14
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MAY 5, 2019
MEAT
this month, as union reps
negotiate for better pay
and benefi ts with grocerystore
mogul Benjamin
Levine.
To replace them, owners
brought in temporary,
non-union workers to staff
their meat departments. In
lieu of butchering the beef
on site, the store is now
ordering their steaks precut,
and the union guys
are now handing out fl iers
to customers disparaging
the new product as a mystery,
saying there’s no telling
who sliced it, how it
was inspected, and when it
was packaged.
One local man said he
agrees with the banished
butchers, saying he decided
not to shop at the
Fifth Avenue Key Food
after trying their chicken
breast, which tasted weird
enough to send him to a
Smith Street butcher for
his meat going forward.
“I can’t shop at Key Food
anymore, because of the
meat,” said Fourth Avenue
resident Frankie Perez. “I
tasted it. It’s wrong.”
Union reps claimed that
on Monday they spotted
meat being delivered by
an unrefrigerated Chevy
SUV to a Key Food owned
by Levine in Bensonhurst
— where another lock out
is in full swing — raising
additional concerns about
the Park Slope store as the
meat department workers
remain locked out.
“It’s 50 degrees out, and
meat is sitting in an unrefrigerated
passenger vehicle
in the parking lot,” said
Kelly Egan, executive director
of United Food and
Commercial Workers Local
342.
Current meat department
workers at the Fifth
Avenue Key Food could
not say where their meat
came from, but claimed
it was cut somewhere
in Brooklyn and that it
passed muster with the
federal Agricultural Department,
pointing to
“USDA Approved” stickers
on their pre-packaged
pork chops.
A store manager, who
only gave his name as
John, refused to say where
the meat was purchased or
cut, but refuted the union’s
claim that their meat was
delivered by an unrefrigerated
passenger car.
“They’re all lies, that’s
not true,” he said.
Union negotiators have
been bargaining with
Levine’s reps on behalf of
meat department workers
for more than two years,
demanding that the workers’
health and retirement
benefi ts cut in 2015
be reinstated, and seeking
what they claim is their
fi rst raise in more than
four years.
Owners have retaliated
with fl iers posted throughout
the grocery store,
claiming they’ve always
offered their employees
reasonable benefi ts, and
that the union is lying in
an attempt to turn customers
against them.
“During this time of
contract negotiations, Local
342 has misrepresented
our position on numerous
items in an attempt to
bully us,” the fl iers read.
But workers have felt
some success in their rallies,
and many locals have
shown their support by
taking the business down
the road, according to one
local man.
“I refuse to go in here,
I haven’t gone there in
over a month. It’s not good.
It’s not good for the workers
and its not good for
the neighbors,” said Don
Martin, a retired police
detective residing in Park
Slope.
Messages left for
Levine’s lawyer, Doug Catalano,
were not returned.
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Continued from cover
MYSTERY MEAT: Banished Key Food butcher Freddie Mulé with
fl iers claiming the grocery store’s pre-packaged meat is untrustworthy.
Photo by Colin Mixson