Updates

11/1/2006: After being found guilty and forced to compensate one former TOP canvasser for unpaid breaks, and later settling out of court with a second phone canvasser, FFPIR continues to find new and more efficient ways of wasting the valuable time of public agencies seeking to hold them accountable for their labor practices.

A third phone canvasser, discharged from the recently shut down LA TOP office, originally had a hearing scheduled yesterday (10-31-06) with the state labor commission, regarding thousands of dollars the caller is owed in unpaid breaks, and unoffered meal periods. PIRG attorney Tracey Bolotnick proposed some time ago to settle for the entire amount, including unpaid breaks and unoffered meal periods. The caller agreed, and the hearing was cancelled. After the hearing was cancelled, Bolotnick contacted the TOP caller, and attempted to settle for $1,200 less than the caller was owed, claiming that there was "no way" FFPIR would be found guilty of the unoffered meal periods claim. Also, according to Bolotnick, former TOP director Jennifer Shanley had signed a sworn statement indicating that the TOP callers had verbally opted out of their meal periods to which they are legally entitled by state law. No such forfeiting of meal periods occurred or exists, written or otherwise. Since Shanley herself, as acting director, was the actual perpetrator of said labor violations, any such sworn statement would amount to a suspect claiming innocence in the face of solid proof.

Naturally the caller disagreed with Bolotnick, and declined her offer. But it was too late- the state labor commission hearing had been cancelled, and Bolotnick had retracted her offer, managing once again to delay the inevitable; this caller's hearing will be rescheduled for the very near future. Furthermore, there are at least six other former TOP callers (all of whom keep in close contact) who have filed identical claims, all awaiting hearings. PIRG seems to be spending less time (and contribution money) crafting state policy than they do violating it. 

It should be noted that prior to overseeing PIRG's in-house legal department, Bolotnick worked for six years in the New York and London offices of Sullivan & Cromwell- the law firm representing Exxon Mobil and Microsoft.

9/7/2006: Although the source must remain anonymous, it has been confirmed that FFPIR will soon be reopening the Telephone Outreach Project (TOP) office in Sacramento. The Los Angeles TOP office was shut down on August 1st, 2006 as a final measure to avoid having to negotiate a union contract with its five remaining employees.

8/21/2006: Read "Do You Have a Minute for … ?" , written by 2004 GCI canvasser Greg Bloom, and released Friday in In These Times magazine. The article does an excellent job of tying the LA offices' experiences to the larger problem of the progressive movement essentially "eating its young," as one writer has put it. In fact, read Greg's entire blog series "Strip Mining the Grassroots," a complex, but accessible-to-both-sides effort to help those still in denial acknowledge the problem, and consider solutions for reform. 

8/1/2006: Today was the final day of Los Angeles TOP's operations; FFPIR's last known unionized office has been shut down, and its five remaining callers let go. The LA callers are not allowed to publicly discuss their severances.

6/12/2006: Correction to Friday's update: The State Labor Commissioner will be able to handle the TOP callers claim of unpaid wages, and they will be able to handle their claim precisely because the TOP callers have no union contract. In other words, FFPIR's strategy of stalling the contract negotiation process has come back to haunt them.

Their newest approach: stalling the compensation process. Former TOP union steward Matthew Scanlon, fired in November along with the other two union stewards, called the TOP administrators requesting a copy of his employment records for the previous year. Knowing full well that Scanlon was requesting his records to be compensated for unpaid breaks from 2005, TOP national director Nancie Koenigsberg told Scanlon that they no longer have his records in the LA office, and that he would have to wait three weeks for his records to be retrieved from elsewhere. When Scanlon listed several other employees who received their records promptly from the LA office, Koenigsberg curtly told Scanlon "We have a legal right to wait three weeks." Because Scanlon worked in the TOP office longer than the one year statute of limitations, the three weeks in June of 2006 that Koenigberg holds back Scanlon's records will be three weeks of unpaid breaks from June of 2005 (one hour per day worked) for which FFPIR will not have to compensate him.

