Randi Kearn Seattle protest

Randi Kearn Soc Movements

M/W 5:30 Tactics Seattle 5-7-16

SeaSol.net

There's movement in Seattle Wa. Seems like several groups are active and zeroing in on their targets, of sorts. The May Day Protest had several hundred participants and the anti-capitalist march drew more than a hundred, Mad Max style, bicycle cops. It was a peaceful march that turned violent.

SeaSol.net is the web site to one of the groups that my source, a member who wishes to stay anonymous, participates in. They represent workers who are taken advantage of , and it's against employers and property management companies that cheat people.

There are about 500 members in the Seattle area and more beyond Seattle, with branches in several cities.

The group protests, writes letters of demand, pickets, intimidation tactics called "silence in stead of chaos", stand in solidarity with workers, trying to get them paid what they are owed.

For example, a Mexican man, who worked in a hotel restaurant, had a heart attack and the hotel would not call an ambulance for him. His friend had to get him to the hospital via taxi, he was done for a few days. When he went back to work, the hotel fired him and refused to pay him his final pay check.

The "group" has written a letter of demand, and has picketed outside of the hotel, relentlessly, for the last month. They have had news coverage and are encouraging people to boycott the hotel chain. Some of the picket signs read, "wage theft".

Even though it may seem pointless to go up against this corporate hotel chain, it has been making some noise and, I believe, making a difference. The need for state legislation to protect workers from this kind of injustice, is huge, and the more noise people make the better. Hopefully they will not be ignored.