The official statement from JWBS:

Nail Salon Workers Announce Groundbreaking Victory!

Federal Court Rules Unanimously in Favor of Workers’ Claims Against Employer for Retaliation, Failure to Pay Overtime

This Tuesday, a group of nail salon workers, supporters, national women’s groups and elected officials will rally and announce their victory in a major battle against 167 Nail Plaza and 68 Nail Plaza salons. In March 2005, Susan Do Yea Kim was fired by Nail Plaza owners Dong Rim Park and Mou San Rim for simply requesting regular break times during the day.

On Friday, October 26, 2007, a jury for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled unanimously in favor of Ms. Kim, charging Nail Plaza for retaliatory firing and failure to pay overtime. Do Yea Kim and two of her co-workers were together awarded a total of over $200,000 in backpay and punitive damages, as well as reinstatement to their former positions.

The Nail Plaza workers are the first group of nail salon workers in the country to publicly stand up and expose the beauty industry's rampant labor violations, and the serious health effects of their prolonged exposure to toxic nail chemicals. The Nail Plaza workers, who have been picketing for the past 6 months, has also inspired elected officials, women and labor organizations, and medical experts to join together with JWBS to launch a Nail Salon Workers Network to call for greater changes in the largely unregulated nail salon industry.

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An abridged version of Anthony Han's Facebook message:

To all concerned peoples!

It is an exciting time indeed. Susan fought the Boss and she won! She won $40,000 to $50,000 more than she was entitled to. This is a pivotal moment in the history of labor movements with Susan's victory being the first in the nail salon industry. The result of Susan's victory could as momentous as the acts of Rosa Parks during the civil rights movement.

Despite her lawyers trying to push her to accept the lowest settlement, she continued and fought further for the justice of all working people.

Although her case has been won, we are still closing in on our larger goal. Many other nail salon workers are still facing sweatshop conditions-- poisonous toxic chemicals in the air, no breaks (even to use the bathroom ), and illegally low wages.

Quite a step since The Blaaag's last coverage, wouldn't you agree?

Note: This is not the official statement of the Justice Will Be Served! campaign.

Daniel Dae Kim earned himself a shiny DUI early Thursday morning. Read all about it here (... and here, here, here, here, here, and here). I sincerely hope he doesn't get killed off.

Here's some nice advice:



Also, check out this article on how sleep might yield unique cognitive abilities that don't appear when you're awake. Basically, don't follow Ben Manibag and snort coke to stay up and recite random vocabulary words.

Lastly, here's an article on another noose incident which took the front page of the Metro today. (Copycat effect? Hmm...)

(Thanks to Laura for the Gothamist article)