Recently a visiting Jimmy John’s executive walked by Jason, a hardworking bicycle deliverer, and didn’t like the way he smelled. He noticed a whiff of last night’s beer and cigarettes, which Jason had been sweating out through hours of hard pedaling. With barely a word, just for that, he casually had Jason fired.

The truth is it’s not Jason that stinks, it’s this kind of arrogant, heavy-handed corporate management which casually throws a worker out of his job on a whim. Thursday June 25th, a group of around 20 friends and supporters joined Jason for a visit to Jimmy John’s downtown sandwich shop to politely deliver a message: management should correct this injustice, either by reinstating Jason, or if they can’t do that, then by providing him with a modest severance pay.

Management has refused. We have now started an ongoing series of lunch-time pickets at Seattle-area Jimmy John’s sandwich shops, all seven of which are under the same franchise owners. Our message is simple: “Support Jason–Don’t Eat Here!”.

Our pickets–three so far, at two locations–have been cutting their usual lunchtime rush of customers down to a tiny trickle. Many customers leave promising not to eat at Jimmy John’s in the future. Our next step is to picket more of their busiest locations, and to bring our message to delivery customers.

Saturday morning, May 30 2009, eleven people and three cameras joined ex-U-Haul worker Marrico for a visit to managers inside two south Seattle U-Haul locations.

Marrico’s General Manager at U-Haul was an abusive boss, with a habit of yelling at workers and firing them with little or no justification. In his case she claimed, without showing evidence and contrary to his own memory, that he – a good worker of two years standing – had forgotten to put away some padding that a customer had used.

Marrico has decided to fight back, with the support of others in the Solidarity Network. This first action was to deliver his very modest demand that the company erase his firing and instead accept his resignation; that they acknowledge this in writing; and that when future potential employers ask them for a reference check, they report nothing but that he was a good worker who resigned voluntarily.

Update: Having been personally assured by the regional manager that U-Haul does not give out any details about their past employees, Marrico has decided he is satisfied and ready to put this behind him. Those of you who came out to support him, he says he really appreciates it and he’ll be there for you in the future.

Tuesday, April 7, we had to take this fight to the next level, with the first of what will be an ongoing series of strategically-timed pickets at the University district Pita Pit. The franchise owners are now admitting that no taxes were ever paid on behalf of ex-employee John, who now needs to file as an “independent contractor” and pay the taxes himself. That’s fine, says John, but what about the chunk of his pay that they always withheld from him “for taxes”?

So far the owners have still not resolved this, although they’ve had plenty of time to do so. Now we are bringing the issue to the attention of potential Pita Pit patrons, with a simple message: “DON’T EAT HERE!”

Today, a band of 25 gathered with John as he delivered his demand to the University-district Pita Pit fast food franchise: either produce the W2 tax form that they have so far refused him, or else pay up everything they “withheld for taxes” from his wages in 2008.

Monday, December 8, 2008, 25 people with the Solidarity Network, Industrial Workers of the World, and allied organizations picketed Weyerhaeuser corporate headquarters, at the same time as truckers in North Carolina held their first major work stoppage to demand that the company meet with them about their grievances. For the past several months these truckers have been organizing with the IWW. Currently their pay often adds up to around $6 per hour, many are dangerously overworked, and they’re stuck with nearly all expenses related to their vehicles, fuel, and insurance. Following Monday’s actions, Weyerhaeuser management has announced that they will sit down and meet with the truckers within the next 14 days. This is still only a small victory – truckers expect it will take a long, hard fight before all their demands are met.

Update: The word from North Carolina is that management has broken its pledge to meet with the drivers, and the struggle continues.