6/9/2006: Today marks the one-year anniversary of the LA door office's successful union vote. While the door office was recently shut down, the TOP's last five LA callers continue to await the outcome of fraud charges filed with the Labor Board several months ago. These charges will not be affected should the phone canvassers be forced to drop their union, which would be requisite before the State Labor Commission follows through on the TOP callers charges of unpaid breaks. Unionized employees may not file any such grievance through the State Labor Commission, because their union is supposed to be their means of filing a grievance, even if their union still can't get a contract signed after nine months, and therefore has no means whatsoever of recourse.

Unfair though this law might be, it illustrates how unusual the situation in the LA canvass offices is, since California did not even bother designing labor laws to protect any workers that might end up in such an unthinkable position.

If you haven't read Erin Rosa's May 31st article on the LA offices (among other FFPIR/Doug Phelps-related items) read it on the LA Indymedia website. The article includes a link to U.S. Congresswoman Hilda Solis's November 14th, 2005 letter to FFPIR, c/o Ben Flamm, expressing her concern over their labor dispute, and urging FFPIR to reach a contract expeditiously.

4/28/2006: Exactly a year after the union petition was filed, and after eight months on a hiring freeze, including four months with four canvassers on staff and three months with only two canvassers on staff, US PIRG is shutting down the Los Angeles door canvassing office. Today is its very last day of operation. The two remaining canvassers, Mike Oehler and Christian Miller (who total six and a half years on staff between them), are being given two weeks' severance pay, with no offer of work in any other PIRG office.

US PIRG administrators are attributing the shutdown to an inability to hire any directors for the summer. It's not hard to believe that anyone who has worked for FFPIR for the last year (and knows what's happening in LA) would sooner quit than direct the LA door office. Just the same, US PIRG's reluctance to allow any new directors to handle the LA office is understandable. After all, they know exactly what would happen if a young, intelligent, idealistic activist were to encounter a situation like the one in Los Angeles.

4/24/2006: A former OSPIRG employee tells us that Portland T.O.P. has expanded their office, knocking out a wall and making room for 8 new callers. (This had been planned for LA T.O.P. before their union vote.)  Portland T.O.P. also hired a bunch of new people, and fired 2 of their very best and oldest callers.  One of the callers had recently been discussing things like minimum wage, and had been reprimanded for doing so, before being fired.  One of them in a recent chat had been told to just "fit the mold" and not to air grievances or speak his mind. 

4/21/2006: We'll have to do this the old-fashioned way- please contact us through ffpir.us_info@yahoo.com, or to report technical problems, ffpir.us_webmaster@yahoo.com.

This week, every caller in the LA T.O.P. office has seen their hourly wage diminish based on calling weeks where the renewal lists have consisted of members who already renewed their memberships for this season, thus forcing the caller to take an inordinate amount of "no"s, causing their quotas to plummet.

This has been addressed time and time again with T.O.P. directors Faye Hopper and Will Isenberg, who have apparently have done nothing to correct this problem with Membership Services in Santa Barbara. Membership Services should be flushing out these already-renewed members from these lists and subsequently re-adjusting the callers' quotas to reflect fundraising performance among non-renewed members only. But instead, the callers' artificially deflated quotas are reflected on their evaluation reports, causing their hourly wages to drop substantially.

The directors defensively say that the lists "have always been this way" and that all of these unnecessary "no"s are "taken into account" when the "system" calculates quota, and best of all, the callers are being told "not to worry about it."

4/18/2006: Another firing to belatedly note- Sam Pow, after almost four years of canvassing, was fired from the LA street canvassing office in mid-March. Sam's average was consistently the highest in the office during his time working there, and he was fired following Sue Ellen's having been fired for her third non-consecutive week missing quota in almost a year in the LA street office, where she had averaged $350+/- in that time. This "three strikes" policy change took place at the beginning of the winter season. Because the street office is non-union, these changes could not be fought through any legal process, so Sam, seeing the injustice of a great canvasser being fired for missing quota three weeks within a year, stood up to his office directors (i.e.- Winston Vaughn), and made visible efforts to organize his fellow canvassers in opposition to this irrational change in office policy. So, Vaughn fired Sue Ellen the Monday morning following the week she missed quota. Ten minutes later, Vaughn called Sam and fired him as well, ostensibly for having been late to work.

