Fired Chicago sandwich workers continue the struggle: Fight for $15!
Filed under: Society and Economy, Unions
“When Snarf’s workers are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!”
“When the working class is under attack? What do we do? Stand up fight back”
The chants rang out at noon on January 8 2014 in the ten degree temperatures left behind by the retreating Polar Vortex. But the bitter cold did not deter fired Chicago Snarf’s workers and their allies in the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago (WOCC) from holding a lively picketline and press conference.
The 14 workers from a River North Chicago Snarfs had all been summarily terminated just 2 days before Christmas in a widely publicized mass firing. The excuse was that the store was to be “remodeled”.
Faced by a storm of bad media publicity, the Colorado-based Snarf’s CEO issued a Christmas Day Facebook apology. He promised that the workers would all receive a week’s severance pay. As of this writing there has been no sign of either the “remodeling” or the promised week’s severance pay. As Snarf’s worker Kevin Brown wryly pointed out,”If you get fired by e-mail, you apparently get apologized to by Facebook.”