Rock Rock, Planet Rock...

Check it out! My friend Nicole drew this comic for me. Click on it for a larger version. Go ahead, don't be afraid, click it!

I'm feeling so much support and love from folks. Even if the Planet never caves and I never get my job back, and we're not able to get other people's jobs back, maybe we can at least make things better for those who are still there. Like forcing the store manager to receive some sort of anger management counseling or force them to abide by federal labor laws and pay employees for all hours worked. Maybe raise the base pay back up to where it was before the seven or eight of us were "laid off" and replaced by younger workers who are apparently being paid far less than we were.

I'm feeling pretty hopeful right now. I have a couple of good leads on possible jobs. And I still plan on fighting the Planet even if I get another job. Something I keep hearing is that the goal of any good Wobbly is to leave the workplace a better place to be for the next worker who takes your place. Damn right. It's not just about me and how I was screwed over. It's about all of us. It's about making sure the boss knows that they can't treat people like shit without consequences.

"WHEN WILL YOU CRACK?"

"You've gotta punch the clock
Too scared to punch your boss"
-The Dead Kennedys

Why am I Fighting for my job back if I hated it so much?

Because it was my job and they took it from me. Everything they have is because of us, the workers. They take and take and take and then they take some more.

I may have hated the job because of how I was treated, but I didn't hate the work itself. I have never been afraid to work, in fact I have a really high work ethic. I know the value and importance of work and take great pride in everything I do, whether it's dishwashing, barista, prep cook, line cook, construction, washing cars, gardening or selling comic books. And let's face it, working in a comic store was the easiest job I ever had, in terms of the amount of actual manual labor that was involved (which wasn't much) but probably the hardest I ever had in terms of the stress of having to deal with a boss with very serious anger problems. You never knew what was going to set him off. Dropping a pen? Forgetting to do something he asked you to do while you were in the middle of doing five other things, being the one unlucky enough to be near him when he discovered a book was mis-shelved? Accidentally mentioning "Midtown Comics" in his presence? Letting the phone ring one too many times?

Sometimes some little mistake that was totally fixable would set him off and he'd go ballastic trying to find someone to blame when it would be so much easier to just chill the fuck out and fix the problem. He would turn something small into the biggest problem in the world, wasting untold hours of peoplepower. Like that time some guy purchased a bunch of comics during our 50 cent backissue sale and was unable to take them home that day so they were supposed to be put on hold for him but somebody either forgot to put a note on them, or the note fell off so they were accidentally reshelved by someone else who was just simply doing their job. Jeff freaked the fuck out. I was the one unlucky enough to be trapped in the "register pod" with him. You know, those fancy new register stations that Forbidden Planet bought in the middle of a freakin' recession. Jeff went all red, veins popping out the side of his head, teeth gritting, he just starts yelling and pounding on the counter "Fuck Fuck Fuck!!!" The customer is trying to tell him it's ok, he could try to remember which comics he bought, but Jeff was in a rage. He was far more concerned with who was to blame. Luckily the person who reshelved them remembered most of the books. But Jeff was still freaking out. He decides to offer the customer a free Forbidden Planet tote bag so he asks me to hand him one, in a panic I look around the pod and I don't see one. I take a deep breath and inform him we don't have any tote bags in this pod. He shot me such a look. I thought he was going to punch me right then and there, and all I could think was dammit not here- the middle register is the only blindspot from the view of the store cameras. If he's gonna hit me I want that shit on tape. I would sue so fast his head would spin. I would press charges. By the time I got done with them I would own that store. I'd be runnin' shit (nonauthoritarianly of course, we'd turn that place into a worker-owned worker-run collective. No bosses. No parasites. Just us). But no, he didn't hit me, instead he crouched down in the register pod and started hitting himself in the head. The customer looked horrified. I felt relieved he was hitting himself and not me, but it was still kind of scary.

I have tons of similar stories. But the point is, the problem is not with the job itself, the problem is with how the place is run. If they are doing bad financially, which I do not believe (where's the transparency? Show us the numbers!), but if they are doing bad financially it's their own damn fault. They always want to put the blame on the workers, we're not working hard enough, we're talking too much, we're not catching shoplifters, but the management at the Planet (especially Jeff and Rich) are constantly acting in an unprofessional manner, making bad business decisions, engaging in unfair labor practices, often breaking federal labor laws. And for too long we as workers have just let those petty-tyrants get away with whatever they want, when we the workers suffer the consequences. But we have the power to stop them. We have the power to organize against them, whether its an independent business like Forbidden Planet, or a multinational corporation like Starbucks or Whole Foods or Borders or Target or Wall Mart or any other union-busting scum! The only power they have is the power we give them, and we can take it back!

Everything they have is what they take from us.

REPLACED

"Everything is not all right and there's no end in sight. you can call it, whatcha like. come on, stand up for your rights! stand up, stand and unite! it's time for a general strike!"
-D.O.A.

"Who are watching the Watchmen?"

Today I'm going to the library to print up some resumes and then spend the rest of the day following up on job leads.

