Thursday, February 16, 2012

Good News for Congolese Families


I am very happy to report that Royse & Brinkmeyer Chief Operating Officer Colin Carlier spent Valentines Day evening hand-delivering letters to the Congolese households on Mattis Street offering them the opportunity to renew their leases. We have spoken with 8 of the 11 families, and we're pretty confident the other three also received similar offers. The company's decision to reverse its unfair decision came just about five hours after you first began to send email and make phone calls.

This is a real testament to the power of collective action to make a real difference for working families. Of course, for these families, this is just the beginning of their struggle to build a better life for themselves in the United States. Many of them still face serious health and safety issues on the job, and must stretch to make ends meet every month. We remain committed to helping the workers at Flex-N-Gate to form their union. We're in the process of planning a series of public actions in late February and early March. It's great to know that we can count on an active, committed, and effective group of activists in Champaign and Urbana to help us.

On behalf of the families and workers, our sincerest thanks for your efforts.