(source)
IWW Organizer and Insomnia Cookies employee Colin complained of homophobic slurs, sexual harassment of a co-worker, and denial of break time by his manager.* The next day he was confronted by the boss, who asked “So it’s a problem for you when I say the word f*gg*t?” and told him to quit if he didn’t like the conditions. Colin was later fired on flimsy pretexts. No action was taken by the company against the manager. Join members of the Industrial Workers of the World as we picket to demand Colin be reinstated with full back-pay!
We’ll meet at Insomnia Cookies’ Boston location, 708 Comm Ave (BU East stop on the MBTA’s Green Line B train), starting at 8 pm. The Facebook event is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1576560655907119
*This is the email protest originally sent by Colin to Insomnia’s Regional Manager (warning: the boss’ comments are very offensive):
Dear Patrick,
I work at the Harvard location of Insomnia and am appalled by Josh’s behavior. He pops handfuls of [Vicodin] where employees and customers can see…This has led to…comments which are VERY inappropriate for work…
If a driver is listening to to headphones and cannot hear he’ll say “You’re gay” or “Don’t speak if your the gayest man in the world” as [if] that is a joke, and looks to the others to laugh.
He said once “When you’re not sucking dick 90% of the time you’re swallowing loads”
Last [Wednesday] when I came in at 6 pm, he spent 20 minutes talking about rectal examinations of chickens to inspect eggs and called Billy (a driver there) a “chicken fucker” I then noticed two orders that were due at 5:30pm. He then interrogated Jahnay as to why they were late.
He told a female worker to “pretend you’re flirting with the customer.”
He is also [threatening] to fire everyone and trying to instill fear in everyone and has denied me a 30min unpaid break when I work for 9 HOURS. NINE HOURS.
I wish to be kept anonymous so as to not face retaliation, but also want Insomnia to be a good workplace that is not hostile or homophobic.
Thank You,
Colin