- CVSROOT/freshCfg:1.22	Thu Apr 15 12:50:09 2004
+++ CVSROOT/freshCfg	Thu Apr 29 08:38:40 2004
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@
     (None, '^fgdb', None,
      MailNotification(["fgdb-commits@lists.freegeek.org"],
                       staticFrom="fgdb-commits-admin@lists.freegeek.org")),
+    # Richard's IWW stuff
+    (None, '^iww', None,
+     MailNotification(["richard@freegeek.org"],
+                      staticFrom="richard@freegeek.org")),
     # FGdiag stuff
     (None, '^fgdiag', None,
      MailNotification(["fgdiag-commits@lists.freegeek.org"],

Previous message: [Commits] made sure all tables are in ddl with foreign keys
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

PDF of the email: Here

Email web link: Here

In a urgent effort to clean Free Geek of any illegal activities, the IWW members cleaned the websites of IWW communication and Eco Terror links!

Free Geek Linked again to IWW master mind Richard Seymour

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:25:53 +0000

Several conversations have put doubt into the FreeGeek IWW alliance in Portland. Let me remind you that IWW Union runs FreeGeek!

The founding member Oso Martin is a card member of the IWW! Further information shows FreeGeek emails being used to support and promote the IWW to raise funds.

This is not a coworker sending you a email to buy his kids Girl Scout Cookies! It is a email to the “Free Geek” community to raise funds by renting out the IWW hall for parties and more! Funds that will in-part support the criminals that the IWW wants to spring from jail! As read about in the post on this site!

Link to the actual site email: Here

Hard copy in PDF form of the site email: Here

Clicking on the email link in the artical brings up this email: social@lists.freegeek.org

Highlights of hte email:

From: That Man Behind the Curtain richard at freegeek.org
Free Geek emails used to support IWW!
The Portland IWW and the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee
recently moved into Liberty Hall (311 N Ivy).

IWW mailing list

Michael & Richard are on the wobs list

This is only one of hundreds of links between the IWW and Free Geek!

Another email supporting IWW and Free Geek involvement!

[freegeek-inreach] IWW meeting

That Man Behind the Curtain richard at freegeek.org
Tue Jul 29 08:17:18 PDT 2008

Previous message: [freegeek-inreach] Tour of facility and volunteer
Next message: [freegeek-inreach] Meeting this Thursday
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

I got a call from a friend in the IWW that needed a room for a short
notice meeting this Wednesday evening at 6:30. I checked the room use
calendar and saw that it wasn't booked, so I went ahead and scheduled
the meeting.

I'll call back this guy later on this morning to confirm. I'm happy to
stick around and do the chaperoning.

 Richard
See LInk

IWW is provided support from FREEGEEK!

IWW union due’s support terrorist!

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:57:54 +0000

As Melquist has been proving over and over, IWW is a terror front group and financier of Domestic Terror attacks. The FBI is tracking the IWW and has it’s focus currently on Northwest IWW groups! Beware of the IWW!

IWW websites, bought and paid with IWW due’s and other IWW monies from member due’s support criminals and terrorist with-in the IWW!

As mentioned, the IWW is using it’s resources to help free the terrorist and criminals of the IWW.

This is from the IWW link: Here

Also from the IWW Site: Here

This IWW member was arrested for terror activities. The article proves that IWW funds go to support these activities and are also spent to try and free the ANTI AMERICAN CRIMINAL TERRORIST!

SEE THE FOLLOWING

Janice Angelillo was picked up by the NJ State Police for allegedly spray-painting. Her bail has been set at $15,000 cash. It is believed she is being targeted for political reasons. As she is the treasurer of the Central New Jersey Industrial Workers of the World and an avid animal rights activist. She is presently being held in Essex County Prison. She was not given her phone call until two days after being arrested. Another associate was also arrested a friend named Nick, from Philadelpha, who is being held on a $20,000 bail.

At approximately 6:30pm (July 23), police arrived at her house in Highland Park, NJ and detained all the people in the house – Janice’s husband Ted, another housemate, and a few friends who were with them. According to Ted, they have currently were detained for several hours by officers from New Jersey Joint Terrorism Task Force, brandishing automatic weapons and other firearms. This is being sent out by the request of the people currently being detained. They are asking that people be kept aware of the situation and spread the word

(Again, for folks in and around Kansas, KMA is again raising money to aid with these comrades!)

