NATASHA DEL TORO: Workers unite deli in Manhattan, fighting for fair wages and safer working conditions.
(Speaking in Spanish) MAN: Undocumented workers have the right to organize.
DEL TORO: Can they stand up to the powerful corporate owners or will they be deported as undocumented immigrants?
(Speaking in Spanish) DEL TORO: The Hand that Feeds, on America ReFramed.
♪ PEOPLE: Four, three, two, one!
♪ Come on!
♪ (cheering) (speaking Spanish) NPR REPORTER: A study released yesterday tells a very bleak story about the way American business routinely treats low-wage workers.
Employees are regularly paid less than the minimum wage.
CHRIS HAYES: What you're seeing is a massive expansion at the bottom of low-paying, largely service-sector jobs, and a real decimation of middle-class jobs in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
AMY GOODMAN: Inequality in Manhattan rivals parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Why are you so excited, guys?
- Because we're going to the park!
- Oh, yeah?
NPR ANNOUNCER: Immigrant labor, legal and otherwise, is nothing short of vital to the inner workings of most New York City restaurants.
MAN ON RADIO: Immigration is good for employers.
Keeps wages down.
Immigrants are less likely to complain about their working conditions.
KEN NASH: Meanwhile workers from Hot & Crusty bakeries approached the Laundry Worker Center.
Gonzalo, tell us about Hot & Crusty.
I thought it was, like, a corner store or something.
Apparently it's a very large enterprise.
MIMI ROSENBERG: Are you a baker?
Is that what you do?
JIM ÉNEZ: No, I work in the deli.
I take care of the customers.
I prepare sandwich, salads.
NASH: What's happening at your location?
L ÓPEZ: The manager of the company is a tricky person, you know?
JIM ÉNEZ: They didn't pay the minimum wage.
They pay, like, five dollars per hour.
Also we don't get a break.
We spoke with the manager.
In his answer he said, "You want to make a little more problem?
I'm gonna call immigration."
So that's why... one of the big points.
So that's why we tried to change the workplace over there.
L ÓPEZ: And the company, they are very upset, but they have to... JIM ÉNEZ: But they don't have choice.
NPR ANNOUNCER: Membership in private-sector labor unions has plummeted in recent decades, but in its place, the number of alternative labor groups has exploded.
BEN DICTOR: My first impressions about Mahoma was that he was sort of shy and very humble.
You could see that his coworkers respected him, and that they followed his lead.
And I think maybe sometimes the soft-spoken leaders are the most dangerous ones.
Gonzalo was ready for a fight.
He was really the iron fist to Mahoma's velvet glove.
Absolutely undocumented workers have the right to organize under the National Labor Relations Act.
There's no question.
Employees, the term "employees," includes undocumented workers.
Where New York gives us the advantage, New York has the Wage Theft Prevention Act that protects workers' right to receive minimum wage and overtime.
We didn't go into this thinking this was just a wage-and-hour lawsuit.
We sat and we talked about the conditions at Hot & Crusty, and we started organizing.
VIRGILIO AR ÁN: A leader always is in the front, leading by example.
You have to be calling everyone every single day and saying what is happening, having a real conversation.
So we're going to be doing our roleplays, and you will try to recruit me.
Who's going to be the first person?
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: Can I sit with you if you don't mind?
AR ÁN: Of course you can sit with me.
- Yeah, sure, okay.
How do you feel today-- you feel good today?
- Yeah, I feel good today.
- You don't like to shake hands?
- No, I don't like to shake hands.
I'm eating at this moment.
They give you pickles?
- I'm sorry?
- They gave you pickles?
Because they didn't give pickles to me.
- Are you selling a product?
Are you selling... - No, I don't sell anything.
- So why are you coming to bother me?
- I'm not trying to bother you.
We're brothers.
We're Latinos who speak Spanish.
AR ÁN: An organizer is a strategist.
A visionary.
Our goal is basically to have a social movement-- transformative organizing, to really transform, to revolutionize our society.
DEMOCRACY NOW REPORTER: We turn now to an issue that's gained increasing prominence in the last year: increasing inequality in the United States.
