Brandworkers in the News

Immigrant Workers Seeking a Better Future for their Families Score Victory

July 8, 2008

New York, NY- One if by Land, Two if by Sea, the highly-regarded Greenwich Village restaurant, has joined several other fine dining companies in cutting off purchases from embattled seafood wholesaler and retailer, Wild Edibles, Inc. Wild Edibles workers are campaigning to reclaim unlawfully withheld overtime pay and to gain a living wage and health care as union members. Wild Edibles owner, Richard Martin, has responded with a fierce campaign of retaliation including discharging eleven workers for asserting their rights.

"One if by Land has a long history of supporting workers' rights and we are proud to support the effort of the Wild Edibles workers making positive change," said Rosanne Martino, the general manager of the restaurant. "Cutting expenses by violating the law and cheating your own employees makes an unlevel playing field in the market and costs more down the road than it is worth."

A federal judge issued an injunction in December prohibiting Wild Edibles from further retaliating against employees. But the workers' lawyers recently had to file a motion asking the judge to find the company in contempt of court for continuing its retaliation campaign despite the injunction. The National Labor Relations Board has also issued two complaints against the company for interfering with the workers' efforts to form a union with the Industrial Workers of the World.

"We come to work at 2 a.m. six days a week and work hard through the night," said Carlos Molina, one of the eleven Wild Edibles employees fired or forced out of the job for asserting their rights. "We're just looking for our contribution to be respected and we appreciate One if By Land's support very much."

The other restaurant groups which have disassociated from Wild Edibles over concern for workers' rights are Pastis, La Goulue, Union Square Cafe, Mermaid Inn, Giorgione, and Sushi Samba.

Brandworkers International is a non-profit organization protecting and advancing the rights of retail and food employees across the supply chain. By connecting retail and food workers with concerned citizens, Brandworkers increases employer compliance with the law and challenges corporate misconduct. The Brandworkers Focus on the Food Chain initiative is providing comprehensive legal, advocacy, and organizing support to the Wild Edibles employees.

http://www.Brandworkers.org

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The Dangerous Side of Retail Work

Remembering the Wendy's Massacre

By Daniel Gross, Brandworkers Founding Director

Counterpunch- Weekend Edition, May 24 / 25, 2008

This Sunday marks the eighth anniversary of what has come to be known as the Wendy’s Massacre. On that fateful day, workers at one of the hamburger chain’s locations in Queens were busy closing down the store – wiping down counters, emptying the trash, and all the rest to prepare for the next day.

Retail workers know that closing the store can be a dangerous part of the job. It’s often late at night, no customers are around, and workers may be counting money. In addition to wanting to get home, security concerns are why retail workers can get a little bit edgy around closing time. The possibility of violent crime is why retail workers don’t open the door after closing for a passerby pleading to use the restroom.

Just after closing time was when John Taylor, a former employee of the Wendy's restaurant, chose to strike. Taylor, who was joined by an accomplice, knocked at the locked front door of the restaurant and called out for the store manager whom he knew by name. The manager subsequently went to the basement with one of the assailants. The rest is tragic, gruesome history.

The Wendy’s night crew was lured to the basement, bound and gagged, and shot at point-blank range inside the walk-in refrigerator. Four of the workers, Anita C. Smith, Ramon Nazario, Jeremy Mele, and Ali Ibadat were killed. The night manager, Jean Dumel Auguste, was also killed. Two workers, Jaquione Johnson and Patrick Castro, were shot in the head and face, respectively, and left for dead. They miraculously survived.

The families mourned and the city mourned with them. The mother of one of the victims sued Wendy’s for being negligent in its security precautions.

As chilling and heart wrenching as the Wendy’s tragedy was, it does not stand alone. In 2000, the year of the Massacre, there were three mass fast food killings in the United States leaving 14 workers dead.

John Taylor himself was a serial armed robber of fast food chains going back to 1996; he hit five restaurants the year before the Massacre including McDonald’s and Burger King.

Retail work can be deadly. 351 retail workers in the United States suffered fatal injuries on the job in 2006, according to government statistics. By contrast, 190 workers died in the mining industry that year, the year of the horrific tragedy at the Sago Mine. 138 of the retail worker deaths were by homicide.

In December of last year, the nation was transfixed as details emerged of a shooter entering an Omaha mall and opening fire with an assault rifle. Six of the fallen were department store employees. One of the surviving employees attempted to explain her grief. She was quoted in a news report sharing, “In retail, co-workers become a family of sorts because of the long hours spent at work.”