New Jersey Animal Rights Activists Rearrested

Following Anti-Terrorist Task Force raid and arrests last weekend, New Jersey activists have been rearrested today [7/29/2005]. They need your support now!

Nicholas Cooney has been arrested once again. He was involved in a legal protest outside Glaxo Smith Kline’s King of Prussia, PA facility and taken in for an outstanding warrant in Ocean County, NJ. During the last contact with Nicholas, it was reported that he was being held in the Upper Merrion, PA jail, but will be extradited to NJ at an undetermined time. Supporters do not currently know where Nick is being held.

Please make some polite but firm phone calls to the jail to request vegan food for Nick and to inquire about his well-being. The phone number at the jail he was last known to be at is 610 265-3232.

If and when Nick is extradited (an email will go out under separate cover), he will be transferred to the Ocean County Correctional Facility in Tom’s River, NJ. After he has been transferred, the phone number for jail support calls will be 732 929-2043.

Starbucks and Troy Melquist attacked by IWW

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:08:58 +0000

The IWW has attacked me and Starbucks for Years! Even going to the point of dragging up information against me! I personally have exposed over 30 IWW leaders! They support terrorist and terroristic groups such as AL Qeada, ELF, and other individuals in prison for committing terror acts!

Now IWW has turned against Starbucks. Why? The money the IWW earns from Starbucks union shops goes directly into the hands of state terror actors! The list of IWW supported union thugs in jail for Terror activities is well documented in this blog! Every Starbucks not unionized is money lost to kill more Americans and destroy more personal property!

Please read the newest attacks against Starbucks in New York City! I Troy Melquist will not rest until this group is rounded up by the government and shut down for the crap they pull on American Citizens.

Please read the following. Linked at http://www.iww.org/en/node/4659

Clowning the Boss

Submitted by Steph on Tue, 03/31/2009 – 11:01am.

Clowning the Boss
By FW double jeff

Monday, February 16th The New York branch of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union held an energetic eight-hour picket outside two separate Starbucks locations. Originally planned as a “loose informal picket” outside the Union Square East Starbucks location, managerial stupidity and increased union-busting activity on the part of Starbucks turned it into a media circus and all night protest. Between the time when the picket was planned and when it actually took place, Starbucks decided to fire yet another union barista, Sharon Bell, from the 17th and Broadway location, conveniently located across the park from Union Square East.

The picket was called to protest the recent wave of Starbucks layoffs and draw attention to the refusal of Starbucks to pay severance, in spite of claiming in several press releases to the media that they will be providing severance pay to all laid off workers. The message was expanded to include the demand for the reinstatement of Sharon Bell and an immediate end to the illegal, unethical, nationally coordinated union-busting operations of Starbucks Coffee.

An hour before the picket was to take place, union organizer and barista at Union Square East, Liberte Locke started receiving phone calls from members of the press inquiring as to whether or not the picket was still happening. Apparently when photographers and camera people showed up early to scout the location they were greeted by someone with a clipboard claiming to represent the union and they were told the picket was cancelled. Further example of the dirty tactics Starbucks uses to squash dissent and undermine the union. Thankfully that tactic backfired, because in spite of it being a rather small turn out of under 30 people, the media showed up full force turning the scene into a street level press conference. Whether it was because the press doesn’t like to have the wool pulled over its eyes, or because of the strength and conviction of the demand letter which was included with the press release, the media for once seemed to want to represent our side, rather than just be a mouthpiece for Starbuck’s anti-union, anti-worker propaganda department.

As we lined the whole front of the store with signs containing messages ranging from “Stop The Layoffs” to “Stop Union-Busting,” local and national television, radio and print ranging from CNN to NPR interviewed union organizers Sharon Bell, Daniel Gross, Liberte Locke and Henry Marin.

