The Justice Will Be Served! Campaign Sponsored
by:
Chinese Staff & Workers Association • National Mobilization
Against Sweatshops • 318 Restaurant Workers Union
December 10, 2007
Dear Friends,
The Justice Will Be Served! Campaign would like to thank you for
your support of striking workers at East Buffet Restaurant. Workers
have been picketing continuously for the last two years. Now we
ask for your support in an upcoming action on December 14th, where
we will hold a rally at 12:00 noon in front of the restaurant at
179 Walt Whitman Road (Rte. 110) in Huntington Station, Long Island
and call for a Boycott of East Buffet's continued unfair labor practices,
stealing the workers' tips and their withheld taxes.
In 2005, East Buffet workers began organizing against being paid
less than $1.00 an hour and tip stealing. Since the union workers'
strike in 2005, East Buffet owners Kan Pat Kong and Susan Kong have
been using Employer Sanctions[1] to hire undocumented workers and
force them to accept inhuman working conditions, cheating both the
workers and the government by not paying taxes. The striking workers
took the Kong family to court two years ago, but justice has not
been served because court proceeding is taking a long time and the
government agencies either lack the will to, or fail to, enforce
the law.
East Buffet is an example of what happens a million times each day
across the U. S. Employer Sanctions has undermined security in our
communities because it gives bosses like the Kongs a tool for expanding
illegal, underground activities and sweatshops. Unscrupulous bosses
now have more incentive and power to hire the underclass of labor
with no rights, being able to evade paying billions of dollars in
taxes, and encouraging the proliferation of identity theft and false
documentation. For instance, the Kongs intentionally hired undocumented
workers, and provided them with false documents or asked them to
go buy some. The Kongs evade the labor law by threatening workers
that if they speak out against illegal working conditions they will
be fired and replaced by other undocumented workers who will submit
to their threats. These kinds of practices allow the Kongs to bring
down the wages and working conditions, hurting both citizen and
undocumented workers.
We are asking you and your organizations to come to the rally and
support the striking workers by demanding the East Buffet reinstate
the workers who stood up for their rights and pay the workers their
back wages and stolen tips. RSVP by calling 212-334-2333. We also
ask you to call your elected official to make government agencies
enforce the labor law and tax law.
Please take a stand in support of the East Buffet workers, and support
our call for repeal of Employer Sanctions, the law that has enslaved
millions of undocumented workers, caused millions of citizens to
lose their job and pay, and cheated the American public out of billions
in taxes. Fight with us to ensure Justice Will Be Served!
Sincerely,
Josephine Lee
JWBS! Campaign Coordinator
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[1] Employer Sanctions is a provision of the Immigration Reform
and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 that called for penalizing employers
that hire undocumented workers, under the guise of protecting American
workers and stopping illegal immigration. In fact, in the last 20
years it has created more incentive for employers to recruit and
hire vulnerable undocumented workers and destroy working and living
conditions for U.S. workers.
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To find out more, check out www.breakthechainsnow.org
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