Minneapolis resident Michele Rockne sent this email to the Sisters’ Camelot Collective on March 9, 2013.
To the Collective Members of Sister’s Camelot,
I have been a long-time supporter of Sister’s Camelot. Each time one of your canvass workers comes to my door, I have written out checks for $25 and more. I really respect SC’s worthy mission of food justice in our community. When the SC bus was vandalized several years back, I was really moved with how the canvass worker related that your organization held no malice towards the youth who did the damage to your bus – the child’s mother had terminal cancer. Good on you, SC! Without hesitation, I wrote out a check for $100.00 that time.
But now it seems the Collective has gone off mission a bit. When faced with the canvass worker’s unionization, the Collective has been, sadly, acting in ways that are standard MO of management everywhere – denying the workers have legitimate issues, insisting the workers go through channels, and firing the leaders of a unionization. This is not what I would expect of the Sister’s Camelot that I’ve known and supported throughout the years.
I therefore respectfully urge the SC Collective to:
1. Reinstate the fired Sister’s Camelot Worker’s Union member.
2. Sit down with the Sister’s Camelot Worker’s Union and negotiate their demands.
I know that the SC collective can do this – you’ve all been working to bring a new culture of non-oppression into being for many years. Please live up to your worthy vision and do the right thing.
As a note, I’ve so far donated $25.00 to the worker’s strike fund, and I’ll be donating more at the 10 pm Karaoke fundraiser tonight at 1509 E 22nd Street. I will make this offer – once the SC collective reinstates the fired union activist, sits down with the union, and the demands are negotiated to the satisfaction of the strikers, I will match, dollar for dollar, a donation to SC for every strike dollar I’ve donated.
So you see, it’s doubly in your interest to end this strike. Do the right thing – reinstate the union activist and sit down with the strikers.
Very truly yours,
Michele Rockne
SCCU 