Victory! Solidarity stops deposit theft

Here is the story of our latest fight, in Alison’s words:

How I Won Justice from a Deadbeat Landlord
by Alison Goodman

In September 2010 I rented a mother-in-law apartment from a woman named Jacque. I was out of town and a friend checked out the apartment. There was no written agreement, and per Jacque’s request, I sent $400 to hold the place, since it would be a month before I moved in.

When I arrived in October, I found many problems: mold in the washing machine, the toilet didn’t work, the bathroom sink didn’t drain, the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes, the general condition was filthy, the bed was torture. I spent four hours cleaning, with new discoveries of worse conditions. Jacque’s ho-hum reaction to these problems did not inspire confidence.

I decided to move out, which was a tremendous hardship for me: packing everything back up, finding temporary lodging and finding a new place, with only a week before returning to work. I told Jacque why I was moving out and asked for my deposit. She agreed, but then ignored that agreement, along with all future attempts at contact.

Then I found Seattle Solidarity Network, who agreed to take on my fight. I was impressed with their levelheaded dialogue, democratic process and peaceful approach. The first action was the presentation of a written demand for the return of my desposit. I was deeply moved to see thirty people show up (!!) most of whom I’d never met. When I handed that letter to Jacque, knowing that Seattle Solidarity literally had my back, I felt brave and strong. Later when I expressed my gratitude, many said, “Injustice to you is injustice to me.”

Jacque ignored the demand letter and the fight escalated. We hung flyers and posters in her neighborhood, emailed her own promise-to-pay along with links to the law she was breaking, but to no avail. Finally we decided to use Jacque’s connection to a local shoe store as leverage. As an employee, she sells shoes for this store, via her own Ebay store. She’s also related to the owners. Ten members showed up in front of the shoe store and handed out flyers to passers-by.

The following day, we finally heard from Jacque. She sent three emails full of threats, name-calling, rewritten history, invention, hateful epithets, wrong presumptions, and self-incrimination.

Less than one week later I received a cashier’s check for $400.

Seattle Solidarity Network members tirelessly volunteer countless hours to help fellow workers and tenants who have felt the powerless sting of being ripped off by landlords and bosses. For some, the loss of that money is a real hardship. For others, the injustice is the bigger issue. Either way, Seattle Solidarity is there and growing fast. I’ve become involved and feel tremendous satisfaction in helping others, as I’’ve been helped.

Three month fight puts thieving restaurant out of business

Here is the story of our latest fight, in Becky’s words:

For the entire month of September I worked for Ciro D’Onofrio at his Italian Restaurant in Renton, Bella Napoli. During this time, Ciro was verbally abusive towards his employees and even customers. He would throw temper tantrums in front of tables and claim we were out of things on the menu simply because he did not feel like making them. He would also hire different people to come in and help out on a weekend night with no prior experience and without training. This proved to be difficult, as I was the only server, bartender, hostess, food runner, and busser.

I still had to pay rent so I continued to work for Ciro. Things got hairy when I had $110 of my bank “disappear” one night when only he and I were working. Also, I needed my check and Ciro claimed that he only paid his employees at the end of every month. I thought this was strange, especially after I had seen him give a check to the cook, but I dismissed it. What was he going to do, not pay me? As you might have guessed by now, that’s exactly what happened. Ciro has made up every excuse in the book as to why he refuses to pay me the balance of $478, from a missing bottle of wine to incorrect invoices. It is clear that he never intended to pay me.

That was when I decided to call Seasol. After meeting with them we decided to inform Ciro that he had 14 days to pay up or we would start fighting back. Then for two and a half months we peacefully fliered, postered, and picketed. Meanwhile Ciro’s response was consistently violent: shouting profanity, spitting at us, assaulting us, throwing water and picket signs at us and more. We went down every weekend, twice a weekend recently, keeping his restaurant empty (or nearly) for any given dinner rush we desired. And through it all our numbers grew, with fifty picketers at a recent action on December 19th.

Conversely Ciro broke down week by week. Despite sending in faulty documentation Ciro was forced to pay Labor and Industries a portion of my wages, although he still refused to pay the entire amount. His business dwindled, while our numbers and dedication grew. Finally last week, in a matter of days Ciro spent a night in jail (with assault charges pending) for attacking a group of Seasolers while they were postering; Seasol and my fight received some much deserved radio attention on KCBS 91.3’s One World Report; and most importantly, Bella Napoli Closed!!!

The day we delivered my demand letter was one of the happiest days of my life, I felt so supported and strong. With our strength and persistence we have shown, and will continue to show bosses like Ciro that they can’t get away with abusing their workers. And if they resist we are ready, willing, and able to shut them down so that they can never again commit such a despicable crime against the working class. There is power in numbers and support out there if you have a similar situation. Solidarity Forever!

