Monday, November 04, 2013

Dear Everyone,

On 10/24/13, Insomnia Cookies employee Tommy Mendes told his boss he was an IWW member. The next day he was suspended without pay. Insomnia refuses to say when or if he can return to work. Join the Boston IWW, Harvard's SLAM* and Boston University's SLAP** as we picket, starting at 9:30 pm, on Thursday November 7, at Insomnia Cookies' BU location, 798 Commonwealth Ave in Boston!
The Facebook event is here. Feel free to email Tommy's boss Ryan right now, at ryand@insomniacookies.com and let him know Tommy should be reinstated with back pay! Call CEO Seth Berkowitz anytime at (877) 632-6654 and let him know how you feel about Tommy's unpaid suspension.

Background: Tommy joined the IWW with other employees in August, after night shift workers declared a spontaneous strike. They were making deliveries on their own bikes until 3 am, without legally-required breaks, pressed to ride at unsafe speeds, and making $6/hr. At least seven pickets have been held at Insomnia stores since August, but drivers and bakers still report they are often denied breaks, denied workers' comp & blamed by bosses for any accidents in traffic, and are still paid poverty wages. Workers are expected to leave the store unescorted late at night with thousands of dollars in cash to deposit. They even have to use their own money to make change for deliveries.

Management's excuse for suspending Tommy after he went public with his union affiliation is that his cash count was supposedly short, but other workers report their counts have been short too (likely due to technical problems), without their facing disciplinary action. Tommy has already sustained hundreds of dollars in lost wages; you can support him and other Insomnia activists by contributing to the Insomnia Cookies Workers' Strike Fund Please take whatever action you can (picket, email, phone call, donation) to support Tommy Mendes and all the low-paid Insomnia Cookies employees!
In Solidarity,

Geoff for the Industrial Workers of the World

*Student Labor Action Movement
**Student Labor Action Project

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