Submitted on Tue, 01/02/2007 - 12:52am
Brooklyn, New York On January 2nd 2007 at 5:00AM, workers from the Food and Allied Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World, I.U. 460) and their supporters will ring in the New Year with a picket targeting the Amersino Marketing Group at 161 Gardner Ave, Brooklyn, NY.
Workers are marching on the Brooklyn foodstuffs distributor to highlight a civil suit that they will file with the help of the IWW in federal court over unpaid wages and overtime. The New Years march will also act as a ‘friendly reminder’ to their boss that the NYS minimum wage will be increasing to $7.15 an hour, a figure which Amersino has conveniently overlooked in the past.
The story of these workers’ struggle began in June of 2005 when several employees took the initiate to file a complaint with the Department of Labor over wage and hour violations. Workers at Amersino were often working in excess of 65 hours per week and receiving $300 to $350 for their labor, sometimes even less. Unfortunately, this abominable treatment is the norm rather than the exception in an industry plagued by flagrant labor law violations, where wages are paid by the week rather than by the hour.
Submitted on Thu, 12/28/2006 - 8:39pm
Foward Widely - updates posted on wobblycity.org
February 9th 2006 - Workers at EZ-supply vote to join the IWW
November 27th 2006 - IWW reaches agreement with EZ-supply
December 26th 2006 - Boss reneges agreement and makes threats regarding worker's immigration status
Morning of December 28th 2006 - Union serves EZ-supply with Federal complaint regarding back wages and overtime
Evening of December 28th 2006 - EZ-supply fires all union workers
December 29th 2006 - Hell breaks loose - call Tomer to find out how you can help - (646) 753-1167
Submitted on Tue, 12/26/2006 - 2:39pm
Throughout the Fall of 2006 the IWW has been putting pressure on EZ supply to sit and negotiate. Finally the boss came to his sense and negotiated an agreement. The agreement included recognition of the union, wage increases, a grievance procedure, paid time off and more.
On December 26th on the heels of workers at 2 more shops announcing their membership in the IWW and demanding their rights the boss at EZ-supply reneged his agreement. The previous lawyer who did the negotiations no longer works for EZ-supply and a new lawyer showed up. Workers returned to work knowing that the boss was once again showing his unwillingness to obey the law and respect the rights of workers. We all see a vicious fight in front of us.
Submitted on Mon, 12/18/2006 - 2:20pm
As of this afternoon workers at top city are going back to work. The boss agreed to pay min wage and overtime and open to further discussions.
Thanks to everyone for the support; we know that a lot of people called and that scared the s@$+! out of the boss. The workers at Top City want to send a strong message of solidarity back to everyone who took action.
More to come - no picket tomorrow morning!
Original Alert
At 5:00 AM Monday December 18, 2006 IWW members from Top produce, Handy Fat, Ez-Supply and Starbucks along with members of SDS marched on Top City Produce to demand justice.
Workers at Top City refused to go to work until the boss agreed to obey the law. For too long workers have been working 72 hour weeks with no overtime, wages less than minimum wage, no benefits and no respect.
Submitted on Mon, 11/27/2006 - 7:24pm
The IWW had an amazing victory last week. A contract was negotiated between the Boss at ez-supply and the workers. After a year long fight workers made the big wins in improving their working conditions. This is amazing!
This next part is from Benjamin who has worked on the campaign and was at the negotiations.
the boss acknowledged that he was hurt very bad by our cutting into his business! our flyering in park slope has paid off for the EZ supply workers, who scored well in their bargaining session.
- the boss has agreed to recognize the union, & workers spoke to their boss from the 1st time w/out fear.
- wage increases $1.70 - $2.45/hr. over 24 months
- a grievance procedure
- premium pay for certain types of routine work
- 3 paid sick days
- an additional holiday in 2nd yr. of contract
- across the board second week vacation
- the company will sponsor the workers' green cards, & no worker will be fired for their immigration status
- their files will be purged of all union activities
- and they've received some of the back pay, & have retained an attorney to pursue the rest in federal court.
All of this is still yet to be voted on, & isn't of course as good as was wanted, so its certainly not over yet. we began working on this campaign exactly 1 year ago!