As reported by LongmontFYI, Tomtas has ended his hunger strike in front of WalMart which he alleges fired him for joining a union.
Tomtas “gave out” around 5:30 Thursday evening. He’s now weaning himself off his fast with applesauce, grated vegetables and tea. Tomtas has lost 15 pounds and now weights 150.
“That’s my exact weight when I came here from Poland 17 years ago,” he said with a laugh.
Tomtas came to Loveland in 1988 with his wife and son, all refugees because of his involvement with Poland’s Solidarity movement in the 1980s.
Now he plans to pursue wrongful termination charges against Wal-Mart through the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board.
John Bowen, an attorney with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, said the union filed charges Monday against Wal-Mart. Tomtas is scheduled to meet with labor board representatives early next week.
I wish Ryszard great success in standing up against the corporate bullies of Walmart and a healthy, prosperous future for him and his family.
Unions are a vital part of a health economy. Because people are not widgets.
I admire him for standing up for himself, and continuing this fight. I’m glad to know that he’s got so much support.
He got precious little support in contrast to his Solidarity experience.
I wish I could have done more, but I’m a couple of states away so all I could do was keep writing about it on my teeny tiny blog.
Hopefully, this first chapter will have stronger ones to follow up.
WalMart’s treatment of its workers is atrocious. They’ll keep doing it as long as they can get away with it.
His support came from his family, friends, and those who agree with his cause – but I’m glad he had some, rather than none. What he’s fighting is a tough row to hoe, but it’d be even worse without anyone standing beside him, telling him he has rights.
Absolutely.
We fight with the support we have and build up the support we need.
Places like WalMart is where the unions need to be today.
And the service industries. I have great expectation for the SEIU’s Purple Ocean. (http://www.purpleocean.org/blog)
I remember when I was consulting in LA during the bus strike. One of the features on the news was how this hurts the tourist industry indirectly because so many of the hotel staff, waiters, etc who are the backbone of a tourist town relied on the bus to get to work.
I thought that it was ludicrous that those jobs wouldn’t pay enough to afford a car in Los Angeles. Talk about a created underclass.
I never forget to tip the maid and other staff when I travel any more, but they shouldn’t have to rely on my tips to make a decent wage.
4.5