The labor strike was organized by prison inmates over the course of several months in 2010 using contraband cell phones, with The New York Times claiming that the strike may be the first instance of cell phones being used to organize a grassroots protest of this nature in prisons.
[1] Several inmates with cell phones had called The New York Times and said they had learned about the planned strike through text messages and were unaware of who exactly were behind it.
[2] American prison activist Elaine Brown called the strike an "organic effort" by the inmates.
[2] According to an article published in The New York Times, the prisoners "would not perform chores, work for the Corrections Department’s industrial arm or shop at prison commissaries until a list of demands is addressed, including compensation for their work, more educational opportunities, better food and sentencing rules changes.
"[1] The prisons involved were:[4] While an exact number was not specified, it was widely reported that several thousand inmates were participating in the strike.