[act-ma] THU 11/7 9:30 pm, STOP INSOMNIA'S UNION-BUSTING!! PICKET, FONE, EMAIL ZAP

[Geoff Carens]

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<https://www.facebook.com/events/355942384551025/>.
Feel free to email Tommy's boss Ryan right now, at
ryand at insomniacookies.comand 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<http://www.iww.org/content/striking-workers-insomnia-cookies-join-iww>.
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<http://iwwboston.org/2013/10/11/cops-fail-to-stop-successful-october-10-picket-of-insomnia-cookies/>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 <https://www.wepay.com/donations/1952435343> 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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