National labor relations board finds firing illegal, offers settlement!
Submitted on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 6:53pm
MINNEAPOLIS-- After an investigation into the incident, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has decided that IWW Sisters Camelot Canvass Union (SCCU) member ShugE Mississippi was illegally fired by Sisters' Camelot. The NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) is a government agency in charge of investigating charges of federal labor law violations, enforcing such laws, and following through with related penalties. After making this decision, the NLRB offered the Sisters' Camelot managing collective one last chance to accept a settlement agreement before setting a court-date to seek a court order.
The settlement offered by the NLRB includes the immediate rehiring of ShugE Mississippi, paying back wages, and posting a public apology at Sisters’ Camelot. The managing collective has until Tuesday, April 23 to accept this offer. If this settlement offer is not accepted, the NLRB will set a court date and seek a binding order from a judge. If this case is brought before a judge it will significantly increase the legal expenditure for Sisters’ Camelot, as it would be responsible for associated attorney’s fees. Further, Sisters’ Camelot would be obligated to pay even more back wages as more time passes-- a likely possibility as judges typically respect decisions made by the NLRB.
In the interest of giving the Sisters' Camelot managing collective space to think through this decision, the SCCU asks individuals who were planning a nonviolent sit-in demonstration at Monday's collective meeting to cancel any such plans. The public is always welcome to attend Sisters' Camelot's collective meetings, and any individual who wants to observe or engage in respectful dialogue on Monday should feel free to do so. However, the union is explicitly canceling plans of civil disobedience or disruption of and kind, and asks that people please respect that decision so the collective can have healthy discussion about this very important decision.
“This is exciting and encouraging to hear. Once this issue is fixed then we will be one step closer to ending this strike through negotiation with our entire union represented at the bargaining table,” stated Alex Forsey, one of the striking IWW Sisters' Camelot Canvass Union members.
The campaign at Sisters Camelot represents a new step for Food and Retail Workers United, an organizing committee of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks and Jimmy Johns workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.