On Wednesday, September 23 2009, this fight ended. After multiple refusals, three days from our 14-day deadline, T.I.G. restaurant/bar in Pioneer Square gave in and paid Young the $500 in unpaid dishwashing wages that he’d been owed for months. Even a court order back in April hadn’t been enough to make the boss pay, but direct action, with the promise of more, did the trick. Thanks to all who came out for the Sept 12th action.
On Friday, September 18 2009, we officially ended our campaign against Jimmy John’s fast food sandwich chain. Back in July, SeaSol and wrongfully-fired delivery worker Jason decided, in recognition of the owners’ absolute refusal to consider reinstating or compensating him, to carry on with actions against the business until we had cost them at least $4,000 in sales, estimated as conservatively as possible. After three months of aggressive actions, we have now achieved that goal.
For their refusal to do the right thing, the regional franchise owners have now paid a price far higher than the most it would ever have cost them to settle the conflict. In fact, the figure of $4,000 doesn’t come close to accounting for the long-term damage as Jimmy John’s worsened reputation lingers within Seattle, and as former habitual customers settle into new habits of eating lunch elsewhere.
Saturday, September 12, 27 people entered TIG Asian Tapas Bar in Pioneer Square to demand full payment of all wages owed to Young for his work washing dishes in the restaurant’s kitchen. Young himself led the way, followed by a CNN cameraman. Despite a court order in April, the business has still failed to hand over the roughly $500 that they owe him. Recently he joined the Seattle Solidarity Network and asked for support.
As the group crowded in behind Young, a bartender informed us that his boss, the owner, was out at another nearby restaurant. We stood silently and waited, filling the front area of TIG, while the barman phoned the owner and summoned him to come receive the demand in person from Young. When the owner arrived, we made way for him to enter, and Young delivered the demand both verbally and in writing, allowing 14 days for payment.
For 11 years Patricia worked for Lorig Associates, a major Seattle property development/management company. For most of that time she was one of only two African-American employees in the company, the other being a maintenance worker. For a decade she was passed over for promotion and denied anything but the most menial positions. Once when she’d filled in for a normally higher-paid job for five months, she was denied the job and then asked to train the inexperienced white worker who was hired to take the job permanently while Patricia was sent back to the front desk.
After years of pushing, Lorig finally yielded and moved her to a higher-paid admin-assistant job, calling it a “trial run”. They gave her zero training for the job and tried to drive her out with harassment, even making a fuss when she got up to use the bathroom. Soon they called her in and asked, “So, are you going to quit, or are you going back to the front desk with a pay cut?” She said neither, and they fired her.
Since then she’s been out of work for over a year, taking care of a sick relative. Now she has joined with the Solidarity Network and is fighting back. Our demand is that the company provide her with back pay compensation for a year’s worth of income since her unjust firing.
Lorig executives did not respond to our initial request (here’s a video of the delegation that delivered it), so we are now launching an escalating campaign of actions asking potential renters, condo-buyers, and property management customers not to support discrimination, and not to do business with Lorig.
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.