The 19-year-old murderer dressed in camouflage had recently been cut loose from his job at McDonald’s. He ended the rampage by turning the weapon on himself. It was the second massacre at a U.S. mall that year.

This year, Wendy’s has seen another high-profile mass shooting, this time at a Florida location which left a paramedic dead and four others injured. The day before, two Wendy's employees in Illinois were robbed at gunpoint and forced into a freezer by two masked men. The day after the shooting spree in Florida, a drive-through employee at a California Wendy's was confronted by a robber with a gun. Earlier this month, Wendy’s workers in Delaware were victims of an attempted robbery – at closing time. The list could go on and on.

The other chains are no different: just try logging on to a news search engine and typing “robbery” and “the name of a fast food chain”.

Retail work is undervalued and under-respected in our society thanks in large part to the global retail corporations. They use lobbying and slick public relations to block initiatives which would improve the standing of retail workers such as legislative reform to help workers achieve an independent voice on the job with a labor union.

The threat of violence is but one of the many, many reasons why retail workers deserve greater respect and recognition. In mourning the victims of the Wendy’s Massacre and all retail worker victims, I hope we are mindful of the danger of workplace violence which while often obscured from our customer experience is a very real part of workers’ daily lives.

New Owner of Hamburger Chain Should Minimize Job Losses and Guarantee Fair Notice and Severance to All Laid Off Employees

May 20, 2008

New York, NY- Brandworkers International has called on billionaire hedge fund investor and new owner of the Wendy's fast food chain, Nelson Peltz, to treat employees with respect and minimize job losses as his holding company carries out widely-anticipated layoffs. Brandworkers expressed disappointment with a letter recently sent to Wendy's employees by incoming CEO Roland Smith in which he not only issued a warning of job cuts but failed to offer assurances of minimum notice or adequate severance pay. Mr. Smith also suggested that existing employee benefits could be overhauled as soon as 2009.

"No lasting guarantee of benefits, promised job losses with no
mention of severance or notice, and CEO Smith instructs Wendy's
employees: 'don't get cynical'," said Natalie Zuckerman, a
Brandworkers campaigner. "Workers don't need the corporate buzz-words and home-spun stories about youth that Mr. Smith offered up in his letter, they need concrete assurances about their future. Mentioning there will be 'some type of a retention plan' yet to be determined does not suffice."

For Immediate Release:
Brandworkers International

April 7, 2008

Giorgione Drops Wild Edibles Amid Escalating Labor Dispute

Immigrant Workers Seeking to Improve Large Seafood Company Score Another Victory

New York, NY- Employees at Wild Edibles have chalked up a gain in their effort to win unlawfully withheld overtime pay and a voice at work with the decision of highly-regarded Italian restaurants, Giorgione and Giorgione 508, to refrain from purchasing Wild Edibles seafood until workers' grievances are fairly resolved. Giorgione joins leading New York restaurants including Pastis, Union Square Cafe, La Goulue, Mermaid Inn, and Sushi Samba that have previously pulled out of Wild Edibles over concern for the treatment of employees there.

"Giorgione has demonstrated a welcome concern for the workers behind the scenes at Wild Edibles," said Daniel Gross, the founding director of Brandworkers International, a non-profit workers' rights organization providing legal and advocacy assistance to the employees. "We look forward to communicating with the remaining Wild Edibles customers about the workers' efforts to improve their futures and the futures of their children."

Wild Edibles workers have joined with concerned community members to both remedy past injustices and win a living wage and health care for the future. Last September, a group of employees filed a large federal class action lawsuit potentially covering hundreds of workers alleging that Wild Edibles withheld overtime pay and retaliated against workers who asserted their rights. A federal judge subsequently issued an injunction against Wild Edibles and its owner Richard Martin against further retaliation. The National Labor Relations Board has also alleged that the company interfered with the rights of employees who have joined the Industrial Workers of the World labor union.

"We come to work six days a week and work hard through the night," said Raymundo Lara Molina, one of the eleven Wild Edibles employees allegedly fired or forced out of the job for asserting their rights. "We're just looking for our work and our families to be respected."

Brandworkers International is a non-profit organization protecting and advancing the rights of retail and food employees across the supply chain. By connecting retail and food workers with concerned citizens, Brandworkers increases employer compliance with the law and challenges corporate misconduct. The Brandworkers Focus on the Food Chain initiative enables New York's mostly immigrant food processing workers to reach for a better tomorrow.

