*Co-Authored By Cheryl Wu
NEW YORKWorkers
rights organizations in Bushwick, Brooklyn
wagged their fingers at two retail stores during a march on Knickerbocker Ave. on Sunday, July 20.
Calling for an end to the exploitation of immigrant workers and insuring
payment of at least the minimum wage, nearly one hundred local consumers and
members from Make the Road
New York
(MRNY) and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU)
stopped in front of Vivi Women’s Wear and Associated Food Supermarket to
reprimand alleged poor employee treatment.
According to ongoing investigations, the MRNY and the New York State Department of Labor estimates
that the Associated Food Supermarket owes workers close to $2,000,000 in unpaid
wages, which includes minimum wage and overtime pay. The marchers urged a
boycott of the supermarket.
Many employees in the Bushwick area receive less than minimum wage, which is
currently $7.15 per hour in New
York State.
It is "pretty common to not pay minimum wage especially in non-food retail,"
said Jeff Eichler, coordinator of the Retail Organizing Project, an initiative
started by the RWDSU. Minimum wage laws are not "necessarily enforced with
rigor" because inspectors are few, according to Eichler.
An employer that pays below minimum wage is subject to criminal prosecution and
penalties, and may be required to pay interest and civil penalties up to 200
percent of the unpaid wages in addition to minimum wage underpayments,
according the Department of Labor’s website.
The march also celebrated the organizations’ latest achievementstaking back
over a million dollars of back wages and gaining the cooperation of several
stores. Through legal actions against at least 16 stores, Knickerbocker Ave. retail workers have
received a total of $1,092,000 in wages owed to them by employers.
Members of the march urged small businesses in the neighborhood to sign a Good
Business Agreement, which permits their workers to unionize. Recently, six
small retail stores on Knickerbocker signed a Good Business Agreement, making
them the most recent in a total of 21 stores that have signed the agreement.
The Good Business Agreement is a neutrality contract between employers and
employees to allow unionization.
The contracts and compensation were won through the efforts of MRNY. With offices
in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, MRNY works with
the community to promote equal economic, political, and civil rights for
low-income New Yorkers.
The organization is called Make
the Road because "we believe that if we walk together, we can
make a difference," said Nieves
Padilla, the
workplace justice coordinator for the MNRY Brooklyn
office.
Each Thursday, MRNY
offers classes to "teach and train members to know their own rights," including
how to obtain records for their work, according to Padilla. The organization also works on voter registration and
the education of new voters within communities.
In addition to educating members, MRNY also
fights on behalf of individuals. For example, MRNY’s Workers in
Action Committee pressured the Adriatic Italian Restaurant in
Manhattan on behalf of multiple workers who were allegedly paid as little as
$1.25 per hour.
Sunday’s march was one of many demonstrations by the ¡Despierta Bushwick! (Wake Up
Bushwick) Campaign, which was launched by MRNY to inform
workers of their rights and confront stores known to exploit workers in the
Bushwick area.