IWOC would like to send our sincere apologies for the behavior of IWOC member Michael Lucas (Facebook Myke Lukash). Last night, August 6th, he made remarks that gave people reason to fear for their safety. The statements caused harm and posed a risk to those directly impacted by physical, sexual, psychological, and/or emotional trauma, thus possibly retraumatizing or triggering folks who viewed his discourse online. His comments undoubtedly caused grief, anxiety, and destabilization to survivors of intimate harm. His comments were flippant of those coping with drug addictions thus potentially risking triggering these folks and bringing upon a possible relapse. His remarks are unrepresentative of what IWOC represents and this causes untold damage to IWOC members that are having their organization and credibility tarnished by his actions. He offloaded an immeasurable amount of labor onto fellow workers of the union as a whole who invariably now must defend the union in the face of these grossly inappropriate, threatening, and un-comradely actions carried out by him. As of now August 7th, Michael Lucas is suspended from any IWOC officer role and IWOC related work, including representing IWOC in any capacity online or offline. If he does engage in restorative mediation with the folks aforementioned, his suspension may be lifted by a vote of the IWOC Steering Committee. If he does not successfully work through an agreed upon mediation process, he will be expelled from IWOC.