Other signs demanded that Starbucks “Stop Slashing Labor Hours” and “Restore Benefits.” As well as demand that Starbucks “Obey Judge Landow’s Ruling” and “Reinstate Fired Union Baristas: Joel Agins, Jr., Sharon Bell, Cole Dorsey, Daniel Gross, Neal Linder and Isis Saenz. “

Things got tense when police started ordering picketers to stop “blocking the door” even though no one was anywhere near the door. Cops threatened to arrest union barista Mischa Lefebvre who was standing nowhere near the door. They started to push him around and drag him off but Fellow Workers Liberte Locke and Daniel Gross intervened, helping him avoid arrest. Daniel Gross had made it clear to the police that “when our people are unlawfully arrested we sue the police for wrongful arrest.” The police were still making threats to arrest the whole crowd and were overheard calling for police vans. Locke and Gross tried to reason with the cops, which is like trying to reason with goldfish. Or pudding. The police finally backed off when Locke told the press to focus their cameras on the door which was not being blocked in any way so that when the cops arrested everyone there would be proof that it was under false pretenses. Later Locke remarked that “it was like they were pointing to a desk and telling me it was not a desk.”

Around 7pm we marched over to 17th and Broadway, where Sharon Bell was fired for being a union organizer. Only a few reporters actually followed us over there, but that’s where the real action took place. Several of us went inside to meet up with union barista and IWW organizer Henry Marin so he could deliver the SWU demand letter to the store manager “Little Mark” Vanneri. Little Mark, who is known to have an anger problem, threw the demand letter back in Marin’s face several times. In retaliation “Big Mark” Ormsbee, the District Manager in charge of both 17th and Broadway and Union Square East refused to let Marin go back to work for the rest of his shift for “walking off on the job.” Marin was later written up for the incident, even though he was engaging in a legally protected work stoppage.

Not letting Henry Marin finish his shift was a huge mistake on the part of Ormsbee. We told Big Mark that we would not leave until they let Marin go back to work, which they were too pig-headed to do, so a “loose informal” two hour demo ended up being a nearly 8 hour indignant protest.

According to Starbucks policy any time there is a union action against any Starbucks location, the Store Manager and District Manager are required to be there. They were not allowed to leave until we left. And we stayed until the end, all the way until closing time. Starbucks’ anti-union policy essentially kept them hostage in their own store for nearly eight hours. Normally Store Managers don’t work closing shifts, so it was nice to see both Little Mark and Big Mark have to. Even though nothing a Starbucks manager does could really be considered “work.” They mostly just played on their laptops, drank coffee and talked on their cell phones all night while we chanted “Let Henry Work!” until our voices almost gave out. We protested Big Mark Ormsbee with a Warriors reference, “Ormsbeeeeeee, come out and plaaaaaaaa-ay!” which a lot of New Yorkers seemed to really appreciate. Several New Yorkers joined in the protest for a few minutes, or a few hours because “New York is a Union Town!” We chanted “What’s Disgusting? Union Busting!” and “What’s Outrageous? Starbucks Wages!”

Around 11pm, District Manager Tracy Bryant and two other DMs were finally given permission to leave by corporate. Bryant used to be the DM for the region that 17th & Broadway and Union Square East are located in, and is known for her union-busting skills. The three DMs were accompanied to the train station by six or seven enthusiastic protesters who called them “Union-Busters”. Because, as I mentioned earlier, New York is a union town several passers-by joined in the festivities.

Once the two Starbucks PR reps left, Little Mark and Big Mark were on their own. When the store closed at 1am, Mark Ormsbee went outside to plead with the cops to arrest the five of us who were left. We began chanting “SHAME SHAME SHAME ON YOU!” while the police told him they weren’t going to arrest us. Ormsbee stormed angrily back into the store. About 15 minutes later he and Little Mark finally made their exit. The two not-very-pleased managers came out of the store and hailed two separate cabs. We continued chanting “SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!” and telling everyone in earshot that they were union-busting scumbags! As Mark Ormsbee got into his car he called one of the founders of the Starbucks Workers Union, and fired union barista Daniel Gross a “pussy.”

How telling is it that Ormsbee chose the word “pussy” to describe someone who is fighting for dignity and respect in the workplace? That term is not only misogynistic and anti-woman, but in this context it’s meant to be queer-baiting and demasculizing as well. Mark Ormsbee is the man who is responsible for investigating sexual harassment and discrimination claims for an entire region. Are we to believe that the concerns of women and GLBT people are going to be treated seriously by Ormsbee?

In the past month Ormsbee has fired two Black female union baristas for organizing in the workplace, which is legally protected. Sheanel Simon from Union Square East has already won her job back through union pressure, we are still fighting for Sharon Bell.

Photo by Angela Cranford of NBC New York.