RT REPORTER: What started as a small camp of demonstrators in New York City's financial district grew to a nationwide political movement.
But after the militarized police crackdowns on protestors, the media coverage died down.
AR ÁN: We know that a law is for the master-- it's a master tool.
We know that they are using it at their disposal.
And we need to be looking for other innovative ways.
And this means we're asking support from the community.
PHIL ARNONE: You said there's going to be actions coming up starting tomorrow?
ARNONE: All right, are there any other questions for the Laundry Worker folks?
All right, so we'll all be out there at 63rd and 3rd Avenue tomorrow, right?
L ÓPEZ: Hi, sir.
How are you doing?
Some information about Hot & Crusty?
Hello sir, how are you doing?
Things are good, yeah, yeah.
You know we always come out, represent.
Hi, miss-- how you doing?
Oh, so you all is... - Activists.
- You all is the bad guys, protesting.
- No, we're the good guys We're bringing change to the place.
JANICE: I understand.
Hi.
Support Hot & Crusty workers trying to organize?
Ma'am, if you live in the community...
I started out in the service industry, catering.
That was my first job.
And I can remember at that age thinking how horrible this job was.
And the treatment was horrible.
But I was a young white girl.
And my treatment was nothing even close to the treatment of the back of the house.
That's really how I got into labor issues.
No, it's even more helpful if you still patronize them and you say, you know, "We know what's going on, we're from the community, and we support the workers' right to organize."
Okay, have a nice day.
L ÓPEZ: I like the country music.
And I like how sounds the banjo.
AR ÁN: Their wages were stolen.
And look at how the police is just joking with the owners.
The system doesn't work for poor people.
DIEGO IBAÑEZ: First you just hand out flyers, right?
Then, like, you start doing, like, better, like, maybe, like, bigger rallies, maybe a march.
Eventually you start going to things like a strike, right?
Eventually the workers could, like, walk off, or we can, like, shut it down, take it over.
If they don't hear the workers, then that's when you start escalating.
- Okay.
The company was willing to come to the table to discuss issues from the past in terms of paying unpaid wages and overtime that the workers were owed.
But the workers put forward demands that would require substantive changes in the workplace-- changes in the terms and conditions of their employment.
MARKETPLACE REPORTER: Here's a piece of news that odds are won't surprise you.
Union membership is down.
WOMAN ON RADIO: Life is a meritocracy.
You work really hard and you create something, which is, you know, directly opposite unions.
REPORTER: Unions seem kind of irrelevant.
How are you doing?
- I'm sorry-- the voting closed at 7:15.
The voting is closed.
It is too late, too late to vote.
- No speak English.
Yeah, I don't speak Spanish.
It's too late to vote.
It closed at 7:15, okay?
You're supposed to vote by 7:15.
- I don't speak Spanish.
Go speak to your steward.
You don't vote here.
There's no voting here.
- Okay.
Yeah, could you tell them I'm not the bad guy?
You better tell them you told me to do that.
You don't take no for an answer.
Okay, you just don't take no for an answer.
ELIZABETH L ÓPEZ: I work as a home health aid.
The pay is not too good.
I have to work a lot of hours so that we can make ends meet.
Right now, Mahoma is out of the house a lot.
I feel like he doesn't have to be in every single action or every single meeting.
I go to a Pentecostal church.
Our pastor would say that now, you know, at the end times, a lot of movements are going to pop out of nowhere, and not all the movements are good.
When Mahoma told me that he had Occupy Wall Street helping him out, I didn't know what to think.
And I'm afraid that he might get arrested, he might get deported, I might get that phone call that, you know, "I'm not going to come home, because this happened or that happened."
RACHEL LEARS: It's a march for International Workers Day.
Good morning, everyone!
PROTESTERS: Good morning everyone!
- In this building!
PROTESTERS: In this building!
AR ÁN: He hired a consultant firm to scare the workers.
PROTESTERS: The workers!
We've got hundreds of people here, which we actually didn't expect, to get a turnout that big.
People have been really loud, they've been really engaged.
- Get a job, you commies.
- Thank you, sir-- I take that as an honor.
We are unstoppable, another world is possible!
MAN: We are the union!
The people's union!
