If you are a survivor of child sexual abuse, New York
law allows you to take action against the perpetrator
and institution that protected him or her.
12 COURIER LIFE, MAY 3–9, 2019 PS
BUTCHERS
“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 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 it was delivered
by an unrefrigerated passenger car.
“They’re all lies, that’s not true,” he
BIKE LANES
“I would like it to be a couple feet
wider,” said Eric McClure, chairman
of Community Board 6’s Transportation
Committee. “We should be planning
for the New York City of 10 years
from now, when we’ll have many more
people riding bikes.”
And there’s a concern about illegal,
overnight truck parking that plagues
the thoroughfare through the park, a
perennial issue that city law enforcement
has yet to solve, according to a
member of bike advocacy group Transportation
Alternatives.
“You get a lot of 18 wheeler trucks
that park there, and the city hasn’t offered
any solution for that,” said Dulcie
Canton
“My big issue is the big trucks that
park overnight,” said Stanley Greenberg.
The city’s plans for the Flatbush
Avenue bike lane will be offi cially unveiled
within the coming months at
meetings of both community boards
6 and 9, according to Alana Morales,
a spokeswoman for the Department of
Transportation.
The Flatbush Avenue bike lane will
feature as a key aspect of the city’s
master plan to ring Prospect Park
with protected bike lanes.
TWO SIDES OF THE STORY: Management
posted this fl ier at the Fifth Avenue Key
Food, refuting their employees’ claims.
Photo by Colin Mixson
Prospect Park West is currently
the only roadway bordering the park
with a protected bike lane, but the city
discussed plans for another protected
bike lane on the Ocean Avenue border
at a meeting of the Prospect Park Community
Committee in March, which
will be constructed as part of perimeter
enhance project expected to fi nish
in fall 2021, and will be installed atop a
30-foot-wide sidewalk there.
Flatbush Avenue is currently undergoing
a similar perimeter improvement
project, featuring repaved
sidewalks, along with new benches,
lighting, and fences, which was substantially
delayed after the city’s chosen
contractor suffered serious setbacks,
and at times failing to show up
for work, although the Parks Department
now contends that construction
is back on track and expected to be
completed sometime this summer.
The bike lane project will follow
this fall and is expected to be completed
fairly quickly, with the work
mainly consisting of applying paint to
asphalt, according to Stanley Greenberg,
a member of the Prospect Park
Community Committee.
Locals are still waiting to hear the
city’s plans for Prospect Park Southwest
and Parkside Avenue, which remain
the only roadways bordering the
park where bike lane designs haven’t
been discussed.
Continued from cover
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
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 their
business down the road, said one local.
“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
it’s 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.
Continued from cover