Hot and Crusty Bakery Workers Seal the Deal on Unionization

from YES! Magazine:



After 55 days on the picket line, the workers of the Manhattan restaurant and bakery Hot and Crusty celebrated a precedent-making collective bargaining agreement at a rally and press conference Friday, November 16.

In May the workers voted to form a union, the Hot and Crusty Workers Association, after enduring years of wage theft, unsafe conditions, and verbal harassment from managers. Instead of recognizing the union, however, the restaurant’s former owners shut the store down on August 31, prompting nearly two months of protest that the current agreement brings to an end.

The agreement, which the union’s lawyer Eugene Eisner calls “unheard-of for low-wage, foreign-born workers in the restaurant industry,” was officially announced on October 26. It includes wage increases, paid vacation and sick days, grievance and arbitration procedures, and a union hiring hall.

The store’s owners have promised that the restaurant, located at 63rd Street and 2nd Avenue, will reopen under the new agreement on December 17. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/hot-and-crusty-workers-seal-deal-unionization