MOHIT: Immigrant activists have organized for May Day in New York City for years.
We need them to stop the deportations!
- Stop the deportations!
For those within our movement who are undocumented, the risk is very high for them.
MOHIT: We all hate the police state!
- We all hate the police state!
- But that doesn't mean we can't protect our community!
The Hot & Crusty campaign is part of a larger movement that's been growing in the U.S. and it's something that can't be ignored.
It can't be stressed enough how critical it is to organize low-wage industries.
DICTOR: You're constantly confronted with people who tell you that it's impossible.
These are jobs with high turnover, these are jobs with vulnerable workers.
But by raising the lowest bar, we really push everything above it.
MOHIT: For so long, the American people believed low-wage jobs were for illegal immigrants or teenagers.
The reality of the U.S. economy is that this is the future of our economy.
Keep marching, keep fighting.
We're gonna eat the one percent!
DICTOR: We're here at 26 Federal Plaza, which is the building that houses the National Labor Relations Board, where today's union election is being held for the Hot & Crusty Workers Association.
But it's also the home of Immigration Enforcement.
MOHIT: The workers had the chance to settle.
The attorneys from the other side are so worried about this election they're basically dangling money in front of the workers to say, "Listen, this can go away."
DICTOR: How did it go?
JIM ÉNEZ: Good, good, very good.
DICTOR: The likelihood of winning an election and getting a first contract in a situation like Hot & Crusty is so small, most people don't try.
ROSANNA AR ÁN: We are very positive.
So I think we're going to win.
Yes.
DICTOR: Virgilio, relax.
Okay.
Oh, my... okay.
Stop freaking out, because it's not productive.
I'm serious, like... MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: You feel the stress in the... no?
SARAH WOO: I'm anxious to see the result.
NLRB EMPLOYEE: Six.
Seven, eight.
Nine, ten, 11, 12.
Six, seven, eight (applause and cheers) (cheering) MOHIT: Beautiful thing.
A beautiful thing, from start to finish.
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: Another reason to celebrate, that's because Ben finished the lawyer school.
And now he's going to be the best lawyer.
We have to say an hurrah to him.
Thousands of people graduate from law school every year in this city alone.
Nobody wins elections like you guys just won.
That never happens.
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: Yeah, that's great.
DICTOR: Cheers, union boss.
You never have more power than that as a worker in this country.
He has to negotiate with you.
DICTOR: A small independent union, it's free from a lot of the bureaucracy that plagued the bigger unions.
They are also free to explore maybe alternative tactics.
There is no guarantee that anything substantively will change.
That's going to require an ongoing struggle that goes beyond the election itself.
AR ÁN: We have eight days.
I agree with you, based on the stuff we've seen, that they make enough money and they have enough assets to pay the rent.
We believe they do.
It's an excuse.
We have a great thing here which is basically Occupy Wall Street.
Seriously, this is going to be a historic event.
DICTOR: So I don't know where everybody else left off with our campaign at Hot & Crusty.
The workers, at a meeting on Thursday, voted to take direct action, and they want to occupy the workplace on the 31st, on the day that they close.
We can get people who are arrestable inside that building with a certain amount of workers.
MOHIT: At the same time, I don't want a mob of Occupy activists showing up that have no connection to the labor movement whatsoever, and they just want to take radical action just to take radical action.
IBAÑEZ: But this is, like, an opportunity to be actually part of something that really matters.
ARNONE: You're right.
You know, everyone else is like, "Oh, yeah, let's go create a (bleep) spectacle outside Bank of America, let's go create a spectacle in the goddamn financial district again.
Spectacles are easy-- they're shows.
What happens when the show's over?
Everyone goes home, you know?
And this is different.
IBAÑEZ: We're actually asking for a real demand here, are we not?
MOHIT: I just want to treat this with care.
The majority of these workers are undocumented-- they can lose everything.
And so they should be leading the struggle, and we should be taking their lead, is my point-- not a bunch of kids.
This is their struggle-- they can give the (bleep) orders.
DICTOR: At zero hour, the company decided to offer the workers a deal-- an opportunity for the shop to remain open so long as the workers were prepared to make just enormous concessions in negotiating their collective bargaining agreement.