Direct action settles the bill at King Way Apartments

For three years, Gladys lived with her daughter in the King Way apartments, owned by Housing Resources Group (H.R.G). One day this summer, Gladys’s daughter was in a car accident. Luckily, everyone was ok. But less than four days after the accident, management had the car towed out of Gladys’s private parking spot. Apparently this was part of a crackdown on damaged vehicles. Rather than personally contact her to let her know she needed to move her car, management simply placed a sticker on the car itself, which Gladys didn’t happen to go anywhere near during those few days. As a result of this callous and arbitrary act, she suddenly faced an enormous towing fee. Even after the car was sold at auction and the sale price deducted, she found herself pursued by a collection agency for $547. As a low-wage worker, there was no way she could afford this.

Not long after this incident, Gladys moved out of the King Way, whereupon H.R.G. gave her yet another slap in the face: a letter saying they were taking her entire deposit, citing no reason except mysterious ‘miscellaneous’ expenses.

Gladys joined SeaSol. On October 1st, she and 27 others marched into H.R.G.’s headquarters and delivered a demand: settle the $547 towing bill, and return the deposit in full.

When the two-week deadline passed with no resolution, SeaSol started putting up “Don’t Rent Here” posters around the King Way Apartments, warning prospective tenants about the abuses they might face from H.R.G. A few days later, we expanded this effort to cover more and more H.R.G. buildings, focusing on the largest ones which had vacancies to fill.

Soon after these actions got underway, H.R.G. mailed Gladys a response: a check for $300 in partial compensation for the towing, nothing for the deposit, and a letter arguing that she ought to accept this much and be satisfied. Gladys, furious at this, did not agree, and neither did SeaSol, so we stepped up the poster campaign and made plans to begin more serious actions soon.

At this point, an executive at H.R.G. called SeaSol and requested a meeting. Not wanting to be unreasonable, we agreed. Gladys and four other SeaSol’ers used the opportunity to explain to two H.R.G. executives (including the Director), in person, why we were standing by our original demand and would not be satisfied with less.

They went for the usual management tactic of trying to separate Gladys from the rest of SeaSol. The Director said, “Our goal is to satisfy Gladys, not SeaSol.” We replied that it was the same thing. Gladys had co-signed the demand, which was for the minimum amount needed to fix the bad situation that H.R.G’s actions had caused.

They asked, “How much time will you give us?”. We replied that we had given them two weeks already, and that ought to be enough.

A few days later, Gladys received another check. It included her entire deposit, plus the remaining $247 in towing fees.

Gladys says thanks to everyone who participated in this fight! She will be there for yours.

Panama Hotel pickets continue

SeaSol has been supporting the campaign by the recently formed Olympia Solidarity Network (OlySol) against Jan Johnson, owner of rental properties in Olympia and the Panama Hotel in Seattle. While living under Jan Johnson’s iron heel OlySol members Scott and Patty have had to endure an antiquated septic system that Ms. Johnson habitually allowed to be overfilled, thus venting human waste throughout their yard. This in turn led to mold and rats, and a strong likelihood of the building being condemned.

Now Scott and Patty are fighting back for relocation assistance (three months rent and their full deposit) and reimbursement for out of pocket costs they suffered in trying to deal with the septic problem themselves. As Jan Johnson’s primary business is the Panama Hotel and Tea House in Seattle, we have been organizing ongoing pickets as a part of the OlySol campaign that we’re hoping will put more pressure on Jan to make a movement and clean up her filthy business with Patty and Scott once and for all.

Victory! Lorig drops lawsuit, pays $22,000 to fired worker

After thirteen months of aggressive actions, we have finally won our fight against developer Lorig Associates. The have granted our “final offer” demands, dropping their lawsuit against us and paying fired secretary Patricia $22,000 in back-pay compensation (though they won’t call it that).

This fight has been longer and harder than any of us ever imagined it would be. The company brought in a major nationwide union-busting law firm to try and crush us with lawsuits against both our organization and three individual brothers and sisters: Emily, Andrew, and Patricia. They tried to get an injunction banning us from picketing, on pain of arrest. They promised they would never give in to our demands.

Still we stood our ground and managed to keep up a never-ending series of aggressive actions against the company. We repeatedly picketed many of Lorig’s for-rent and for-sale properties. We continually posted “Don’t Rent Here” flyers. We brought our message to Lorig-sponsored “open house” events, industry events, and even charity events. We picketed and addressed three different city councils who were considering hiring Lorig for city developments. We contacted the owner’s neighbors. We brought Lorig’s troubles to the attention of their financial backers at Bank of America. The cost to Lorig in lost business, reputation, and legal expenses has been huge. Now finally, after a full year of pressure, they’ve had enough.

The strength to stick it out and win came from the unwavering solidarity of a ton of SeaSol members, supporters, and allies. When Lorig started suing people, no one ducked for cover – instead, more people stepped up. To everyone who participated in the Lorig fight: THANK YOU! This is your victory.

Thanks also to the lawyers Brendan Donckers and Keith Scully of Gendler & Mann LLP, as well as to Dmitri Iglitzen and Jennifer Robbins of workerlaw.com, who took a stand for freedom of speech by defending us for free when Lorig tried to shut us down with a lawsuit.

For more background, check out our past articles and updates from this fight: