Standing Up at Pur Pac

Workers Win Large Settlement at Supplier to Chinese Restaurants After Hard Fought Campaign

Energetic Worker-Led Campaign Saw Key Customers Drop the Distribution Warehouse Until Workers' Rights Were Respected

Queens, NY – Immigrant workers at Pur Pac, a food distribution warehouse supplying many landmark Chinese restaurants, bakeries, and cafes in Chinatown and around the City, have won a major settlement with the company after prevailing in a bitterly contested workplace justice campaign. The comprehensive settlement will return $470,000 in illegally withheld minimum wage and overtime pay and subjects Pur Pac to a binding code of conduct which includes protection for collective activity and compels compliance with all workplace laws including anti-discrimination and health & safety protections. The workers organized with Focus on the Food Chain, a joint campaign from Brandworkers and the IWW which is challenging sweatshop conditions in a sprawling industrial corridor of food processing and distribution warehouses that service New York City markets and restaurants.

Brandworkers has prevailed against Unfair Labor Practice charges filed by the Pur Pac corporation in an attempt to hinder our right to speak out for workplace justice. Pur Pac, a distributor of food and restaurant supplies to Asian restaurants in New York City, had targeted the peaceful speech of immigrant workers who are educating restaurant customers about the company's lengthy track record of lawless behavior. Faced with a lack of evidence and a pledge from Brandworkers to vigorously litigate the matter for as long as necessary, Pur Pac and their attorneys chose to withdraw the charges. Brandworkers will meet any subsequent attempts by Pur Pac to chill workers' speech with the same determination. Charges against the workers' labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World, have also been withdrawn