Key City Council group meets with Boathouse workers

Dean Poll and his management team have violated federal and state labor laws so often it is almost impossible to keep track. The Hotel Trades Council has documented over 100 cases where the Boathouse has violated the legal rights of its employees to join our union. The Boathouse has also violated New York State labor laws. These circumstances led the union to file an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on January 27.

Soon after the petition was filed, however, the NLRB decided to block the election due to its need to probe all the unfair labor practice charges against the Boathouse. In the meantime, management has continued to violate the law, including a mass firing of 16 of the restaurant's 32 banquet employees. This is just another reason why many at the Hotel Trades Council think Dean Poll may be the worst employer the Union has ever encountered.

While the NLRB considers all the charges against Poll and while the Union prepares for an upcoming rally in Central Park, fired Boathouse workers received a boost from a visit with the New York City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus.

Five of the Boathouse employees fired for union activity appeared at a meeting of the caucus on Monday, March 14. They provided the caucus members with facts about what it is like to be employed at the Boathouse, and the City Council members present responded with words of support.

With City Council member Fernando Cabrera acting as a translator, Alejandra Betancur and Adriana Garcia courageously spoke up about issues such as the theft of banquet gratuities by management, the illegal firing of banquet employees for joining our Union, sexual harassment at the restaurant and other forms of illegal behavior and mistreatment by management. Francisco Lavayen spoke about health and safety issues and the lack of medical coverage. Frankie Palaguachi spoke about the illegal failure of management to pay overtime.

The workers spoke about other issues and readily answered some questions from City Council Members. A summation of the lengthy list of violations of federal, state and local laws was provided to the caucus.

It was obvious that the City Council members were both surprised and dismayed to learn about Boathouse management's illegal behavior, especially because the operation is housed in a building owned by the City of New York in the middle of the most famous public park in the world.

"This kind of illegal behavior will not be tolerated by our Union," Hotel Trades Council President Peter Ward said.

Thumbnail courtesy of Steve Cadman