[Marxism] Teamsters and FreshDirect Spar Over Suspensions of Immigrant Workers

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/teamsters-and-freshdirect-spar-over-suspensions-of-immigrant-workers/
December 12, 2007,  12:08 pm
Teamsters and FreshDirect Spar Over Suspensions of Immigrant Workers

By Sewell Chan

Updated, 10 p.m. | FreshDirect, the online grocery delivery service that 
has seen rapid growth in its New York City business since it began 
deliveries in 2002, this week suspended several dozen workers — nearly 
all of them Hispanic immigrants — and fired at least one of them, saying 
that the workers had not provided accurate Social Security and other 
records to document their legal status.

Local 805 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which over the 
summer began an effort to organize a union among the 900 workers at the 
FreshDirect’s warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, asserts that the 
suspensions are an effort to foil a unionization election scheduled for 
Dec. 22 and 23.

In September, the Teamsters union filed a complaint with the National 
Labor Relations Board and rallied outside FreshDirect’s headquarters, 
accusing the company of labor-relations violations.

In the two-day election later this month, workers are to choose between 
Local 805 and another union, Local 348 of the United Food and Commercial 
Workers, which already represents about 500 drivers, helpers and 
delivery workers at FreshDirect. The warehouse workers can also choose 
not to form a union at all. The company has actively discouraged workers 
from joining the Teamsters.

“It’s right before Christmas,” said Sandy Pope, the president of the 
Teamsters local. “For a food company to do this right now is crazy for 
their business. It’s the busiest time of year. We believe this is a 
union-busting attempt.”

The union knows of about 25 workers who have been suspended and one who 
has been told not to come back, but The Daily News reported today that 
the job cuts could affect as many as 85 workers.

FreshDirect declined a request for an interview, but provided a 
statement from Jim Moore, the company’s senior vice president for 
business affairs. “FreshDirect is cooperating with the I.N.S. in its 
review of employment documentation,” Mr. Moore said in the statement. 
“Additional comment would be inappropriate until the review is completed.”

(The company later clarified that Mr. Moore was referring to the federal 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau in the Department of Homeland 
Security. The Immigration and Naturalization Service ceased to exist in 
2003 after its functions were transferred from the Justice Department.)

Although employers are required to verify that their employees are 
eligible to work in the United States, many companies fail to do so or 
look the other way — a major theme in the current debate over national 
immigration policy.

Ms. Pope said she believed FreshDirect was using the immigration issue 
as a pretext to get rid of workers who are sympathetic to the union.

Ms. Pope said that several of the suspended workers were told that the 
company expected to receive “no match” letters from the Social Security 
Administration, informing the company that the Social Security numbers 
provided by several workers were not legitimate.

But in October, a federal judge in California said the government had 
failed to follow proper procedures for issuing a new rule that would 
have forced employers to fire workers if their Social Security numbers 
could not be verified within three months. The judge blocked the new 
rule from taking effect, granting a victory, for now, to an unusual 
coalition that included the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the United States Chamber 
of Commerce.

Later this evening, Mr. Moore elaborated with the following statement:

     Immigration and Customs Enforcement (”ICE”) recently informed 
FreshDirect that it had been chosen for an I-9 (employment verification 
form) audit and associated review of payroll records. Preparation for 
this administrative review is extremely time consuming, and to the 
degree that employee records must be updated, disruptive to 
FreshDirect’s ongoing operations. In light of an upcoming NLRB election 
among certain of FreshDirect’s employees and the busy holiday meal 
season, the Company asked for the review to be postponed until the New 
Year, but that request was ultimately denied.

     The allegation from one of the unions in the upcoming election that 
FreshDirect invited this burdensome administrative review to affect the 
NLRB election is outrageous. FreshDirect has approximately 500 employees 
who voted for a union last year and who now work under an agreement 
negotiated with the Company; FreshDirect, its unionized employees, and 
the union representing those employees have a good working relationship 
under that agreement. At this point, FreshDirect is intent on 2 things: 
complying with the requirements of federal law with respect to the ICE 
audit and ensuring that its employees know the facts and are given the 
opportunity to participate in the upcoming NLRB election.


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism