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P’ Slope Key Food workers locked out amid negotiations over slashed benefi ts
BY COLIN MIXSON
These workers are being
treated like a piece of meat.
Butchers and meat wrappers
at the Fifth Avenue Key
Food in Park Slope have been
locked out of work for more
than 10 days amid ongoing
union negotiations with the
store’s owner, who has replaced
his meat men with temporary
workers as he seeks
to eliminate their existing
health and retirement benefi
ts, according to the out-ofwork
workers.
The meat vendors have not
been idle during their forced
suspension, and the scorned
Key Food staff have placed
infl atable pigs and rats outside
the market in an effort
to expose the boss’s cutthroat
tactics to their longtime
customers.
The dramatic sidewalk display
is necessary for the workers
to get their jobs back and
support their families, they
said.
“I got my wife and two
daughters, my granddaughter
and grandson, and I have
a mortgage to pay,” said Alexander
Torres, a Key Food
butcher for 21 years. “It’s not
easy.”
The Park Slope workers
are among some 40 employees
that grocery store magnate
Benjamin Levine — who owns
four Kings County Key Foods,
including stores in Sunset
Park, Greenpoint, and Bensonhurst,
in addition to the
Park Slope market — kicked
LOCKED OUT: Key Food employees, from left, Freddy Mule, Bonnie Alarcon, and Gilberto Ferreras protesting
the bosses’ decision to slash their benefi ts. Photo by Colin Mixson
to the curb on April 7, in retaliation
to workers picketing
the store during their lunch
hour the day before, an action
they undertook in response to
the owner failing to show at
several bargaining meetings.
Reps for United Food and
Commercial Workers Local
342 have been bargaining
with Levine for more
than two years, trying to prevent
the annihilation of their
members’ health and retirement
benefi ts, in addition to
netting the workers a modest
pay increase after four years
without any raises, according
to a member of the union’s
negotiating team.
“They’re actively trying
to take away stuff the employees
already had,” said Lisa
O’Leary, secretary treasurer
for UFCW Local 342. “These
people haven’t had a raise in
four years. They’re not being
greedy.”
The butchers, who have
been replaced by temporary
workers amid the lockout,
have urged customers to shop
elsewhere during the lockout.
Many shoppers have
heeded the call and sought
their groceries elsewhere,
but older Park Slopers tend
to ignore their pleas for lack
of any nearby alternative,
according to Torres.
“Some people, especially
old, people walk in,” he said.
“They say they don’t have
anywhere else to go.”
Nobody wants to get back
into Key Food more than the
locked-out staffers, who described
the crushing stress of
unpaid bills and looming rent
deadlines.
“It hurts so bad, to be
treated like this — I’m a human
being,” said Leslie Callier,
who has worked as a meat
wrapper at Key Food for more
than three decades.
“I’m terribly stressed out. I
can’t sleep,” the more than 30-
year employee added. “I don’t
know how I’m going to pay the
rent. It’s killing me.”
Levine could not be
reached for comment by press
time on Wednesday.
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