A great irony exists here- Sam had not supported the union movement that took place in his office in September 2005, because he wanted to make sure that directors could still use their own judgment in firing or not firing certain canvassers. There would always be lousy canvassers who needed to be fired outside of the rules, and good canvassers who needed to be kept on staff, in spite of, say for example, missing quota three weeks in a year. A union, Winston told Sam, would prevent office directors from exercising their own good judgment. This was the line that Sam was fed, and this is how Winston, since thwarting his canvassers' union efforts, has chosen to exercise his own good judgment.

4/14/2006: Inside sources indicate that LA door office director Jason Tipton is moving to Washington DC to take up his "new" position on Saturday. Who will run the LA door office until it closes? When will it close, for that matter? Straight answers are a rare commodity these days.

Furthermore, other sources now indicate something else of interest: Steve Blackledge, CALPIRG Legislative Director, has been making house calls, personally handling large donor fundraising. How is it possible that the "organization's" main director has nothing better to do with his work hours than handle fundraising work? Make no mistake- every last person working for this organization, from the top down, is a fundraiser (some more glorified than others).

4/13/2006: Visit the discussion forum to witness WENDY WENDLANDT's hypocrisy in action. WENDLANDT, or perhaps one of her spineless henchmen, has posted her letter to the LA Times editor shaming that paper's expose on the United Farm Workers' Union. The letter is dated March 23rd of 2006. This means that while WENDLANDT was writing a letter talking about the importance of improving farm workers rights, she was also in the process of stalling her own workers' union contract negotiations, maintaining the hiring freezes in her LA offices, scraping together "evidence" to submit to the Labor Board to avoid multiple charges filed against her by PIRG workers, and making arrangements to shut down the LA door canvassing office. 

4/7/2006: New email addresses: for questions and comments, contact webmaster@ffpir.us. To report problems, email tiff@ffpir.us. If neither of these seem to work, post to the discussion board.

3/31/2006: According to a voicemail received yesterday by Local 848 Union Rep. Emilio Arias from Assistant National Director Sarah Gaudette, FFPIR will be closing their Los Angeles door canvassing office (no date was given). According to a fax received by Arias from Gaudette this morning, FFPIR is now "thinking about" closing their Los Angeles door canvassing office. So much for professionalism.

LA door office director Jason Tipton actually had the nerve to feign ignorance when informed by his canvassers that the door office was closing. Tipton claims that he put in his two-week notice in October (or, more accurately, has been putting it in since October), but as it turns out, Tipton is actually moving to work in US PIRG's Washington DC office. He says that "this (firing good canvassers for bad reasons, maintaining a hiring freeze, and generally running the previously excellent LA door office into the ground) is not the job (he) signed on to do." So his solution is to continue working for the same organization in a different office? Why, then, especially after having been kept here ostensibly against his will for six months of such union busting, does Tipton not go to work for less cult-like, less corporate organization that A) does not engage in union busting activities that would embarrass Wal-Mart,  B) treats its canvassers well enough that the canvassers don't feel like they need union protection to begin with, and C) accomplishes more in the long run by not building a dependence on such exploitation? Questions that might never be answered to anyone's satisfaction- including Jason Tipton's.

Best of luck in DC.

3/21/2006: It is official- PIRG campus organizers across the country are being told not to send summer recruits to Los Angeles. Apparently, PIRG administrators are unashamed of the still-in-effect hiring freeze, and want to enjoy it as long as possible.

Also, the following story was posted March 1st on nonprofitwatch.org by a PIRG employee...

"Since I've been on staff, I've either witnessed or heard reliable accounts of most of the "sweatshop" type abuses I originally got involved to help prevent.  As an example, the person who held the position I currently hold last year was a classic "PIRGbot," from all accounts, and was very invested in meeting the quotas set for her. She ended up collapsing in the street from exhaustion and dehydration while directing a summer canvass office. She apparently gave her resignation from a hospital bed with IVs in her arm. "
 

3/17/2006: Much delayed post- Jenny Shanley is no longer directing LA's TOP office. She is now working as a director for Get Out the Vote. This leaves Faye Hopper and Will Isenberg to run the Los Angeles office.

