BOYCOTT
NEW SILVER PALACE
BURY SWEATSHOPS
BOYCOTT
NEW
SILVER
PALACE
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FOR MORE INFO,
CALL NMASS:
718 633 -9757
212 619-8081
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PICKET SCHEDULE
Monday
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Saturday
5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Sunday
11:00 am-1:00 pm
5:30 pm- 7:30 pm
SINCE AUGUST 26, 1997, restaurant workers, garment workers and young people have been picketing the NEW SILVER PALACE RESTAURANT to fight the growing sweatshop economy which threatens many of our communities.
THE NEW SILVER PALACE'S brazen abuses of workers' rights, presently under investigation by the National Labor Relation's board, include:
- Firing workers who are organizing for decent work hours and livable wages
- Demanding that workers pay up to $5000 to work at the restaurant
- Managers stealing tips
- Sexual discrimination, e.g. telling women they are "too old and ugly" to continue working.
-Manipulating bankruptcy to cheat workers out of $1.5 million dollars in back wages compensation..
-Blacklisting, harassment and physical violence against workers and youth.
THIS IS MORE THAN an attack on workers at the NEW SILVER PALACE; it is an attack on all workers in the community. As the area's second largest restaurant, the NEW SILVER PALACE plays a central role in Chinatown's sweatshop economy, and has consideralble influence in local affairs. Other sweatshop bosses are watching the current struggle very closely. The bosses know that a victory for the workers at New Silver Palace could be a powerful example for the rest of the community.
THE CURRENT BATTLE AT THE NEW SILVER PALACE is the latest chapter
in a two decade long struggle, spearheaded by the 318 Restaurant Workers Union to transform conditions for workers in the restaurant and throughout Chinatown. 318 was formed in 1980 when workers protested against the management's illegal practice of stealing tips. 318 won a 40-hour workweek, medical benefits, job security, overtime pay, sick days and holiday pay -- an unprecedented achievement which provides Chinatown's thousands of restaurant and garment workers workers with a souorce of hope. Now, the NEW SILVER PALACE'S management, with the help of the local restaurant and garment bosses association and the local press, has moved to roll back this workers' victory and break the 318 union.
BRUTAL WORKING CONDITIONS and discrimination in hiring and firing extend far beyond Chinatown. In a time when work hours ar incrasing without bound, job security is scarce, and wages are being slashed, working people in many different communities feel helpless. The struggle at the NEW SILVER PALACE boldly asserts the rights we all have as workers.
The NATIONAL MOBILIZATION AGAINST SWEATSHOPS [NMASS], along with the 318 RESTAURANT WORKERS UNION and the CHINESE STAFF AND WORKERS ASSOCIATION, has been mobilizing broadly do draw a line at the NEW SILVER PALACE against the spread of sweatshop conditions.
Join people from around the city to build a movement for social and economic justice throughout our city.
The National Mobilization Against Sweatshops [NMASS] is a grassroots educational effort by and for working people and youth of all backgrounds and communities. We are an organization dedicated to fighting for the 40-hour workweek and an eight hour day. The issue of control over time affects
us in a myriad of ways. Everyone should be entitled to the right to a 40-hour workweek at a living wage whether they are underemployed, unemployed, or overworked. NMASS is committed to buyilding a new national labor movement aimed at fundamentally transforming the sweatshop system according to the needs and human rights of working people. So come and join the fight to eradicate the sweatshop economy as we know it.