Food company workers fired for attempted unionizing

(DIYA TV) — A federal labor agency recently filed a complaint against an Indian food company, alleging the company illegally discriminated against employees after their attempts to unionize.

Deep Foods is the 38th largest New Jersey company in terms of global revenue, and is located, ironically, in Union County. The National Labor Relations Board says the company fired four of its employees after the group joined a workers’ union. An in-house Union-Township judge will hear the case next month, according to NJ.com. 

In its complaint, the NLRB said Deep Foods company executives promised employees promotions if they opted against joining a union, ordered them to report all union activities to management, and threatened to fire any employees who considered or participated in organizing. Representatives from the New Jersey local chapter of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and other advocacy groups met at the company’s corporate headquarters, and delivered a letter to company executives urging them to rehire the displaced workers.

Deep Foods has refused to address the organizers, who have vowed to continue their protests until the company meets their demands. Cesar Suarez, who immigrated from Ecuador to Newark, New Jersey 20 years ago, and was one of the employees named in the complaint, had served the company as a maintenance worker for five years before he was fired with the group. He said that Deep Foods employees were often times forced to work in 120-degree rooms, or were given just one 20-minute break during a 10 or 11-hour shift.

“Things like that, we want to change,” he said. “That’s why we are here.”

Tom Walsh, president of the aforementioned local union, told NJ.com the company’s unfettered response to the employees has been disheartening.

“We’re dealing with a company that’s one of the wealthiest private companies in the state of New Jersey, and they’re doing whatever they can to affect these people’s lives,” he said.

In an email to NJ.com, James E. Patterson, who serves as labor counsel for Deep Foods, said the company denies any and all allegations of illegal and wrongful conduct.