Submitted on Thu, 10/21/2010 - 4:36pm
Contact: Joseph Sanchez, 410-829-6834
National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee and Immigrant Workers of the Campaign for Justice at Flaum Appetizing to Be Honored at the 2nd Annual Brandworkers Awards Dinner
New York, NY -- Leading lights from the progressive legal and organizing communities will be honored on October 28th at the 2nd Annual Brandworkers Awards Dinner. The National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee and the Workers of the Campaign for Justice at Flaum Appetizing Corp. will receive "Champions of Economic Justice" awards to honor their achievements in the movement to win fair pay, equality, and respect for all workers.
"We couldn't be more gratified to honor these inspiring fighters for economic justice," said Daniel Gross, the founding director of Brandworkers. "They are in the trenches every day waging innovative and dynamic campaigns for workplace justice and dignity. It's an honor for Brandworkers to acknowledge their tremendous contributions to the movement."
The National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee is the country's leading organization of progressive lawyers, legal workers, and law students serving labor unions, worker centers, and individual employees. The Committee is on the cutting-edge of providing innovative legal strategies to combat the intense employer resistance that characterizes organizing drives in the United States today. Firm believers in the need for global solidarity, the Committee and its members are leading participants in the international labor rights arena and recently helped spearhead the landmark amicus brief to the Mexican Supreme Court, filed by 47 prominent labor rights organizations and attorneys from around the world, in opposition to the Mexican Government's attempt to undermine the independence of the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Allied Workers.
The Workers of the Campaign for Justice at Flaum Appetizing Corp. are recent immigrants from Mexico and Ecuador using innovative legal, advocacy, and organizing tools to challenge sweatshops conditions at one of New York City's top processors and distributors of kosher foods. The workers are members of the Focus on the Food Chain campaign, a joint initiative of Brandworkers and the Industrial Workers of the World (NYC) labor union, to create good, family-supporting jobs in the food processing and distribution warehouses of New York. Flaum Appetizing illegally withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation owed to workers and responded with vicious anti-immigrant retaliation when workers stood up for their rights. Despite the illegal retaliation, the workers of Flaum, through diligent and creative organizing, are well on their way to win justice at the company. The workers' effort to limit the scope of the Hoffman Plastic Supreme Court case, which condoned discrimination against many workers based on immigration status, could have important ramifications for workplace justice projects across the country.