Craig Rosebraugh, ALF spokesman, tried to bust union

During this past year, he has traveled on a speaking tour, giving talks encouraging people to go beyond nonviolent action. The Dept. Homeland Security and California Antiterrorism Information Center (CATIC) like to follow him around because he sticks his neck out a lot, and this is evident in memos they have sent around to police departments about his talks at Fresno State and so forth.

Statement Regarding the Striking Calendula Workers
author: Industrial Union No. 640, Industrial Workers of the World
This is a statement by the IWW clarifying a strike by four servers at Calendula Cafe. It describes events in the course of the strike, issues the strikers are bringing forward, and clarifies the IWW's role in the strike.
Labor law in the United States is not a worker friendly system.
Typically,when an employer has actually violated the rights of workers as they
exist on paper in the United States, they have engaged in rather agregious
practices. The National Labor Relations Act states that collective
activity is protected activity. This means that any group of workers, union
members or not, have the right to protest, strike, and organize unions without
retaliation from their employer.

When the four servers currently on strike at Calendula notified the
owner that they were witholding their labor, they were immediately fired.

Many of these workers have worked at Calendula since its inception, and have
spent close to a year trying to be a part of building what they hoped would
be something different, something that lived up to its mission of being
a socially responsible workplace. These same workers had repeatedly
attempted to engage the ownership of Calendula in dialogue around what they
considered to be a disrespectful and at times hostile work environment.

Since its opening, Calendula had repeatedly fell back on promises made to these
workers upon hiring, and they had already accepted a round of wage
cuts that brought them from $8 to $7.20 an hour. When Calendula notified the servers that their wages would be cut a second time, down to minimum wage, with no discussion or debate, the workers protested to Craig himself. After hostility, threatening responses, and an absolute refusal to
discuss the issue, the workers determined they could take no more.

After being fired for striking, these workers came to the IWW requesting support.
The IWW did not organize the strike, but we support workers' efforts to gain democracy in the workplace. The IWW has agreed to assist the workers in negotiations with the restaurant.

Three days after being fired for striking, a delegation of the striking workers
and negotiators from the union came to the restaurant to set up a meeting
with Craig Rosebraugh, to notify him of the worker's demands and attempt to
settle the dispute. Craig's response was to notify the strikers and
the union representatives that he was not even interested in hearing the
worker's demands, and that if they did not leave he would call the police.
Since then, Craig his refused to communicate with the strikers or the union
other than through his lawyer, and has refused to meet to discuss what could
be done to remedy the dispute.

The IWW has not requested a boycott of Calendula, and hopes that the
ownership will hold to their mission of being a socially responsible
establishment by meeting these worker's demands.

Both the IWW and the strikers gave Craig repeated opportunity to sit and
talk about their demands before filing legal claims or making their
claims public. Only when Craig repeated that the workers were fired and stated
that he had no intentions of even hearing their demands did the union file
charges or the workers begin to contact the media regarding their case.

When the IWW filed Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor
Relations Board, Craig hired a lawyer, and through his lawyer expressed
that he was still unwilling to meet the workers to discuss what their demands
might be. For an employer to claim financial hardship, but then to hire
a lawyer to fight worker's organization before he has even been willing to
negotiate or hear the demands of the workers seems less than economically
responsible, to himself, or to the workers still employed inside. Craig
has the option not to fight the legal charges, but to negotiate their
settlement with the workers directly at any time, thereby saving himself the
expense and salvaging the name of his establishment, but has chosen not to do
so.

We encourage Calendula to swiftly negotiate a settlement with the fired
strikers, thereby salvaging the reputation of a restaurant committed to
social justice.

The IWW supports workers in their struggles to establish democratic
workplaces, and supports the right of workers to organize and even to
strike. This is based in a sincere belief that it is the workers themselves
who must begin to develop and envision alternatives to the problems we confront
as a society. We encourage workers in any industry to call us with questions about
the union and ways we can establish democratic workplaces, and work to build the
new society.

Sincerely,
J.L. Speed
Industrial Union No. 640
Industrial Workers of the World,
503-231-5488

repost of strikers' statement 17.Aug.2004 15:26
servers fired for striking link

originally posted on 16.Aug.2004 14:28

Please take notice that we(the servers) were organizing together before we actually went on strike.

Mission Statement for Calendula Café:

"At Calendula, we are committed to a healthy and ethical business for you (the customer), for the environment, and for our staff. Beyond our menu, we are committed to responsible business practices... .we believe in health and longevity not only for our customers and our staff, but also for the natural environment."



There is a reason why we all wanted to work at Calendula and to be a part of what we thought the restaurant is trying to create, it is because of statements exactly like the one shown above promising things to us (the employees) and to the community. But as far as wait staff at Calendula Café are concerned all of those things have become a façade. The things that were promised to the employees are thing that we feel every employee should have such as health care, competitive wages, a voice in the work place, good working conditions, and a safe and healthy work environment. At one point or another during the last six months all of these elements have felt lost to the wait-staff at Calendula Café.

The last six months have been spent helping Craig to build Calendula, meanwhile as Calendula seems to be getting more and more popular we have noticed the lack of respect for our hard work growing more and more present. Craig has not come through with any of the things he has promised to us. In return for our hard work he has lowered our wages, with the expectation that we will do more work for lower wages. He has also decided that he cannot afford health care benefits for his employees, even though it is stated in our handbook that we would be eligible after ninety days. Craig has also proven that he wants to profit off of us by taking away our free shift meal and beverage. He is now offering 25% off a meal and beverage while on shift.

This is not an attack on Craig Rosenbraug as a person or his political perspectives. This is a statement to address our right as community members to be heard by our community and by our employer. Any time we have tried to voice our concerns to Craig individually it has been met with disciplinary action or with simple disregard. More than anything we want to negotiate with our employer to make Calendula a truly great place to be for the employees and the customers. After all if the servers at Calendula are not happy in the work place this will indeed influence the customers. We are asking that Calendula hold to the promises that it has made to the community, its customers, and most of all, to us, those who do the work and have invested interest in the success of the business.

We realize the financial borders may make it difficult to fulfill the promises he made to us. However our greatest issue lies in the lack of respect that Craig has given to us. We are willing to talk with Craig about these respect issues, we have in fact already made a strong effort to do so. Our efforts have been met with Craig's irreverence to the issue. So we have been forced to take collective action to get Craig's full attention to help him understand that this issue will not just go away and that we as a group are interested in Calendula's future. We are asking that Craig do the right thing; negotiate with us, the people that have help build up his restaurant. We are hoping that we can move past these issues and prove to the community and ourselves how strong Calendula Café really is. Something needs to be done to develop camaraderie and morale in a restaurant that's main objective is to promote a health conscious community. We are asking your help in this issue to support us on our mission to improve Calendula Café.

Rosebraugh Calling the Cops - A Dramatization 17.Aug.2004 18:01
Father Time link

[Fade in to a dimly lit room and a middle aged man wearing sweats and a headset, as a light and buzzer on the console situated in front of him announce a call:]

911 Dispatcher: "911, How can I help you?"

CR: "I want the Police to come right now and remove some annoying people who are tresspassing in my restaurant!"

911: "And your name?"

CR: "Craig Rosebraugh, at the Calendula Cafe!"

911: "Uh, Craig Rosebraugh (chuckle)? Uh, yeah, uh, sure Mr., uh, Rosebraugh (muffled snickering)... The police will be, uh, right there (snort) to assist you with your problem (chortle)..."

THE END.