Local Pastors Join Rally for Fair Pay in Bushwick

By Marie Elena Giossi

Marie Elena Giossi Photo 

From the pulpit to the streets: Despite drenching downpours last Sunday afternoon, Msgr. James Kelly, pastor of St. Brigid’s Church, Bushwick, joined a rally in defense of Latino immigrant workers who claim to have been mistreated by a

local supermarket chain.

Catholic clergy and parishioners from St. Joseph Patron, St. Brigid’s, St. Barbara’s and St. Martin of Tours churches in Bushwick joined nearly 100 Latino residents and members of Make the Road by Walking Sunday afternoon July 29 to march and rally for immigrant workers who claim to have been exploited by an area supermarket.

Associated Supermarket, located at 229 Knickerbocker Ave., has allegedly been overworking and underpaying some employees, mostly Latino immigrants from this low-income community, for several years.

“Over 40 people have filed affidavits” claiming various labor abuses against this store, according to Andrew Friedman, co-executive director of Make the Road by Walking, a Bushwick-based immigrant advocacy organization that spearheaded this rally. “We estimate that they’re owed a little over $2 million in back wages.”

Friedman said those who have filed affidavits claim they have received less than the minimum wage, insufficient wages for overtime and/or no payment at all.

About one year ago, the organization says it approached store management asking for the workers’ back wages to be paid. When the store refused to comply, the group filed a complaint on the workers’ behalf with the New York Attorney General’s Office. The store is still under investigation.

Locally, the group launched a community boycott and last month, it brought the fight to Long Island, where a protest was held outside the Associated Supermarket corporation’s headquarters.

However, according to Martin Duram, store manager for the last three years, the allegations are not true.
“Everyone here is paid fair wages. Everyone gets sick time and vacation time. They get Christmas bonuses too,” Duram said in a telephone interview Monday morning.

He says a local organization approached his store a year ago about letting workers form a union. He refused and he believes that his business is being targeted as a result.

Duram, a Catholic, said he was disappointed that Catholic clergy members took part in the rally without speaking to him first.

“They’re (Make the Road by Walking) using the church as a political way of getting a union into my store,” he said. “If we are getting the Catholic church involved, if I am doing something wrong, then the church should come in and see. … Come and speak to employees… investigate first and then decide the truth.”

Duram is asking for a meeting with Msgr. James Kelly, pastor of St. Brigid’s parish, who spoke at the rally. He explained that if his workers want a union, he will give them the opportunity to vote for one. But he will not allow outsiders to come in and decide the vote for them.
He also pointed out, “Nobody from my store was outside protesting.”

Fear of dismissal or retaliation prevented the workers from joining the rally says Edwin Tello, a parishioner from St. Barbara’s. Through interpreter and fellow parishioner, Giorgio Gonella, Tello said he has three friends who work in the store but were “too afraid” to march because they have families to feed and cannot afford to lose their jobs.

Passing thunderstorms didn’t stop Tello, Gonella and others from protesting on the workers’ behalf. They held banners and signs as they started walking from Make the Road by Walking’s Grove St. office around 1 p.m.

Representatives from Teamsters Union Local 805, IWW’s Foodstuff Workers Industrial Union 460, the UFCW’s Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the Ecuadorian United Front marched in solidarity.

Chanting “Obreros unidos jamas seran vencidos!” (Workers united will never be defeated.) the crowd moved along bustling Knickerbocker Ave., and arrived at the supermarket on the corner of Starr St. by 2 p.m.
“Viva la causa!” cried Msgr. Kelly, who addressed the crowd in Spanish.

He expressed his support for the workers and spoke about The Tablet’s July 14th editorial, titled Work and Justice for All, regarding Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala’s endorsement of the right of workers to organize themselves by forming unions.

Later, Msgr. Kelly told a reporter, “The Church position has always been in favor of (workers) organizing. The Tablet’s editorial expresses that. We can never forget about social justice. The Church has to be on the forefront of this issue. … Social justice issues are part of our tradition as Church.”

As a commitment to that tradition and the Church’s mission of upholding human dignity, both Msgr. Kelly and Father Mariano Cisco, CS, pastor of St. Joseph Patron, brought that message from their respective pulpits to the streets.

Msgr. Kelly also expressed his support for Make the Road by Walking’s efforts on behalf of immigrants, noting that the Church could learn from this example.

Make the Road by Walking is a grassroots group that was founded in St. Barbara’s church basement in 1997.

No longer affiliated with the parish, the group has become a vocal advocate for immigrant employees at the small, non-union chain stores along Knickerbocker Ave. and Bushwick on the whole.

These activists have fought for justice at five stores on this commercial strip and won workers almost $3 million in back wages over the past decade, according to Friedman. At one store, the group helped over 100 employees organize into a union, and win medical benefits and fair wages.

“I would like to see the supermarket owners stand up, recognize they’re doing something wrong and make reparations,” said St. Joseph Patron parishioner Yolanda Coca, who’s originally from the Dominican Republic.

As a paralegal for the Bushwick Housing Independence Project, Coca says she’s tired of seeing “immigrant people getting abused. It’s not fair. We have to target everyone taking advantage of our people. Our people deserve respect.”