There aren't a lot of legal remedies in a case where an employer decides to just close up shop and leave to avoid negotiating a contract.
MOHIT: Our sense, Mahoma's sense, is this is all a sham.
And so we're just going to move forward tomorrow with what we planned, which is to take direct action in the workplace.
DICTOR: I mean, what happens when you have a group of workers who do everything by the book, they win all the way, and then the boss just finds a way to screw them over anyway?
Who's ready?
All right, let's go, let's go.
This is for responsible citizens, so you can look in the camera and say, "I support worker rights."
- I support workers' rights.
- All right.
There you go.
- But, but, the economy is very bad right now.
I mean, everyone has to compromise.
I'm sure the workers still want to work here.
I've met the owner, and he's a very nice man.
- Right, the workers do want to work here, but the guy wants to close the store.
DIANA O: My boss is hiding.
We are scared, but this is worth it.
PLAINCLOTHES OFFICER: Excuse me.
MOHIT: Mark, so the cops just got here.
So let me actually...
I'm going to call you right back.
- Let's get some units over here.
Take all the tape off.
Let's see who did that.
IBAÑEZ: Mic check.
PROTESTERS: Mic check!
IBAÑEZ: The cops are here.
PROTESTERS: The cops are here!
IBAÑEZ: We're gonna leave on our own terms.
PROTESTERS: We're gonna leave on our own terms!
PROTESTERS: ♪ Solidarity forever ♪ Solidarity forever.
PASSERBY: This is all... MARTY GOODMAN: If it wasn't for the labor movement, you wouldn't even have half the laws you got now.
PROTESTERS: ♪ The union makes us strong.
♪ FELICITO TAPIA: The cops, they got union?
Why the workers can't get union?
AR ÁN: We should be... we should be asking that.
MOHIT: If the NYPD wasn't paying you properly, or if anything happened to you and the community rallied behind you, you would appreciate that, wouldn't you?
You would.
- Yeah, but they don't.
I know that for a fact.
- I know, and that's what's wrong.
This is what's right.
You guys should be supporting this.
You're workers.
Mahoma!
(no voice) MICHAEL BELT: Refusing to negotiate with immigrant workers.
This is (bleep).
DICTOR: The NYPD, what are they being used for?
To break up the job action of a couple dozen activists trying to keep a profitable business open and jobs for the workers who are employed there.
I know this has to be illegal!
(laughing) MOHIT: Officer, okay, just watch out for my wrists.
POLICE OFFICER: We will.
Listen, we don't want a scene, okay?
All right?
Don't play games, okay?
MOHIT: We'll be back!
We'll be back!
24-hour picket!
24-hour picket!
Maybe starting Monday you could serve coffee.
You buy coffee, you charge a little bit maybe, or have it for free.
People come by, and you explain to people why you're out in the street.
(salsa music playing) C'mon, we have coffee, we've got bagels!
DICTOR: If bagels don't make us popular on the Upper East Side, I don't know what will.
I've been living in the neighborhood for two and a half years.
I've been going to Hot & Crusty every single day.
And these guys work seven days a week, okay?
They do overtime, they work overnight.
The fact is they should be paid for the hours they worked.
I don't care if they are undocumented.
CUSTOMER: This is where I have my coffee in the morning and I can't anymore.
So I'm mad as hell!
Every time we have a fight we lose-- this time we gotta win!
Victory for the Hot & Crusty workers!
Yo, you need to open up Crusty's.
I need to get my lunch.
Pay your workers more money, you bum.
This is a problem when you talk to union guys-- "Oh, they're taking our jobs, they should go back to where they came from."
If they would have had that attitude back in 1904 when my grandmother came here from Ireland, I wouldn't be here.
GOODMAN: New York is a union town.
No way it's gonna fly.
We're gonna fight.
(horn blaring) (cheering) I'm dancing.
- He's dancing.
(cheering) Oh, my God.
Now we're all liberated.
You wanna get rich?
Go to work.
Don't take a day off.
I've never taken a day off.
I can prove I work seven days a week.
I've had...
I hire over 150 people.
That's excellent.
I make Air Force and Navy leather jackets for the government.
