A dozen IWW members joined ex-RedcellX employees at a protest in Hillsboro in March. IMAGE: STEPHEN VOSS

The computer programmer had been unemployed for a few months, and Melquist's company, RedcellX, seemed to be up-and-coming. Then, in June, Greve's paychecks started bouncing.

Today, Greve is still owed thousands, as are more than a dozen of his former co-workers--about $100,000 in all.

But instead of whining, Greve and his aggrieved former co-workers joined up with Richard Seymour, a programmer with Free Geek, a nonprofit that refurbishes computers for the poor. Seymour doubles as a union organizer with Industrial Workers of the World, and he adopted the RedcellX cause as his own.

Now defunct, RedcellX was an "embedded software" company, writing the programs that operate the computer chips inside gadgets such as a calculator or wristwatch. It is the sort of business you can start in your garage. Even in the wake of the high-tech collapse, several such companies survive in the Portland area.

After Seymour wrote a letter to Melquist, more and more former RedcellX workers came forward with similar stories. Seymour became an online detective, amassing a four-inch-thick binder of research on Melquist. A trail of court records indicated a history of not paying bills; in Pennsylvania, Melquist was jailed for theft and bounced checks.

Melquist's ex-employees sent a letter to Attorney General Hardy Myers accusing Melquist of "an ongoing pattern of hiring new employees/contractors with the intention of stealing their services."

Contacted by WW, Melquist refused to give out a phone number and blew off two promised interviews. He repeatedly failed to answer questions emailed to him, other than to claim that he was victimized by untrustworthy employees--whom he promised to countersue.

"This war will never end on my front!" Melquist emailed one former employee. "When NAFTA runs out and all the engineering jobs are in China good luck.... Go finger your union buddies."

Greve and his former co-workers aren't the only ones feeling burned.

T.C. Lin of Megamedia, a Taiwan company, told WW he paid Melquist $200,000 for a program for an e-book reader. Melquist promised to do the job in four months, but it took 18. When the program finally arrived, it did not work.

The state Bureau of Labor and Industries has investigated the former employees' claims. According to a draft BOLI report, which concerns only four of the 16 ex-employees who appear to be owed money, Melquist violated state laws and owes almost $15,000 in back wages, as well as more than $25,000 in penalties to the state.

"He has promised on a number of occasions to submit documentation to prove his case," says BOLI investigator Stan Wojtyla. "And he has not submitted the documentation he said he would send."

The ex-employees and some of their allies are setting up a website devoted to Melquist and plan to haunt their former employer until he settles his debts. "We have no intention of giving up," says Seymour.