NY State Senator Jose Peralta Throws Support Behind Illegally Locked Out Trade Fair Workers at Rally

QUEENS, N.Y. - May 18, 2013 - PRLog -- On Friday, May 17th, New York State Senator and Queens Borough President Hopeful Jose Peralta (D- Jackson Heights) attended a rally, which served as a platform to call upon Farid Jaber, the owner of 9 Trade Fair Supermarkets in Queens, to legally end the now nine week-long lockout of nearly 100 unionized meat workers who are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 342.  The rally, which took place at a Trade Fair Supermarket located in Jackson Heights, New York, consisted of a crowd of over 75 people, which included the locked out meat workers, their families, neighboring labor unions, and concerned citizens.  

After meat workers conducted a brief Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike on the morning of March 13th in response to several alleged abuses committed by the company, including harassment, intimidation, and threats of termination, Trade Fair management locked the workers out despite the workers offering an “unconditional return to work” later that afternoon.  However, due to mounting pressure from the community and elected officials over the past several weeks, Trade Fair began to bring some of the unionized workers back to their jobs.  Unfortunately, in bringing only some of the workers back, Trade Fair is continuing to violate labor laws.  Among the violations Trade Fair is committing include neglecting to return the entire bargaining unit as a whole, changing the store locations of returned workers, unilaterally reducing their hours, and unilaterally cutting their wages.

Since the lockout first began, local elected officials including NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Council Member Daniel Dromm, Council Member Julissa Ferreras, and Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer have all made public appearances on behalf of the locked out workers, but Trade Fair has stubbornly refused to legally end the lockout.  “It’s amazing to us that this company can continue along this illegal path,” said Kate Meckler, UFCW Local 342’s Director of Communications.  “Almost everyone in the community, including most elected officials are on our side, the legally responsible side, but yet this company still refuses to do the right thing.  It’s the height of arrogance and dismissiveness.”    

Joining the growing list of elected officials and community groups calling on Trade Fair to legally end the lockout was New York State Senator Jose Peralta, a Ranking Democrat on the State Senate’s Labor Committee.  Peralta, who recently used his Twitter account to call on Trade Fair management to end the lockout, decided he needed to take further actions to help the meat workers, leading him to attend Friday’s rally.  “I am extremely troubled by the allegations that Trade Fair has engaged in unlawful retaliatory actions toward workers who simply exercised their basic rights as employees,” Peralta said. “I strongly urge Trade Fair to do the right thing and offer all of its workers the opportunity to return to work without conditions, threats, or punitive treatment.”

Currently, Local 342 is awaiting word from the National Labor Relations Board concerning several charges against Trade Fair brought before them, including Unfair Labor Practices that were committed prior to the lockout, as well as several new issues that have arisen during lockout.  “We firmly believe that when all the charges are reviewed, Trade Fair will be held legally responsible for all of the violations they have committed and the workers will get the justice they deserve,” Meckler concluded.