- So you do work for military people, and you make money off that, you get government contracts.
- Right, right, right, I do everything.
I'm not opposed to, and I don't think a lot of people here are opposed to, but you don't make a business, you don't do all that stuff without a little help.
- What little help?
Go to a bank and borrow money.
- Not everybody can borrow money.
Have you ever heard of redlining?
I grew up in Harlem.
You think people just willy nilly give us money up there?
- I've succeeded in life multiple times.
Only hard work gets there.
Go on, get a business, rent a store... And we appreciate your suggestions.
We're gonna take it.
And if you can... if you can support us, because you know... because you know how hard... - I am supporting you!
I just gave you more knowledge than you would have gotten in your college.
RESTAURANT OWNER: It's horrible what's happening to business owners in this city.
It's driving people... it's driving people out of the city to open businesses.
- Dude, you are crazy!
- No, you're crazy.
Listen, I own restaurants, so I know.
You don't own a business, so you don't know what you're talking about.
Yesterday we met with the attorney for a group of investors who were interested in operating a Hot & Crusty out of 1201 Second Avenue.
They are clearly petrified by the ongoing actions here.
We live in a brand world, you know.
I mean, people go to Hot & Crusty.
It's a thing in New York City.
And you start challenging that name, and the pressure is on.
MOHIT: Where did he come from, what's his background, you know?
We don't know anything about him.
Do you know what he looks like?
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: He looks like from TV show, something like that.
He's a huge man.
He looks nice.
- A big, huge man?
- Hey, hey.
How are you doing, Mr. Anthony?
ANTHONY ILUZZI: What's going on here today?
- Good.
Like I told you before, we are not troublemakers.
We are very good workers, but in the same time, the community, they want to know what's the future of the workers.
- The future is to get it open.
We're gonna do a little renovation inside, and all the old employment's coming back, everybody.
- Okay, so that's amazing for us.
ANTHONY ILUZZI: I'm very excited.
I can't wait to get in there and work with everybody.
I really am.
Unions are new for me.
I've never dealt with unions before, but they seemed pretty easy at the negotiating tables, and to bring all the old employees back is a benefit to Hot & Crusty.
So that wasn't a big issue for me.
Everybody get in, close.
I'll see you.
Thank you.
MOHIT: Sounds like he's genuine.
But once we start to negotiate that contract, that's when it gets tricky.
AR ÁN: Yesterday night, like, around 6:30, we got information that they would not reopen, and that a landlord to this building signed a lease with another... with another company.
AR ÁN: This campaign has been unorthodox in many ways, because we have more victories than setbacks.
So we are this moment in a... we have a little setback, an obstacle.
DICTOR: We need to clarify with Mr. Iluzzi, because if their position right now is that they want this business open, they want this shop, they want this location, then there is no reason why you can't work with management on getting the doors open.
We need to figure out whether he's being genuine or not.
Either way we need to get more information.
We can spend a lot of time digging for information to try to justify the conspiracies we've invented in our heads, or we can try to... AR ÁN: We want to come up with a new strategy.
Because we need to be coming... at this moment in the picket line the morale of the workers are down.
If we don't win, it would be a bad example for every single worker.
So this is not about finding a conspiracy.
This is about finding the right strategy to make us to win.
And I think you're basically just bailing out, because to be honest, I feel like... DICTOR: That's such a cop-out.
That is not what's happening here.
(discussion inaudible) MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: We are here to... we're, today...
Wait, wait, wait, I'm not finished.
Actually, Virgilio, I think he's a good organizer.
He's a good lawyer.
We're here to do something productive.
We are friends too.
I don't think it's good, this fighting.
Because in the end, if something happens, if we win, if we win or we lose, we're going to still organize together.
So for me it's more important to stay together.
MOHIT: Let's call Anthony right now.
ANTHONY ILUZZI: Hello?
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: Hey Anthony, how are you doing?
ANTHONY ILUZZI: Okay.
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: It's me, Mahoma, from Hot & Crusty.
ANTHONY ILUZZI: Hey, how are you?
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: What happened?
You're not happy to hear me?
ANTHONY ILUZZI: Yeah, I'm happy.
What's going on?