On Thursday, March 9, TOP steward Marcy Harris managed to stop PIRG CEO Wendy Wendlandt in passing, and ask her directly why she hasn't returned repeated phone calls from Teamsters Local 848 representative Emilio Arias and Union President Jim Santangelo. Wendlandt claimed that she was not actually the "point person" for any of this, and that TOP national director Nancie Koenigsberg was handling the contract negotiations. Harris pointed out that since Koenigsberg is not authorized to agree to any contract demands, that leaves her (Wendlandt) responsible. Wendlandt told Harris to just leave their phone numbers in her office mailbox.

Harris made her way back to the mailboxes in Suite 385, and, in front of about six grantwriters/advocates/administrators, asked Sujatha Jahagidar which mailbox belonged to Wendy Wendlandt, because Wendy hadn't returned our union rep's phone calls, and Wendy needed his phone number. Jahagidar pointed out the mailbox just as Wendlandt stepped back into the room. Harris handed Wendlandt the phone numbers, at which point Wendlandt, in front of six PIRG employees, had the audacity to claim that neither Santangelo nor Arias had ever tried to contact her. While it is impossible to believe this claim, it is nearly as hard to believe that none of the six or so "PIRG people" present had not actually received some of the Teamsters' phone calls. One marvels at such a workplace arrangement where the employer feels comfortable telling outrageous lies in front of so many employees who know the truth. Why have none of them said so? Maybe they could use some encouragement.

3/3/2006: In response to NLRB charges that FFPIR is outsourcing TOP lists, TOP has now moved from dead lists to semi-active lists. Instead of calling contributors who gave $5 three years ago, they are now calling members who last renewed 14 months ago. Which is better. But make no mistake- their freshest and most fertile calling lists are going to the other two offices.  FFPIR truly are the masters of backpeddling. When a charge was recently filed against them for fraud in crediting pay, everyone's pay went back up to $14.50.

3/1/2006: Today, all of the callers in the Los Angeles TOP began calling some of the recently outsourced groups. There was only problem: they were all inactive lists within those groups...

TOP callers were calling people in NJPirg that gave $5 at the door three years ago and don't know who we are. Meanwhile, the freshest, fullest, and most fertile lists for NJPirg, WisPirg, UsPirg, MaryPirg, and Environment California are still being called in other cities.

This is an obvious attempt by FFPIR to discredit the charge most recently filed against them regarding their outsourcing of L.A. TOP's calling lists.

2/24/2006: It turns out that not only are Los Angeles TOP's entire Environment California calling lists being outsourced to the Portland TOP, but so are the Wispirg calling lists. The Boston TOP is now calling MaryPirg and New Jersey Pirg.

Thus, the LA TOP's four biggest clients have now "end(ed) up elsewhere," as threatened by National TOP Director Nancie Konigsberg immediately before the union vote.

2/22/2006: On Monday the 20th, directors announced that all of TOP's Environment California turf has been outsourced to Portland and Boston. The justification is that there simply aren't enough callers in the L.A. office to meet the fundraising quota for Environment California, although they are "thinking" about recruiting new callers over the next month or so. TOP has been on a hiring freeze since September.

Before the union vote, national TOP director Nancie Konigsberg said that if we vote yes for the union, she would "hate to see our lists end up elsewhere."

Visit the new discussion board.

2/16/2006: As of yesterday, Jason Tipton has been absent from the LA door canvassing office for eight consecutive days- the same amount of time Reid Roberts was fired for missing. Tipton did not tell any of the canvassers where he was going, who would be cashing us out, how long he would be gone, or even that he would be gone. Roberts had told Tipton weeks in advance that he would be taking time off at the end of January, told him three days in advance how long his absence would be, and reminded him the day before.

It's too bad workplace discipline is a one-way street.

Read the LA TOP (Telephone Outreach Project) story, completed and posted today.

2/15/2006: "Big" Mike Oehler, one of the two canvassers left in the street office, was assigned 51 apartment doors for last night's canvass. Monday night, Oehler was given a similar amount (around 65).  Christian Miller was given 49 suburban doors Wednesday night of last week. There were at least two other short-turfings the preceding week. This frequency of short-turfing is unprecedented, and it's interesting that this comes at a time when there is no need at all to conserve turf. FFPIR is down to its last two door canvassers in the second largest city in the country. Why are they being short-turfed? Winston Vaughn is blaming Jason Tipton for having drawn the turfs, and yet the turfs are in Vaughn's handwriting. Vaughn claims he had to "redraw" some of them.