I'm off to a much later start than I hoped because I couldn't sleep at all last night. I finally found out who all was "let go" from Forbidden Planet and they were all hard workers and genuinely good people. With a few of them it was clear the managers didn't like them because management at the Planet tends to have the unprofessionally bad habit of talking shit about employees behind their backs in front of other employees. "So and so's a fucking retard" "So and so should be fired. I hate him." But still, their choices for who they laid off leave me completely baffled. Unless they were trying to weed out dissent.

Taylor fucking worked hard but they thought he talked too much. Heaven forbid someone have a friendly positive attitude, get along with their coworkers and customers, and try to make the workday a little more fun while still getting their work done. Kyle was one of the only new hires who was laid off, but I still can't understand it, I never once saw Kyle slacking off, he was always working, and I don't know anyone who didn't like him. Kevin was a shock too, because even though they used to shit-talk him heavily, he really started taking the job more seriously and management acknowledged that. The one thing Kevin always had was excellent customer service skills (to put it in terms that capitalists can relate to). Kevin was always really friendly, and people tend to like that.

One of the biggest surprises was James because he was actually one of the managers. Never saw that coming. He was one of the only managers there who ever treated us with any sort of respect. The only one who wasn't constantly bossing us around. He pretty much just let us do our jobs. He did some f-ed up things, as all bosses are apt to do, but he generally did them out of fear. Fear that apparently wasn't unfounded. The only really messed up thing he did to me was kick my girlfriend out of the store because she was talking to one of my coworkers. Not that I'm making excuses for his actions, but it was clear he did so because of the multiple cameras which Forbidden Planet owner Richard watches from home, because [in my opinion] he's a control freak and a lonely, sad old man. That was the third time she was kicked out of the store for "distracting" my coworkers. Couldn't possibly have been because she's a union organizer.

The fifth person who was laid off was Deepak, and how they did it was shady as hell. Deepak just came back from his trip to India and found he was not put back on the schedule! How freakin' low is that? Deepak is another one of my fellow workers who really knew his shit about comics and went out of his way to help people find what they were looking for, but management would still just trash him behind his back. Their biggest problem was that he "talked too much." Their beef wasn't that he talked to coworkers (which was strictly forbidden) but that he was too talkative with customers. The issue was that once he had made the sale he was still talking. They wanted him to just move on to the next customer once he had already talked someone into buying a book. It was all very assembly line and was clear that they only see customers as walking dollar signs. Get all their money and move on to the next one. Besides they really don't seem to want knowledgeable staff, they really just wanted us there for "loss prevention." We were basically underpaid security guards. Oh, and don't even get me started on racial profiling! I can't even tell you how many times I was asked to follow people of color around the store (specifically Black and Latino men) and when I would ask if they were seen trying to steal something the answer would always be "No. but they just look shady." or "They just look like the type."

But here's the bomb that was just dropped on me, what I found out that made me so mad I couldn't sleep at all last night: not only did they lay the five of us off under the pretenses that they had to cut back on labor hours, but they just hired three new employees!!!! Seriously, WTF!?!?! That makes me so mad! It makes me so much more upset that I was "let go." If we were laid off because they needed to cut back on labor (which I never believed in a minute) then why in the hell did they just hire new people to replace us?

The fucking stupidest part of all this is that if they just let us organize the place would run a whole lot smoother, what they just don't get is that is that they are running that place into the ground. They are the ones to blame, not the workers.

The bosses need us, we don't need them.

Happy MLK Day and Mother-F Starbucks and Wild Edibles

"E questo il fiore del partigiano morto per la liberta!"
"and this is the flower of the partisan who died for freedom's sake."

Today I left the house for the first time since I was laid off on Friday. I guess going to the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day march put on by the Industrial Workers of the World was probably about the best excuse I could think of to finally stop wallowing in self-pity and face the world outside the safety of my small dark kitty-filled apartment. Besides, my girlfriend Liberte was speaking outside the New York headquarters of Starbucks and what kind of partner would I be if I didn't go to support her stickin' it to the man. The man being an evil multinational corporation resposible for the gentrification of neighborhoods, the destruction of communities, the bastardization of coffee culture, the exploitation of so-called third-world farmers and is responsible for unfair labor practices, low wages and engages in illegal union busting activities against their own baristas.

At first it was really hard for me to go to a labor rally when I was just laid off from my job, but being there was probably the best place I could've been in the world. I was feelin' so much love from fellow workers. People kept asking me how I was doing and I'd tell them I was just laid off . Every single person told me they already heard and they were really f-ing pissed off about it and asked what they could do to help. And these were not just my friends, but also people I barely knew, even people I just met that day. Now that's what solidarity unionism is about! Solifuckingdarity. That's what I'm talkin' bout. Every single person. "What can I do to help?"

People had a lot of great ideas, which I'll talk about more later.

