Hummus Trouble! Slope Supermarkets Ditch Hummus Company That Abused Workers' Rights

Buying local isn’t always the right thing to do, according to a local branch of the Green Party.

The Park Slope Greens have convinced yet another local market to pull Sonny & Joe’s hummus from its shelves, in support of workers who say they were fired by the product’s Williamsburg-based manufacturer, Flaum Appetizing Corp., after they stood up to more than a decade of abuses.

When the employees tried to get their jobs back and recover lost wages, they were told that because they were undocumented they weren’t entitled to anything, despite their having worked for Flaum for years.

Royal Supermarket, a bodega on Eighth Avenue between 14th and 15th streets, is the third Park Slope grocer to drop the chickpea spread, joining the Park Slope Food Coop and Associated Supermarket. Citywide, 11 stores have stopped carrying the product, including Food Emporium.

In August 2007, employees began to rise up against the kosher foods wholesaler – suing the company for failing to pay the proper overtime rate, and beginning unionizing efforts. A group of 16 Latino workers say they were fired en masse when they organized a strike to protest the discharge of a colleague who was participating in an investigation of unfair labor practices.

The National Labor Relations Board found in 2008 that Flaum had indeed been unfair to its workers; it said Flaum interrogated employees about their union sympathies, threatened to cause immigration problems for union supporters, and refused to reinstate the discharged workers unless they abandoned the union.

Court documents refer to clandestine meetings in the company’s pickle room, in which owner Moshe Grunhut tried to make deals with the employees: “I’m going to give you everything you need, but I don’t want to hear anything about the union."

The NLRB ruled that the workers must be reinstated and made whole in terms of lost earnings. Their overtime lawsuit is in federal court, and they say they’re entitled to $260,000 in lost wages because of the discharges.

Flaum, however, has argued that it was not in the wrong when it fired the workers because they were illegal aliens, and so aren’t entitled to reinstatement or back pay, thus dragging out the litigation.

“We had people who worked there for 9 years, 11 years, 13 years, and there was never any problem when they were working there six days a week regarding immigration. Anyone interested in human rights and equality should be appalled at Flaum’s conduct," said Daniel Gross, director of the nonprofit Brandworkers International.

Flaum owner Moshe Grenhut could not be reached for comment.

The Greens, which are working with Brandworkers and the NYC Industrial Workers of the World, are campaigning for a "Flaum Free Park Slope," as part of a larger campaign that aims to boycott the company’s products wherever they are sold. Park Slope Greens member Joseph Sanchez says they’ve found Sonny & Joes in a few more stores in the neighborhood and plan to approach them about the boycott.