Andrew Friedman

Gotta Get Paid

Literally, workers gotta paid. Yep, it is required by labor law. While there are still some politicians who do not support a minimum wage that could raise a working family out of poverty, I haven't heard any advocate for eliminating the requirement that workers get paid altogether.

Yet, out in East Brooklyn, that's often how it goes.

In late June, the community organization Make the Road by Walking joined with a number of Bushwick churches to launch a boycott of an Associated Supermarket on Knickerbocker Avenue that fails to pay many of their workers any base pay. The workers are "packers" and their primary responsibility is packing purchased groceries into shopping bags. They work for tips. So, sometimes they show up for a nine hour day of work, and they earn twelve bucks. Doesn't sound too fair, right?

In addition to not being fair, it's not legal. Make the Road by Walking helped some of these workers, and some of their similarly, but not identically, cheated co-workers to file a complaint with the New York Satte Attorney General's Office. Labor lawyers at Make the Road currently estimate that the owners of this Associated Supermarket owe their workers over one million dollars.

For the past few weeks, Bushwick residents have shown their support for their neighbors who work at the store by taking their hard-earned money to other stores and to store-owners who respect both the law and the dignity of their workers.

Can a supermarket in a low-income community make enough money to actually pay it's workers? Apparently so. Across the street from the Bushwick Associated is a Met Foods Supermarket that pays their workers, pays them a decent wage, and provides them with health insurance and a union contract.

It turns out, though, that the practice of not paying packers a wage is pretty common in the supermarket industry. According to the workers, that's how it works at the other supermarkets owned by the owners of the Knickerbocker Avenue Associated. Also, since lauching the boycott, Make the Road by Walking has been contacted by packers at a number of other neighborhood supermarkets who want to file cases with the State AG for similar treatment.

Abuse of workers happens because it can. Abusive employers take advantage of inadequate labor law enforcement by the State and federal Departments of Labor. Workers are usually afraid to stand up for themselves because they don't want to lose their jobs, and too few of them are organized into labor unions that can give them institutional power in the workplace. Also, consumers have been too willing to look the other way when we see or hear about worker exploitation. It is crucial that we stop doing so. Concerted action can move employers to change their business practices and stop breaking the law.

Lawless employers should know - they won't get paid if their workers don't get paid.

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Posted at 9:08 AM, Jul 03, 2006 in Labor
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