[act-ma] WED 1/22, 7 PM, FUND-RAISER FOR INSOMNIA COOKIES STRIKE & ORGANIZING CAMPAIGN!

[Geoff Carens]

Dear All,

In August, employees of Cambridge's Insomnia Cookies struck, and joined the
IWW <http://www.iww.org/>. They were fed up with lousy pay and conditions.
Their demands included $15/hr, health care, and a union, and they were
swiftly terminated. Ever since, workers have stayed strong  and maintained
their struggle, which has grown into an organizing drive at the boutique
cookie business. Insomnia pays rock-bottom wages, charges $1.35 for cookies
that cost the company .10 to make, and refuses to pay workers'
compensation. Bike delivery workers report that if they get hurt in
traffic, the boss' response is, "Why are you late?"  In response to a
series of protests against the company's labor practices, Insomnia falsely
reported picketers were blocking the sidewalk in front of the Cambridge
store, giving Harvard and Cambridge cops an excuse to bring police
violence<http://www.openmediaboston.org/content/iww-union-member-arrested-insomnia-cookies-cambridge-pd-during-legal-picket-2789>,
and phony charges of assaulting cops, down on a union member.

Undeterred, the workers and their allies are keeping up pressure on the
company with continuing pickets
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o-cMS7gjBA>of local stores. Students
at Harvard, BU and elsewhere have called for a boycott
<http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/slam/?q=node/1081>of the company. The National
Labor Relations Board issued a Complaint against Insomnia for illegally
firing workers for union activity. Recently SEIU Local 509 donated $1,000
to the campaign, a magnificent act of solidarity.

You can help too! Please join Insomnia strikers and their supporters at the
Strike & Organizing Campaign
Fund-raiser<https://www.facebook.com/events/697339176963088/698447330185606/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity>,
Wednesday January 22, starting at 7 pm, at the Center for Marxist
Education, 550 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge (2nd floor), steps from
the Central Square MBTA stop. If you can't come to the event, please
consider making a donation to the Insomnia Cookies Workers' Organizing
Fund<https://www.wepay.com/donations/1952435343>, which
is fueling the union drive.

In Solidarity,

Geoff

http://iwwboston.org/