El Hormiguero: Los Cabricanecos One Year In
Howdy Comrades! ðŸ¤
Here’s your quick NYC labor updates, brought to you by El Hormiguero, stay organizing.Â
We joined Los Cabricanecos on Friday, April 14 at 139 Tompkins Ave at the clandestine HQ of Best Super Clean/ISK group (B.S.). This was a large rally where CUNY student groups, Workers Assemble Against Racism (WAAR), Youths Against Sweatshops, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and ourselves joined the workers to deliver a message to the boss. The workers along with Rabbi Moskowitz sent a public message to the bosses of B.S., ‘Stop the retaliation, provide safety gear, and end the unfair treatment’. A message the workers have been pushing for more than a year since the campaign started in May 2nd 2022.
The campaign has had successes, such as forming a workplace safety committee. The committee require management to sit with the workers and discuss and implement new safety measures at the workplace. This led to the provision of safety gear and tools, which the workers desperately needed. Not too long after, B.S. gave company-wide raises, but only to workers who had not participated in the organizing efforts, leaving all of the 40 Cabricanecos out of the wage increase. So the workers called them out claiming unfair treatment, justly so. B.S. then began refusing to meet with the workers, even with the workplace safety committee. The workers began holding rallies to try to persuade the boss to meet with them. The boss of B.S. reacted by pulling and shoving one of his contractors out of a van to force him to counter the story of the workers. The contractor refused to answer since he is an independent contractor and does not work with the Cabricanecos. Furious, the boss ran away into his pearly white Mercedes SUV and sped away, nearly crashing into a garbage truck in his speedy departure. The Cabricanecos how vowed to continue holding rallies until their demands are met. The community seems to be of the same mind. I hope we can continue to count on your support.