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For Immediate Release:
Brandworkers International

March 26, 2008

Sushi Samba Becomes Fifth Major Restaurant Group
to Drop Embattled Seafood Company

Wild Edibles Continues to Lose Millions of Dollars
Over Mistreatment of Workers

New York, NY- Large seafood wholesaler and retailer,
Wild Edibles, is seeing its customer base rapidly
erode with Sushi Samba, one of the nation's hottest
sushi restaurants, cutting off purchases from the
company until an employment dispute with workers is
fairly resolved. Sushi Samba Park and Sushi Samba 7
join leading New York restaurants like Pastis, Union
Square Cafe, La Goulue, and Mermaid Inn that have
previously pulled out of Wild Edibles over concern for
the treatment of employees there.

For Immediate Release:
Brandworkers International

March 12, 2008

Sign the Petition Demanding Respect for CompUSA Workers!

New York, NY- A new workers' rights organization has called into question the conduct of restructuring firm Gordon Brothers Group LLC as it liquidates the assets of national electronics retailer, CompUSA. Brandworkers International, a New York-based non-profit for retail and food employees, says that internal company documents and reports it has received from employees reveal that thousands of CompUSA workers will be permanently laid off with little or no severance pay, no continuation of benefits, and without receiving a hiring preference at CompUSA locations which continue doing business under new ownership. The private equity-arm of Gordon Brothers purchased CompUSA last December from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu.

"Gordon Brothers has promised proper treatment for landlords, creditors, and consumers as it sells off CompUSA - but what about the workers being thrown into this very difficult job market?" said John Kane, a campaigner at Brandworkers.

For Immediate Release:
Brandworkers International

March 6, 2008

Brandworkers International Provides a Combination of Legal, Advocacy, and Organizing Support

New York, NY- Prompted by a transforming job market, workers' rights advocates have launched a non-profit organization to protect the rights of the increasing number of workers employed at retail and food chains. Based in New York, Brandworkers International links retail and food employees with concerned individuals to make positive change on the job and in the community. Over three hundred employment attorneys have already joined with Brandworkers to offer legal assistance to workers in need.

"Retail and food workers need an innovative organizational voice to face the variety of challenges posed by a globalized economy," said Brandworkers senior adviser Jennifer Gordon, a professor of labor law at Fordham Law School and a recipient of the MacArthur 'Genius' Fellowship for her leadership on low-wage worker issues. "By connecting under served employees with social change resources including lawyers, labor unions, and community groups, Brandworkers will help ensure that workers' rights are both protected and expanded."

Mermaid Inn stops fishing with Wild Edibles

The Mermaid Inn, which has two locations in the city, said it would stop using the seafood company after 16 employees sued Wild Edibles in a labor dispute.

February 27. 2008

By: Lisa Fickenscher

The Mermaid Inn on Wednesday became the fourth prominent restaurant to drop seafood purveyor Wild Edibles over a labor dispute it has with its workers.

Six months ago, Wild Edibles was sued by 16 employees in its Long Island City warehouse, who allege that the company does not pay overtime and illegally fired some of them for union activities.

Since then, the employees, who belong to an advocacy group called Brandworkers International, have convinced several influential restaurateurs and restaurant groups, including Union Square Hospitality Group and Keith McNally (of Pastis) to stop purchasing seafood from Wild Edibles.

William Weinstein
Principal, Gordon Brothers Group
Chief Executive Officer, CompUSA
101 Huntington Avenue, 10th Floor
Boston, MA 02199
info@gordonbrothers.com

February 4, 2008

Via Fax and E-Mail

Dear Mr. Weinstein,

I write to express the concern of Brandworkers International regarding the fate of CompUSA employees as you oversee the liquidation of the company. Brandworkers is a non-profit organization with the mission of protecting and advancing the rights of retail and food employees.

Since Gordon Brothers Group LLC purchased the national electronics retailer from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, you have given public assurances to several CompUSA stakeholders. Specifically, you have promised proper treatment for landlords, creditors, and consumers in the CompUSA liquidation process. You have not however made any public assurances of fair treatment for the thousands of CompUSA workers being laid off.

1/28/08

The foie gras protests outside Union Square Cafe may not have put a dent in anything, but we’ve just received a press release indicating that Union Square Hospitality Group will no longer use embattled Wild Edibles as its seafood provider, joining Keith McNally's and Jean Denoyer's restaurants in the snub. The release nods to the “courage” of ten workers who were let go after they filed a suit claiming they were stiffed on over time pay.

“Guests can rest assured that the Union Square Hospitality Group will not be serving seafood from labor rights violator Wild Edibles,” said Daniel Gross, the founding director of Brandworkers. “We look forward to discussing the workers efforts to achieve fairness on the job with the remaining Wild Edibles customers.”