E-Z Supply Ordered to Pay IWWs $1 Million: An IU 460 Legal Update
Submitted on Mon, 06/02/2008 - 10:57pm
From the Industrial Worker, June 2008
Since the IWW Industrial Union 460 began organizing in foodstuffs warehouses 3 years ago, we’ve organized in ten workplaces with varying degrees of success. One issue at every shop has been the employer’s failure to comply with wage and hour laws.
Many companies have retaliated by firing workers for their union activity. Workers have fought back through strikes, pickets, demonstrations, and selective legal action, among other tactics. We find legal action to be most effective when combined with these other methods, and when viewed as a means and not an end. This is a report on our legal status, but readers should understand that legal action is one of many tools workers are using to win their demands.
About a year and a half after we began utilizing legal action, several favorable rulings have recently come down and several settlements have been reached. Since the rulings have just came down, companies have not yet begun making payments.
Handyfat Trading (now called HDF Trading)
Six workers were awarded a total of $360,000. The union recently made a motion to require Handyfat to pay interest and legal fees which could raise the total amount.
E-Z Supply (now called Sunrise Plus)
Thirteen workers were awarded a total of $1.068 million. The owners have tried to escape liability by forming a new corporation called Sunrise Plus. The union has made a motion to define Sunrise Plus as an alter ego for E-Z Supply, which would hold Sunrise Plus liable for the judgment against E-Z Supply.
Giant Big Apple
Fifteen of seventeen workers have settled. The fifteen will receive a total of $325,000. The remaining two have yet to settle.
Amersino
Fifteen of sixteen workers have settled. Due to a confidentiality agreement, the union is unable to disclose the amount of money.
Top City Produce
The company was investigated by the New York Attorney General’s office. Negotiations are currently under way.
Wild Edibles
In September 2007, sixteen workers filed a lawsuit over illegally withheld overtime pay and retaliation. An additional eight workers have since joined the case. The plaintiffs are set to request class certification, which would expand coverage in the case to all current and former workers going back six years.
A few months after the suit was filed, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering the company not to retaliate against any worker who is part of the suit. The company has since allegedly violated this injunction several times, and the workers’ lawyers recently filed a motion to hold the company in contempt of court. To date, eleven of the twenty four workers involved in the case have been fired or constructively discharged.
Flaum Appetizing
A back wage case is proceeding against the company. In late May, 20 workers were terminated for union activity. The union will be filing a complaint with the NLRB.
Penang Restaurant
Penang, a Malaysian restaurant in the Upper East Side, closed down in summer 2007. Workers at the restaurant had been working 12-hour days for under minimum wage when they chose to join the IWW in early 2006. The IWW issued a heavy flyering campaign outside the restaurant after the boss refused to honor an agreement with the union.
HWH
HWH changed its name twice before closing down in fall 2007. One of the most slave-like warehouses in the industry, HWH required workers to put in as many as 116 hours per week, with drivers often working multiple days in a row with no time off. The union reached an agreement with the company in July 2007. Shortly after, HWH locked out the workers and changed its name to Dragonland, and then to US Garden, before closing for good.
Jim Crutchfield, Daniel Gross, and Billy Randel contributed to this article.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Sunrise with Banner.jpg | 141.96 KB |