Remo Borracchini’s bakery has been around since 1922, and when it comes to workers’ rights, Remo thinks it’s still 1922. If you work there, you can forget about your legally-mandated 10 minute breaks, unless you are one of the favored few employees who are close to the Borracchini family. Need to use the bathroom? If the store is busy, you might just have to hold it for up to four hours until the unpaid lunch period or until quitting time.

SeaSol member Gladys worked under these conditions for nine years. Like many of her co-workers, she talked about wanting to be allowed to take her breaks, but knew that if she took a stand for her rights, Remo would fire her. Once, she had to sit down for 17 minutes due to a terrible headache. When Remo saw this on his surveillance tapes (yes, he watches his employees on surveillance tapes), she was reprimanded for it.

Finally, when Gladys suffered an on-the-job injury and Remo wanted her to cover it up, she took a stand, informing Washington State Labor & Industries about her injury and claiming her worker’s compensation. After this, Remo retaliated by cutting Gladys’s hours, and later fired her on a flimsy excuse involving an improperly wrapped order. Remo later made up the false claim that he had fired Gladys for being rude to a customer.

Since Gladys was not allowed to take her 20 minutes per day (that’s 10 minutes for every four hours) of legally-mandated paid break time, that means she was putting in an extra 20 minutes of work each day. From nine years of working without breaks, we calculated that Gladys was owed several thousand dollars for that extra working time.

When Gladys presented our demand to Remo, surrounded by dozens of SeaSol members, he refused to even look at her. Afterwards, out of sight of Remo’s cameras, his employees thanked us.

A Very Borracchini Response

Instead of admitting their mistakes, and trying to make amends, the Borracchinis did everything in their power to bully their former employee into silence. They enlisted the support of their friends and managers to call and email death threats to Gladys and SeaSol. They called on right wing talk show host Dori Monson (the same man who has publicly declared that global warming is a hoax perpetrated by a cult) to denounce Gladys and her supporters as “thugs”. Monson called on his thousands of listeners to descend on Borracchini’s to counter SeaSol’s first planned picket line on the Saturday before Easter.

The result was underwhelming. Roughly 40 management supporters – mostly Borracchini family members, friends, and managers – gathered in the parking lot to counter-protest against at least 80 SeaSol picketers. To make up for their small numbers, management supporters screamed abuse at picketers – calling them “bitch,” “faggot,” and everything else they could think of. When the insults failed to incite the SeaSol picketers, Remo Borracchini’s middle-aged nephew, a company executive, punched a woman in the face. After this, the police closed off the entrance to the bakery’s driveway as a crime scene, most management supporters withdrew from the area around the SeaSol crowd, and the picket continued until its scheduled ending time. Very few customers entered the bakery during the action.

In spite of management’s best efforts, they have failed to silence Gladys. Their threats, violence, and media smear campaign have only increased SeaSol’s determination and encouraged even more former Borracchini’s employees to speak out against this abusive boss.

The Fight Continues

During the pre-Easter picket, Gladys announced that she would happily yield all of the back pay Borrachini’s owed her to her charity of choice, St Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Two days later, Borracchini’s management announced their first major concession: they would be donating $10,000 to St Jude’s. However, they would not be putting Gladys’s name on the donation, nor had they instituted a decent break policy.

Given the company’s disgusting actions in response to our campaign, we cannot be satisfied with this gesture. We want Gladys’s name added onto the donation, and we will continue our fight until all Borracchini’s employees get their scheduled 10-minute breaks every four hours.

In November 2011, Lavon agreed to work for John Hybridge, owner of Thrifty Janitorial Services (TJS), on a month-to-month basis. During his first (and only) month there, Lavon was punctual, hardworking, and he developed good relationships with the contracts he covered. Yet, at the end of November, his paycheck was nowhere to be found.

Upset with John and needing his money to follow up on plans to propose to his (now) fiance, Lavon decided to call up a few other employees who had worked for TJS. He soon found out that many of them were only receiving partial payment, if they were paid at all. So Lavon decided to confront Mr. Hybridge about the missing pay, asserting that he needed to give Lavon his back-wages within a week. Despite agreeing to this demand, when the deadline had passed, all Lavon had to show for it was a check receipt sans the check. Facing non-payment, Lavon quit in his fifth week, citing that his obligations to his second job (that actually paid him) had become overwhelming.

Shortly thereafter, Lavon was on his way to work and happened to notice a phone pole with a flier that jumped out at him. It read, “Problems With Your Employer? Unpaid wages? Injustice at work? Call Seasol!” Previously at a loss for where to begin pursuing his absent paycheck, and aware that seeking legal help for his back-pay would be prohibitively costly, Lavon thought, “What’s the worst that can happen? Why not give it a try?” After calling and explaining the situation to a Seasol member named Michael, they decided to meet at a local coffee shop and discuss Lavon’s options/next steps. Within a week Seasol had decided to take on the fight.

After a few weeks of meetings, research, and preparation, the group was ready for the demand delivery. With some clever maneuvering, Lavon and fellow Seasol volunteer Carley had found out that John would be waxing the floors at the Burien Big 5 on the night of January 26th. With some help from another volunteer Cyan, the demand letter was written and ready to be delivered.

The night of the delivery, more than forty people gathered in the parking lot in Burien, braving the bitter cold in the name of justice for a fellow worker. The plan was to ambush John on his way into work with a frosty reception and a letter describing what he’d done wrong, and what he had to do to make the situation right. The letter also made clear that if he didn’t make good on his promise to pay Lavon, Seasol would be back to carry on the struggle. Seasol volunteers took lookout positions throughout the parking lot, and waited for John’s arrival.

After an hour had passed, it seemed like something had gone wrong. The Big 5 employees had filtered into the night, the police had come and gone letting us know that “…big crowds of people make people in Burien nervous.”, but still, no John. The group agreed to slowly disperse leaving a core group to stay behind just to be sure. Nine of ten minutes passed, minutes spent plotting out our next moves, a second attempt at John’s house in North Seattle, postering around his neighborhood, visiting his contracts around the city, fake job applicants and more.

Finally, just as we were preparing to call it a draw, who should pull over the crest of the parking lot but John and his latest cleaning crew! The rest you can see here, but suffice it to say our perseverance was rewarded. Within a week Lavon had been paid and the stress he’d endured had been handled. In his own words, “Our night in the Burien Big 5 parking lot was awesome…we did it, it was great!”

See the video here.

Last summer, Cesario inquired to rent a studio in the International District. Due to poor credit, the apartment management required pre-paid rent. They accepted a security deposit and six months rent from Cesario, but failed to mention their historic building’s ongoing problem with bed bugs. It was only a few months later that a bed bug infestation made Cesario’s 125 square foot studio their home as well.

Management had the room fumigated on several occasions, and although this left a nasty chemical residue on Cesario’s possessions, it did not eradicate the bed bugs. After spending hundreds of dollars out of pocket trying to deal with these pests, Cesario decided he had to move out. He informed the manager of his intent, and only requested two months rent and his security deposit back. This simple request was quickly denied by the apartment manager. Already being a member of the Seattle Solidarity Network, Cesario knew exactly who could support him in this situation.

In early January, 34 SeaSol members descended upon the apartment complex to deliver a demand for the pre-paid rent and security deposit. When we crowded into the small entrance, the apartment manager caught a glimpse of what would be waiting for their business if they did not comply. Cesario was paid his $1000 back within two weeks.

Thanks to everybody who came to his demand delivery!