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Handyfat Workers Organize

Industrial Worker - February 2006

A majority of the 15 workers at Handyfat Trading, Inc., a food wholesaler in Brooklyn that serves the Chinese food industry, have joined the IWW, and will have an NLRB election on Jan. 17. The boss has circulated a letter to Spanish-speaking warehouse workers warning that they will be replaced if they vote union and try to “interfere” with how he runs the business.

The New York IWW’s organizing in the food and warehouse industries led to an article in the Jan. 4 New York Sun, which quoted a New York City Central Labor Council official saying they are following IWW organizing closely.

“If they are now declaring themselves to have a better way to organize, I hope they’re right,” said public policy director Ed Ott. “The labor movement needs new ideas.”