2/10/2006: Jason Tipton (again, by way of Winston Vaughn) fired Reid Roberts yesterday, thus leaving only Michael Oehler and Christian Miller canvassing in the door office. Roberts had canvassed in the LA door office for two and a half years, possibly longer than every other black male who worked in the office during that time added up. During those two and a half years, Roberts had endured people drawing guns on him, taking swings at him, repeatedly calling him every racial epithet you can think of, and of course, Roberts had had the police called on him (for doing his job) more times than the rest of us added up. Yet he still kept coming in to work. Apparently, none of this made any difference when Roberts needed an eight day leave of absence to move out of his aunt's house. Roberts had told Tipton well in advance that he would need the time off at the end of January, but Tipton claims Roberts didn't tell him.  Like Darshann Smyth, Roberts had been among the original petitioners in April, and was very openly pro-union.

If I may rant...

Doug Phelps, Wendy Wendlandt and Ed Johnson are reading this website. I know that they are. My friends within higher PIRG ranks tell me that there have been plans of modifying certain canvass office policies based on the events of the last year.  Doug, Wendy, Ed and the remaining policy makers need to know that until they take the time to contact and listen to those behind the union effort, they will never understand why we unionized, and why other offices will inevitably do the same. It might be a few months, it might be a few years, but other offices will unionize. PIRG leaders will never understand why, and will never be able to stop it, until they understand why it is wrong to fire without warning, and for so little reason, anyone who has given as much to the organization (and endured as much) over the years as Reid Roberts did. Until they understand how wrong it was to threaten to fire Tiff Petherbridge after she missed quota for two days (Tiff, who had worked harder, longer, more efficiently and more enthusiastically than any other field manager in years) they will not understand why we unionized, and why when Tiff thinks about FFPIR today, it makes her physically sick.

FFPIR top brass need to understand how the "little" things add up: self-funded "sick days," negating those sick days when the canvasser worked six days that week, reimbursing canvassers for gas at 11 cents a mile when gas approaches $3 a gallon, refusing to pay even year-round canvassers holiday pay unless they work the day before and the day after the holiday, "forgetting" to tell canvassers when they are eligible for holiday pay and other benefits, and "forgetting" to pay outgoing employees their unused vacation pay. These little things speak volumes about how FFPIR looks at canvassers- rather like a roll of toilet paper. (And of course, no one wants to use the same piece of toilet paper for three years!) Until FFPIR administrators realize this, they will never understand how Mike Oehler went in a matter of months from showing up early to work every day and running the best observer roleplays any of you will ever see, and making every new person feel welcome, to doing the bare minimum necessary to hold on to his job. This was FFPIR's loss, and it was a big one. But none of the administrators realize this, because they don't even know who Mike is, even though Mike has now been canvassing full time for two-and-a-half years.

Assistant National Canvass Director Sarah Gaudette's quote in LA Weekly, "We certainly haven't done anything illegal," summarizes the problem fully by showing the standard that FFPIR holds themselves to. FFPIR is not bothered by the fact that their behavior is unfair, that it is self-destructive, damaging to the movement in general, or that it is hypocritical in the worst ways. As long as their behavior is not illegal, FFPIR sees no reason why they should receive such horrible publicity. Call Christian Miller, and you can discuss it at length- (323) 528-9576.

2/8/2006: Some enjoyable quotes:

"We've been talking about it, and we've decided we'd rather be wrong and win than be right and lose." - Will Isenberg and Faye Hopper, Telephone Outreach Project Directors, Feb. 1, 2006

"One thing I admire about Dick Cheney, he doesn't feel the need to apologize. He doesn't take guff from anyone." -Will Isenberg, Telephone Outreach Project Director, Feb. 8, 2006

In case anyone else wants to make the case that the Labor Board has thrown out every single charge, we'd like to remind everyone that the most important charge- Jason Tipton's unilateral quota policy change- was found to have merit. Have a look at the Notice to Employees, posted January 23, 2006.

