In two separate incidents, homeless individuals were beat to death in North Portland in the past 30 days. The first occurred at N. Lombard and Interstate, while the second occurred at N. Lombard and Greeley.
William McKay was killed on May 15, in a fight near a transient camp. According to police, the homicide is thought to have been carried out by another homeless individual.
On May 15, officers arrived and discovered 50-year old Robert Lee Borges unconscious with signs of severe trauma to the head. He died several hours later.
Police say it’s to early to know if the homicides are connected, but anyone with any information is asked to call police detectives Cheryl Kanzler at 503-823-0457 or Ken Whattam at 503-823-0696.
It is also thought that another homeless individual was killed downtown in May, but Street Roots could not confirm this by the time we went to press.
The Wobblies may never succeed in unionizing the world’s largest chain of coffee shops, but they are putting a serious dent in Starbucks’ shiny corporate image.
On March 30, the National Labor Relations Board brought new charges against the Seattle-based company, citing 30 separate counts of Starbucks firing or harassing union-affiliated workers at four Manhattan stores where the Industrial Workers of the World first launched its organizing drive in 2003.
The charges follow a settlement that Starbucks signed one year ago to reinstate two union activists who had been fired. The IWW then filed a new complaint on behalf of six others who were fired, leading to the current charges, which Starbucks will have a chance to rebut before an administrative law judge.
In 2005, the company paid a total of $165,000 for similar charges of union-busting activities at the company’s roasting plant in Kent.
“This company is a serial violator of workers’ rights,” says IWW Starbucks organizer Daniel Gross, who says the tide is turning against the low pay and benefits that Starbucks provides its workers. The union is growing every day, Gross says, “despite an almost three-year campaign of illegal dirty tricks to defeat us.”
Camp Quixote is looking for a new home. The Olympia tent city has been housed on the property of a Unitarian church since early February, a week after it formed in protest of the city’s new anti-homeless Pedestrian Interference Ordinance.
“We don’t have an official place yet,” says Rob Richards, an organizer with the Poor People’s Union, which started the tent city. If all else fails, they’ll head to the woods. “The campers are dedicated to keeping the community together; that’s number one in their minds.”
The group’s 90-day agreement with church leaders is about to end, and though at least six other congregations have said they want to host the campers, says organizer Rob Richards, nobody’s ready yet.
“If we get a location for the 19th, we’re good for the rest of the year,” says Richards.
Organizers at Dignity Village have been working informally with the tent city, offering strategies and support.
Olympia city officials are working out a means of legitimizing the camp with a temporary land-use permit.
