By DAVID TABER - Jamaica Plain Gazette, May 2, 2008

SOUTH ST.—Two workers who were fired from the Jamaica Plain store of Harvest Co-op Markets in the last six months claim they were terminated for expressing support for union organizing efforts at the nonprofit supermarket. Harvest denies their accusations.

Diego Bencosme and Deon Furtick had both worked at Harvest for close to four years. They were both fired for failing to punch out when they went off shift—a rule they claim was rarely, if ever, enforced during their tenures.

They were fired without prior warnings, they said.

Both say they were fired because of their support for a current effort by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to organize at Harvest. Both have filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

IWW Solidarity Benefit!

By Bill Bumpus - The Bridge, March 2008

Deon Furtick, 31, of Roxbury, and a father of three, had worked for four years in the deli at the Jamaica Plain store at 57 South St. He was fired for not punching out for a meal break on January 8th.

Furtick had never punched out for meal breaks, and had never been told this was necessary. He did not suspect his job was in jeopardy.

Harvest Manager of Operations Marc Cutler used to be Jamaica Plain store manager. There he had personally signed off on employees’ hours every week. So he would have noticed that Furtick did not punch out on his breaks.

This Thursday, December 21, Boston locals took action in support of Starbucks baristas and farmers. Workers with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and students set up a table near a Starbucks just outside of Boston with information on fair trade, the IWW, and Starbucks' anti-worker and anti-union practices.

Starbucks has made every effort to keep workers in the United States (specifically New York City) from organizing, including firing workers for their union activity.

We spoke with a number of employees who were very interested and receptive, in fact all of the workers we talked to were with the exception of a woman who asserted that she was part of the CWA (in the AFL-CIO). We had a discussion with one worker when he got off work about why he thinks unions are important and the Haymarket martyrs. A large IWW flag was held high above the street and students sang union songs together from both sides of the road We also had a lengthy discussion with a woman working across the road who is a former Starbucks barista and who strongly agreed with our action. After a while we moved to a different Starbucks down the street and continued. More actions are planned in the area soon.

more information at www.starbucksunion.org

The Boston IWW raised $380 for the Starbucks Workers Union in the first of a series of planned IWW Solidarity Nights. Solidarity for Fellow Workers, great music and food was what it was all about. The benefit had a great turnout despite a last minute change in venue. In between act FW's from our branch spoke to the crowd about what is going on with the campaign and the fired Baristas. The word defiantly got out to the community of the continuing assault on Starbucks workers by the company. The event was held on September 9th at the Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge, and featured performance's by Dieselhorse, Evan Greer(The riot folk Collective), Jake and the Infernal Machine, Clara Hendricks, Bill Bumpus and Ryan Harvey.

Hi there.   My name is Sara Willig.  I am a member of the Boston GMB.  You might remember me if you followed the DARE job branch struggles of 2002-4.  The situation I’m writing you about tonight is  related to that fight, when my coworkers voted to decertify the union about 18 months ago after a campaign of union busting and manipulation by management.

If you didn’t follow the DARE job branch situation, or if you’ve joined more recently, I’m a health care worker.  I do a social work job, but without a degree in social work or the higher wages that go along with that degree.  Keeps the price down for you, the taxpayer, never mind the State.  But mostly it keeps the costs down for the boss.  The agency I work for contracts with Massachusetts’ Dept, of Mental Retardation (DMR) and I’m paid to be the case manager for two disabled people.  Sometimes I’ve had a caseload of three people. Currently my clients are borderline MR and moderately MR.

By Joshua Frank - December 14, Online Journal

David Graeber, PhD, is an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University, and the author of Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams and Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, among many other scholarly publications.

Last spring Prof. Graeber was informed that his teaching contract at Yale would not be extended. It was not Graeber's scholarship that was ever in question; rather it was his political philosophies that may have played a heavy hand in the administration's unwarranted decision. Graeber, a renowned anarchist scholar, spoke with me shortly after he was informed of his firing.