For Immediate Release

In escalation of community uproar over supermarkets’ failure to comply with labor law, scores of retail workers, neighborhood shoppers and community churchgoers will hold protests in front of both a Bushwick supermarket that owes their workers over a million dollars in illegally withheld back wages and overtime pay, and an East NY supermarket that has similar labor violations and is connected to the Bushwick market.

Some workers from both stores receive no pay at all for their work, just tips.  Both African-American and Latino workers suffer similar labor abuses.

The Despierta (Wake up!) Bushwick Campaign has already pressured multiple employers to pay over $600,000 dollars in back wages to immigrant workers.  The campaign was launched by the Workers in Action Project at Make the Road by Walking.

Community members announce that they continue to gather worker testimony to supplement a labor complaint with Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office

What:

Latino workers, consumers, congregants, and community based organizations will unite to decry illegal sweatshop working conditions and will call for living wages and improved working conditions for Associated Supermarket workers. The Despierta Bushwick Campaign is an innovative campaign to demand decent working conditions for Bushwick’s retail workers. 

Who:

Make the Road by Walking, scores of Bushwick consumers

When and Where:

Saturday, July 15th

5:30 pm at 229 Knickerbocker Avenue, in front of Associated Supermarket, at Starr Street

7 pm at 1115 Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of Pioneer Supermarket