[FlyingBrickAnnouncements] Fwd: URGENT! Solidarity Phone Blast! Demand Dignity & Respect!

Mon Feb 21 21:41:15 UTC 2011

Hey y'all, sorry for the spam, I try not to make a habit of this, but this
has been sent to me in urgency by the Richmond IWW. Since several of their
members volunteer here, including myself, and Ellwood Thompson's is a well
known, and frequented store by some folks who do a lot of work with the
Brick, I thought this was important to send out. What do y'all think of
posting it to our blog or some other more public forum?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kenneth Yates <causticcastle at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 8:56 AM
Subject: URGENT! Solidarity Phone Blast! Demand Dignity & Respect!
To: IWW List <iww-list at lists.iww.org>, IWW GHQ <ghq at iww.org>,
rtru at googlegroups.com, rephrame at googlegroups.com,
richmond-food-not-bombs at googlegroups.com,
allthesaintstheatercompany at gmail.com, maydayrva at googlegroups.com

Demand Dignity & Respect!

Demand A Competitive Living Wage and Substantial & Consistent Pay Raises For
Workers at Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market! <http://ellwoodthompsons.com/>

One of our fellow worker’s, Kenneth Yates was wrongfully terminated from
Richmond, Virginia's Ellwood Thompson's Local
Market<http://ellwoodthompsons.com/our-promise>after 5 ½ years of
committed service on Tuesday February 15th.

“When you go to work you ordinarily leave your constitutional rights as a
citizen in the glove compartment of your car...” -Staughton Lynd & Daniel
Gross

Kenneth was well aware of this and as a committed member of the community in
which he lives and works, did not allow that to come between him and the
injustices he found in the workplace.

In December, after being courted by management to become a part of their
team, then respectfully refusing the offer, he was threatened with a
statement that he should reconsider and either “move up, or move out”.

Fast-forward to January 30th & 31st, 2011.  Kenneth, in a concerted effort
with his fellow workers, challenged a new and unwarranted decision by
management to force workers in their department who regularly work early
morning shifts to close one shift a week and take a mandatory following day
off, and for those who close to do the same. The schedules were not changed.
However, we feel that after refusing to submit to the schedule changes that
would bring undue stress on our minds and bodies, Kenneth was singled out as
a problem, a wrench in the machine, the organizer.

Present Day: After volunteering on his day off, going above and beyond the
specifications of his job, to clean the refuse wells of the dairy cooler,
his employment was terminated for what management defined as 'gross
negligence'.  A fan had become dislodged in a section of the cooler Kenneth
was not able to reach in his cleaning due to time constraints. Management
accused him of not plugging the fan back in, which resulted in the shrink of
several hundred dollars of product. Management refusing to hear his side of
the story, dismissed his claims that he did not unplug any of the fans and
that the cooler showed no signs of problems when he left. They added that he
'neglected' to inform anyone that the job wasn't finished, further refusing
to accept that there wasn't any apparent reason for Kenneth to alert anyone,
however he immediately on his next scheduled work day, upon arrival told his
department manager that he was unable to finish the job, but planned to
finish at a later time that week.

After 5 ½ years of excellent customer service and product knowledge, and the
willingness to take on extra responsibilities, and do what ever it took to
get the job done, what management calls 'gross negligence', in actuality
seems to be more of an unfortunate accident.

We feel that Kenneth is a victim of discrimination based on the belief that
Ellwood Thompson’s, as a business who states in their mission statement that
they want to help “...strengthen our community, once [sic] choice at a
time...” has made many terrible choices in the form of poor labor practices
that have weakened our community.

We demand that Rick Hood & Ellwood Thompson’s fulfill their commitment to a
sustainable community by providing a place of employment where workers can
retain their dignity and feel their labor is valued and respected. We demand
 that Ellwood Thompson's, as a first step towards that goal, provide a
Competitive
Living Wage & Substantial & Consistent Pay Raises.

We're requesting that you call management at the store, (804)359-7525 and/or
fax: (804)359-8529 as well as the owner Rick Hood who can be reached at his
other company Hood Properties at (804)355-9161 and demand a respectable and
dignified workplace at Ellwood Thompsons' for all current and future
workers.  Ellwood Thompson’s hours are 7am - 9:00pm EST, seven days a week.

Email any and all the management at the following addresses as well!

Just *Ctrl-C* then *Ctrl-V!*

TTaylor at ellwoodthompsons.com; tlangford at ellwoodthompsons.com;
RickHood at ellwoodthompsons.com; jstaten at ellwoodthompsons.com;
GCarson at ellwoodthompsons.com; sbutler at ellwoodthompsons.com

Please feel free to use the sample message below:

Hello my name is _____________ and I demand that Rick Hood & Ellwood
Thompson’s fulfill their commitment to a sustainable community by providing
a place of employment where workers can retain their dignity and feel their
labor is valued and respected. We demand that Ellwood Thompson's
provide a Competitive
Living Wage & Substantial & Consistent Pay Raises.

 *An Injury to One, Is An Injury To All!*

-- 

*Richmond Industrial Workers of the World* • P.O. Box 7055 • Richmond,
Virginia 23221-0055
(e) richmondiww at gmail.com • (w) www.richmondiww.org • (p) 804-496-1568

-- 
Always with Solidarity

Nathan
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