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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2011)
WWW . ThESkANNEr . COm O CTOBEr 26, 2011 S EATTlE , W AShiNgTON V OlumE XXXiii, N O . 52 25 CENTS i nSide ‘Captain America’ page 2 Occupy Seattle page 3 Troy Johnson C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow page 5 Day of Protest hertz Fires muslims Somali workers claim company violates labor agreement photo BY SuSan fried SEATTLE (AP) — More than two dozen Somali Muslim drivers for Hertz at Seattle- Tacoma International Airport are being fired after refusing to clock out for daily breaks during which they normally pray. The 26 workers drive the company’s rental cars to and from the airport for clean- ing and refueling. They are among 34 Hertz employees suspended Sept. 30 for failing to clock out before breaks. Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, said Hertz agreed during contract negotiations last year that union members would not need to clock out during prayer breaks. But the company maintains workers were violating a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached two years ago. “From our perspective, Hertz didn’t even follow their own internal policy,” union spokesman Paul Zilly said Friday. Hertz didn’t provide a verbal or written warning Eric roberts, brother of Aaron roberts, who was shot by Seattle Police in 2001, speaks at the 16th Annual National and jumped right to suspension, he said. Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, repression and the Criminalization of a generation Oct. 22 at Westlake Park. “It was a huge disappointment and a The annual event, which was organized by the October 22nd Coalition, hopes to shed light on police brutality in tremendous frustration,” Zilly said. America. Eight of the 34 suspended workers signed the company’s new clock-out agreement and have returned to their jobs, company spokesman Rich Broome said in an email. Termination letters have been sent to the rest. “The failure of many employees to return to work promptly after prayers had created an unmanageable, unfair work environment oins multistate coalition neys general urged the FCC to those other than the phone serv- using a wireless or landline at the Seattle airport location,” Broome urging FCC to ban unautho- enact rules that prevent such ice provider add unauthorized service. wrote. Clocking out ensured that everyone’s In 2002, the Associated Press interests were preserved, he said. rized charges on telephone charges, known as “cramming” charges to phone bills for non- bills, write stronger regulations – a fraud that a recent U.S. call related services such as reported that then-Oregon The company gave suspended workers Senate report found costs con- email, website hosting, discount Attorney General Hardy Myers until the end of the day Thursday to sign the on phone and wireless services buying programs or voicemail fined Qwest Communications clock-out agreement, if they wanted to be OLYMPIA – Washington sumers about $2 billion a year. “Consumers are fed up with services. Investigations by the $575,000 to settle complaints reinstated, Broome told The Seattle Times. State Attorney General Rob McKenna today called on the attempts to slip charges onto attorneys general, as well as the Denver-based telephone The firings were first reported by KOMO- federal government to adopt their phone bills in order to trick complaints received by their company had packaged extra TV. stronger regulations to protect them into paying for services offices, reveal that consumers but unwanted services to Zilly said Friday that instead of an ultima- consumers against unauthorized they never asked for and don’t usually do not intend to pur- Oregon customers. tum, the company should have sat down Myers said Qwest also had with the union to negotiate this change. third-party charges on telephone need,” McKenna said. “Today chase these services and rarely bills. In a filing with the Federal we ask for the federal govern- make use of them. Most con- misrepresented its wireless “Whenever there’s a change in working Communications Commission ment’s help hanging up on sumers are also unaware that service and high-speed Internet- conditions and you’re working under a col- they are exposed to such fraudu- access service. (FCC), McKenna and a multi- cramming schemes.” “Cramming” occurs when lent billing practices just by state coalition of 16 other attor- Phone Bill ripoffs Continue McKenna calls on feds to protect consumers from ‘cramming’ J See ripoff on page 3 indeX News ........................3,5 A&E .............................2 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................4 Books ..........................6 Bids/Classifieds............7 See hertz on page 3 White Supremacists Write Newspaper Seattle murder suspect says he targeted ‘non-White’ Victim O ne of two suspects in a Northwest killing spree that left four people dead wrote in a letter to a newspaper that they killed the last victim, in California, because he was “non-white.” The Oregonian newspaper reports it received the letter discussing the killing from David “Joey” Pedersen. According to the newspaper, Pedersen wrote that he and his girlfriend, Holly Grigsby, were looking for another vehicle to help them stay ahead of the law when they killed Reginald Clark in Eureka, Calif., in early October, just before they were finally caught. Since their arrest the two white suprema- cists have given statements and interviews bragging about the crimes they are accused of committing. The pair is being held in Washington state. Both pleaded not guilty Wednesday to two counts of aggravated murder in the death of Pedersen’s father and stepmother. In his letter to The Oregonian, Pedersen used white supremacist justifications for the death of Clark. Pedersen wrote he and Grigsby decided to kill a “non-white.” “We felt it’d be optimal if, in securing See murder on page 3