2/7/2006: Yesterday, Jason Tipton (by way of Winston Vaughn) fired Darshann Smyth, who has worked in the LA door office for a year and a half, averaging $200+ the whole time. Friday night, someone from Smyth's turf called the office and alleged that Smyth was "banging" on her door, and that she yelled something like "It's okay, I'm not a murderer." No profanity, or violence or anything. Anyone who knows her will testify that this is particularly unDarshannlike behavior. Smyth herself denies doing any of this, and doesn't even remember which door this could have been. Needless to say, these calls happen from time to time, and no director in their right mind takes them seriously unless a pattern emerges, especially if this is the canvasser's first ever such call in a year and a half of working here. Smyth had been among the original union petitioners, since that time having become only more adamantly and openly pro-union.

We should also belatedly note that Gary Helm was fired from the street canvassing office at the end of December. Helm had gotten into an argument with a conservative Republican while canvassing one day. When the argument became unpleasant, the man stormed away, and Helm muttered something not nice under his breath. The man apparently heard Helm, and told another canvasser, who told another canvasser, who told street canvass director Winston Vaughn, who fired Helm shortly thereafter. Helm had been working for the organization since Summer of 2002, and in that time had been one of FFPIR's highest grossing canvassers. This was Helm's first conduct problem ever. It should also be noted that Helm had been largely and openly responsible for spearheading the aborted union effort in that office back in September 2005. Lesson: FFPIR does not "Move On."

1/27/2006: Charges filed today at NLRB regarding policy changes implemented on 1-25 and 1-24.

1/26/2006: Ben Ehrenreich's article came out in LA Weekly today. Grab it out of the little red box, or read it here. http://www.laweekly.com/index.php?option=com_lawcontent&task=view&id=12473&Itemid=2

In less exciting news, the NLRB dismissed charges made on behalf of two phone canvassers who were fired for marking very adamant "no" responses as either "deceased" or "moved" in order to avoid having to call the same renewals again a few months later. How did the Fund get this charge dismissed? Easy- they gave the NLRB the contributors' contact info, so that the NLRB could call the renewals themselves, and verify that the persons in question were still living.

Apparently, dragging contributors into the crossfire to protect its own rear is yet another ploy FFPIR is not above.

1/25/2006: Another new Tiptonism this week- door canvassers, who must be at the office by 2pm, are now required to call by 11am if they are going to be late, even just by a few minutes. Failure to do so will result in termination. This means that the canvassers need to call Tipton at 11am if there is going to be a traffic jam at 1:30pm. If you did not call two and a half hours in advance of said traffic jam, you will be fired.

1/24/2006: According to Jason Tipton, 28 completes (people spoken to) in 60 houses (suburban) no longer constitutes being short-turfed. Why not? According to his own standards, 70 doors or less in a suburban area constitutes being short-turfed! Oh, but wait- the NLRB made him take revert any changes he made to past practice! One must now assume that anything written on the same piece of paper as those changes, even something as basic as new canvassers having to make quota in their first three days on staff, is no longer office policy either.

1/20/2006: Emilio Arias and Christian Miller were to have met with Sarah Gaudette today at 10am. When Gaudette was nowhere to be seen by 10, Arias and Miller left. Did they wait around and give her the benefit of the doubt? No. Would the meeting have produced anything anyway? No. Are we interested in meeting again until they schedule day-long, consecutive meetings? No.

Later that very day, Gaudette tried to tell Ben Ehrenreich that we had stood them up at three contract meetings. This has no basis in fact. The facts are as follows: In negotiating the door office's union contract, FFPIR has refused to meet on consecutive days, FFPIR refuses to meet more than once every five weeks on average since September 30th, FFPIR refuses to meet for more than two hours at a time, and when at the table, FFPIR wastes those two hours by asking questions that their lawyers should have answered, and nitpicking every detail possible, including many points that have already been discussed at great length. 

1/17/2006: TOP stewards Marcy Harris and Joe Chifari met with Nancie Koenigsberg today and yesterday. For two hours each time. As with the door office negotiations, little was accomplished. Koenigsberg had it made clear to her that neither TOP nor the Teamsters are idiots, and furthermore, they're not giving up.

1/11/2006: Sarah Gaudette has agreed to a negotiation meeting on January 20th. This unfortunately happens to be Emilio's son's birthday. If the meeting happens, it will be short.

Koenigsberg still has not set a time to meet next week for TOP's first contract meeting.

