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Undocumented Workers At Tate's Bake Shop Say They're Being Threatened Ahead Of Union Vote
By
Caroline Lewis
Published Mar 11, 2021
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By
Caroline Lewis
Published Mar 11, 2021
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Employees of Tate’s Bake Shop in Southampton say management at the cookie company is doing everything in its power to prevent workers from unionizing. That includes hiring an anti-union consultant who has told the mostly undocumented workforce of about 450 employees that if they unionize, they will get fired or worse--deported.
Workers were told that if they unionize, the union is going to look into their immigration documents and that if they don’t have the proper documents they’re going to be “sent back,” says Anthony Miranti, a delegate with the Eastern States Joint Board of the International Union of Allied, Novelty and Production Workers.
“We’ve assured them and given them literature right off the website of the federal government showing this is not the case,” Miranti adds. Under the National Labor Relations Act, undocumented workers have the same organizing rights as everyone else.
But people are still very scared, says a sanitation worker at Tate’s who arrived in the U.S. 11 years ago from the Dominican Republic. He says he’s in the U.S. legally but still asked not to be identified because he fears backlash from management for supporting the union.
“People are scared to talk,” he said of his colleagues. “They’re scared to express themselves.”
Organizers say Tate’s hired California-based labor relations consultant Carlos Flores, whose LinkedIn profile advertises that he can run campaigns to “assist in staying ‘Union Free.’” The sanitation employee says people who arrived from California hold frequent meetings with workers and try to keep people who they think “don’t support the company” from attending.
Tate’s, which was founded in Southhampton in 2000 and named the top-rated chocolate chip cookie by Consumer Reports a decade later, was bought by snack giant Mondelez International in 2018 for $500 million. The brand’s sales had quadrupled in the five years leading up to the acquisition. Other Mondelez workers, including those who make Oreos and Ritz crackers, are represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers union.
A spokesperson for Mondelez told News12, “Any allegation that the company has violated any aspect of the National Labor Relations Act is untrue. Tate’s prides itself on treating all its employees with respect, and we have fostered over many years an inclusive, supportive, caring work environment and culture with our employees.”
The sanitation worker at Tate’s earns $16 an hour, slightly more than New York’s minimum wage, but says he didn’t get a raise for five years. He says he wants to unionize because the company’s HR Department doesn’t stand up for employees. “I believe we need to be represented by someone because the company doesn’t represent us,” he said.
He added that talk of unionizing predated the pandemic. But employees at Tate’s first approached the Eastern States Joint Board in the summer of last year, according to union delegates.
“We were in the heart of the pandemic at that time and they didn’t know any of the rules that applied to them,” said Miranti. “Will they get paid if they have to self-quarantine? How do they get safety equipment? They were telling us about how they’re all at minimum wage and needed more paid time off and there was just nobody to listen to their problems.”
The NLRB will send out ballots for employees to vote on whether to unionize on March 26th, and they will have until April 21st to send them back.
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Tate's bake shop
Caroline Lewis
Caroline Lewis is on the health care beat for WNYC and Gothamist. She has covered COVID, a nurses' strike, the overdose crisis and New York’s marijuana legalization effort, and spent a year investigating patients' medical bills. She always wants to hear about how everyday New Yorkers experience the health system. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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