STOP UNION-BUSTING AT BROD KITCHEN

To NYC labor, immigrant rights activists, students and all defenders of workers’ rights: The owners of Bröd Kitchen are going all out in their drive to break the workers’ union, firing the union president and moving to decertify the union. This is an attack on all of us. It’s time to show the meaning, and the power, of workers’ solidarity. ALL OUT FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19.

Brod Kitchen (formerly Hot and Crusty) owners have drastically escalated their campaign to break the workers’ union. They are seeking to intimidate the restaurant’s primarily immigrant and African American workforce. The power of labor and all supporters of workers/immigrant rights must be brought out to stop the bosses’ union-busting offensive.

The Hot and Crusty Workers Association was established a little over three years ago, in a historic struggle for workers’ and immigrant rights. That victory showed what we can do when we organize against exploitation, and sparked the victorious unionization campaign immigrant workers are carrying out now at B&H Photo. But last month, after the Brod workers’ union contract expired, management launched an all-out campaign to destroy the rights the workers won with so much sacrifice back in 2012. Owner Hugo Uys threatened to close the unionized store on 63rd St, claiming financial motives. Yet Bröd recently opened a non-union store on West 4th Street near NYU, and plans another non-union outlet in Hoboken, NJ.

On January 28, 200 members of more than 15 NYC unions, immigrant and community groups, and students from NYU and CUNY, rallied on West 4th chanting “Brod workers, we are with you.” The protest was backed by the Central Labor Council. Openly displaying its hatred for labor, the company put up huge posters signed by the restaurant manager, denouncing the union and calling for “CROSSING THEIR PICKET LINES.” The next day, Brod owner Hugo Uys FIRED UNION PRESIDENT MAHOMA LÓPEZ and union member Marcelino Cano. When unionists continued leafleting in defense of the workers, Brod FIRED YET ANOTHER UNION ACTIVIST, Leyla Mejía, an Afro-Latina mother of four.

NOW BROD HAS ESCALATED ITS DRIVE TO CRUSH WORKERS’ RIGHTS, MOVING TO DECERTIFY THE UNION. Fear and intimidation, firings of union leaders and activists, smears and harassment – these are the weapons the bosses are using to try to crush the workers’ dignity and take away their rights. NYC labor, workers, students and immigrant rights activists: will you stand by and let that happen? No way! ALL OUT TO THE LABOR/IMMIGRANT RIGHTS RALLY AGAINST UNION-BUSTING AT BROD!