1/7/2006: Despite a bumpy beginning to CalPirg's Human Pesticide Testing campaign, Reid, Christian and Mike all made quota this week, which is good, because Mike and Reid missed it last week- the week between Christmas and New Years'. This is not the best time to be asking people for money. Thanks to the NLRB's decision, FFPIR was forced to return to their previous quota policy, whereby a canvasser would have to miss quota two consecutive weeks, instead of three non-consecutive weeks, before they could be fired. So we all cool.

No doubt this past week proved disappointing for Jason Tipton, who had strong hopes of firing Mike and Reid, and putting Christian on ultimatum. These hopes are evidenced by the fact that Tipton was seen driving around on Christian and Reid's turfs all night long, hoping to catch them doing God knows what. It's sad that Tipton is willing to compromise his environmental principles and waste all that gas for the sake of trying in vain to fire two of the longest-running canvassers in state history, especially when he was supposed to have been knocking on doors like the rest of us.  

Ben Ehrenreich interviewed Christian and Marci for LA Weekly yesterday. Hopefully we will hear back soon.

12/29/2005: Today, Sarah Gaudette met with Emilio Arias and Mike Oehler, standing in for Christian, who is out of town. Gaudette has thus far proven more cooperative at the negotiation table than her predecessor (Doug Casler) although the meeting still only lasted two hours, did not progress beyond the introductory pages of the contract, and Sarah still refused to commit to further dates.

12/28/2005: Today's meeting had to be cancelled, because the room where FFPIR insists on meeting in the Covina Public Library was not available. Sarah Gaudette had offered to meet with Emilio in the basement of the Equitable Building (Environment CA's HQ) for which both parties would have to pay a $20 fee. Bewildered by FFPIR's consistent rejection of his offers to meet at the Teamster's Hall, and then by Gaudette's subsequent offer to meet in FFPIR's basement, Arias rejected said offer.

12/15/2005: Award-winning freelance Journalist Ben Ehrenreich, who covered the Greenpeace office story for LA Weekly almost four years ago, will be covering the current union story for LA Weekly next month- our first media coverage, but probably not our last.

Sarah Gaudette still has yet to confirm negotiation times.

12/12/2005: Assistant National Director Sarah Gaudette notified Emilio by phone that she was available to negotiate on the morning of December 28th, and the afternoon of the 29th. Funny how as soon as Christian (the union steward) notified Jason that he would be out of town the last week of December, Gaudette immediately sets up for that very week the first consecutive negotiation dates since the vote over six months ago.

12/4/2005: Teamsters' Local 848 meeting was today. We met with Emilio before the meeting. Most of TOP made it, as did Christian and Tiff from the door office. Very good meeting. After seeing TOP management fire five canvassers in one day, the callers realize that no one is safe, and no one has anything to gain by siding with the office directors. Jim Santangelo dropped in to express his support, and to let us know the Teamsters' corporate campaign coordinator in Washington DC will be getting involved as soon as possible. Marci Harris is now acting as union steward in the absence of Rafael Renteria, who, after organizing the petition effort in September, was fired for allegedly mispositioning calls.

11/23/2005: The NLRB has ruled in favor of the Teamsters Local 848 in their charge filed against FFPIR for changing LA door office policies without first bargaining with the union (click on "retaliation" to learn more). This means the NLRB will soon be contacting FFPIR, and offering them the option of either settling out of court, or letting the case go to a hearing. My guess is that FFPIR will maintain their current strategy, and take the route that will waste the most time. They will choose to settle, offer the Teamsters a completely unreasonable settlement, reject the Teamsters' perfectly fair and reasonable offer, and prolong the entire process, until the NLRB finally gives them a deadline of some kind, at which point the matter will be sent to a hearing, which FFPIR will find other ways to prolong. FFPIR is not trying too hard to make any new friends during this ordeal.

11/21/2005: It is now official- after firing half of TOP last week, FFPIR has broken NLRB Region 31's record for most charges filed against a single employer. Given the size of FFPIR's offices, one can only assume the "charge per employee" record was surpassed long ago.

11/20/2005:  FFPIR.us (also known as "Fearlessly Fighting to Protect Its Rear!"), a website dedicated to holding the Fund for Public Interest Research accountable for their labor practices, is launched.