The march kicked off from the New York headquarters of Starbucks at 33rd and 5th Ave. Before the march our new housemate Steph gave a really great speech on the nature of wage-slavery and the need for organizing in the workplace. She really broke it down. It was pretty empowering, even for me being an out-of-work worker. Steph just moved in to our extremely small, cramped NY apartment because she wanted to stay in the city (she had previously been commuting from Jersey) and we were having trouble paying rent even before I lost my job. So she's staying in our library for the next 5 months, which is cool because she loves to read as much if not more than us.

After Steph's speech was Liberte's. I've never been prouder. She got up there in front of the crowd, glanced at the speech she wrote and then just went into a totally adlibbed, angry and passionate rant against the corporate greed and corruption of Starbucks and the hypocracy involved in their decision to drastically cut labor hours, close 600 stores while at the same time buying a 45 million dollar private jet for the CEOs and chief financial officers. Liberte also went off on Starbucks for their complete refusal to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by not paying time and a half on Dr. King's birthday. I cried several times during her speech, especially when she talked about how much Dr. King's words meant to her when she was growing up poor and often homeless and her mom would quote them to her, knowing that when King fought for civil rights he was fighting for the civil rights of everyone. That MLK fought for the poor, the working poor, spoke out on behalf of single mothers. Dr. Martin Luther King's holiday belongs to all of us, regardless of what color skin we're livin' in.

Liberte, you fucking rock.

After the rally in front of SBUX we marched to Wild Edidbles, a seafood packaging company based in Queens and Brooklyn who keeps their largely immigrant workforce in sweatshop conditions, often locking them in the plant. When the workers started to organizng the bosses retaliated with disgusting union busting tactics, including firing all open IWW members. We marched over there with the Rude Mechanical Orchestra playing the whole way. Rude Mechanical Orchestra is a protest marching band that plays everything from Italian anti-fascist resistance ballads such as "Bella Ciao" to cross-dressing heavy metal hairfarmers Twisted Sister's anti-authority figure classic "We're Not Going to Take It!"

Overall the day made me wish I tried harder to organize my store while I was still there, because for all my caution, for all my trying not to make too many waves, I was still just thrown away like a useless piece of trash when they were done taking all the wanted from me. And if you're going to be fired or laid off anyway, it might as well be for trying to make your workplace a better place to be.

"Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao!!!"

Something's Rotten at the Planet

"Why so serious?"

Why am I writing this blog? Because I was just laid off from my job after putting up with over a year of emotional abuse and managerial stupidity. It should have been the coolest job in the world, working at one of the most famous comic book stores in the U.S. (Forbidden Planet), in one of the greatest cities in the world (New York, New York). It's that dream job you always hope for. But underneath the surface, something was extremely rotten at the Planet's core. Unfair, unethical and illegal labor practices abound. Worst of which was store manager Jeff Ayers' uncontrollable anger and manipulative behavior. To say that Mr. Ayers created a hostile work environment is an understatement. Yelling at employees, berating them, mocking them, screaming at them, slamming books and punching things in front of them is no way to run a business.

I'm so used to working shit jobs where no matter how hard you work they never appreciate anything you do. They expect you to put in two weeks notice when you're done eating the shit sandwiches they feed you every day, but when they no longer need you there's no warning, they just drag you into the back room at the end of your shift and say "hey guess what? you don't got no job!"

In the past when I was let go, wrongfully fired or forced to quit I would just sink into depression and blame myself, even if I knew deep down that the problem wasn't me but corporate greed, capitalist profiteering, petty authoritarianism and/or a total lack of workplace democracy. But this time I'm going to do something. I plan on fighting this.

It was mismanagement and poor decision making on the part of upper management that led to the current layoffs. Pure and simple. In the middle of a national economic crisis the geniuses who run the store decided on the expensive remodeling of the register stations, rather than, oh I don't know, letting us keep our jobs. Maybe we could have kept our jobs and even got raises for those of us who had been there over a year and had taken on a lot of extra responsibilities without so much as a "thank you."

But no, those god-awful fucking ugly register pods cost me my job.

Well, that and the fact that they just never liked me. I can say without a doubt it had nothing to with job performance. I worked hard and knew my shit, just ask my co-workers and customers. I took on many responsibilities such as coordinating subscription boxes, taking weekly cycle counts and assembling the new release wall every Tuesday night, even though I didn't get paid any more than anyone else (in fact I found out after the fact that I actually made less than others with less responsibilities).

The Whole time I workered there I tried to figure out why they didn't like me. Was it was because I'm a card carrying member of the IWW? Was it because they knew my girlfriend is unionizing the Starbucks across the park from F.P. thru the same union I'm a member of? Was it because they knew I was an anarchist? Was it because I complained about not getting paid for all hours worked? (they have a policy that we come in 15 minutes early but whether or not we get paid for it is up to the whims of the opening manager). Was it because I stood up for my fellow workers when they didn't get their breaks on time? Was it because I didn't react well to being talked down to? Was it because I just never fit into the boy's club? Maybe they could tell that I was not at all comfortable with the culture of misogyny and heterosexism that management itself perpetuates. Whatever it was, it was clear they didn't like me.