Some of you are, undoubtedly, familiar with ASOL's first fight against Belly General Store (http://atlsolidaritynetwork.blogspot.com/2011/04/asol-vs-belly-general-store.html) - many of you were involved in putting pressure on the store. The solidarity network has been contacted about the restaurant twice since then - a testament to the resilience of the ruling class in their war against all that seeks to live peacefully. Essentially, the worker (now a key organizer in the Solidarity Network), was not getting paid what she was owed in a timely fashion. We put pressure on the bosses for just 3 days and they caved. Some 3-ish weeks later and we received another call from an employee at Belly General Store. She expressed that she had not been paid in a month and was prepared to take action. Nothing became of this call, but we hope that the worker has gotten what they wanted! Now, there has been a third complaint against Belly General Store to ASOL. P., a chef, had heard of ASOL from the moment he sought employment at Belly. Upon Google searching the store's number, he found our website and read the story about our fight over the workers missing wages. Immediately filled with anxiety, he was prepared for the worst. After some time of employment (at least 41 hours), no discussion about payment had been satisfactorily discussed. Unwilling to wait to be taken advantage of, Peter began asking management about it - and they gave him sly half-answers. Without further hesitation, Peter called the ASOL phone number and left us a message. The weeks secretary contacted P. who was relieved to relay the good news: he had called DJ (the owner of Belly) and told her that he had contacted ASOL and was prepared to act if they didn't pay him immediately. Acquiescent and respectfully, they paid P. very swiftly!! P. put special emphasis on the fact that they were very respectful and kind to him at this point - illustrating that the specter of another fight with ASOL had had sweeping affects on the way the business was being run. Although some of us are not confident that Belly General Store is going to change for good, and we would love to have been able to fight them again, we are overjoyed to hear that the power of the people has materially benefited a fellow worker. THANKS TO EVERYONE IN ASOL AND CONGRATULATIONS ON PUTTING THE FEAR OF COLLECTIVE DIRECT ACTION IN THE EMPLOYING CLASS OF BELLY GENERAL STORE!!! -ASOL
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Saturday, June 11, 2011
Belly General Store (A Second Victory??)
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Who is the owner of Belly General Store?
ReplyDelete-San Francisco Solidarity Network