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: I have a meeting with the community and the workers.
You think it's possible to have a meeting... ANTHONY ILUZZI: It's not... you know, it's not a matter of me and you, or me and the unions.
It's a matter of the landlord.
I mean, I left there Friday, everything was worked out fine.
And then my lawyer got a phone call Saturday, everything was changed.
They went with Pax.
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: If it's the case, the workers and the union can put pressure on this company.
ANTHONY ILUZZI: I think the best thing for us to do, or you to do, is to get out there and picket, get out there and show the frustration that we have.
Yeah, it's worth a shot, sure.
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: Okay, Anthony.
ANTHONY ILUZZI: I think we can do good things there, you know?
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: Yeah, see you soon.
Bye.
DICTOR: Why would he tell the union, "Go picket?"
I mean, I think this guy is completely genuine.
Maybe I have a hang-up about tough-talking Italian guys, I don't know what it is.
DICTOR: I mean, we need to put proverbial bricks through the windows.
Proverbial.
MOHIT: We need to put pressure on the landlord to go with Anthony by supporting Anthony and making that clear, and also scaring the (bleep) out of Pax.
DICTOR: What's going to happen... AR ÁN: No, no, let's be clear, let's scare them.
DICTOR: I think so.
AR ÁN: This is what you're going to be facing when you go inside this store.
AR ÁN: We heard that Pax is planning to move there.
And we want to be making very clear that if Pax is going to be moving there, our position in the community is that they need to recognize the union.
They need to rehire the workers without any condition.
PAX REPRESENTATIVE: Excuse me, can you stop recording?
No way, that's certain.
We're not interested in that location.
Pax and Europa will not be opening up any store in that location anytime soon.
I think that people are very scared right now to try to open any Pax there, right?
Yeah, I don't think they like the idea now.
L ÓPEZ: Well, Anthony, so have a great day, thank you very much.
Okay, bye.
I'm gonna tell my union buddies around the corner, Second Avenue Subway, to come over here.
BEN DICTOR: If their profit margins were only, like, 50 cents an hour raise, they're terrible business people.
Like, that's terrible.
SANDOR JOHN: To the Hot & Crusty bakery workers in New York City, solidarity greetings from the docks of Oakland, California.
Muchas gracias, muchas gracias.
JOHN CRONAN: A lot of people look at these small places and think, "Oh, maybe their bottom line's a little tight" to try and justify all the bad stuff they're doing.
This is the norm.
This is not an aberration in the food service industry.
The Darden restaurant group, the largest full-service dining group in the world, the Wal-Mart of restaurants, similar stuff is going on.
(applause) We just came back from a lockout, and if we didn't have the support of our fellow unionists, we'd still be locked out.
I just came back from two days in Chicago where teachers in Chicago went on strike.
We need to stand behind each other.
The middle class is evaporating.
MAN: They're supposed to be invisible.
The food is supposed to arrive, but you're not supposed to see them.
And that's how the city is supposed to be served.
MARTY GOODMAN: Workers: we make the city work.
We enable the bankers and all the real estate people to make all their money.
But we can also shut the city down.
JOHN DENNIE: Big unions like us, we gotta stand behind these guys.
Come out here and stand with them.
They need us and we need them.
(applause) (car horn honking) ♪ REPORTER: In New York City today, workers at McDonald's and Wendy's and a bunch of other fast food joints walked off the job demanding better pay and the right to unionize.
(chanting): Hey hey, ho ho, $7.25 has got to go!
(chanting): We can't survive on $7.25!
PAMELA FLOOD: We all believe that we've been disrespected, we've been belittled, we've been played on an ignorant level to where they feel like we think we are not better than $7.25, but we definitely are.
We deserve better, and we work hard for the money.
(applause) DICTOR: The Hot & Crusty Workers Association is completely independent.
It's just the people that are in this room.
You guys make the rules about how the union operates.
CHARLIE MOR ÁN: The Hot & Crusty Workers Association is very unique.
We're talking about something that we're going to have to defend every single time that the contract expires.
MAHOMA L ÓPEZ: We're going to fight for increasing the salary, we're going to fight for more sick days and we're going to fight for better benefits.
That's the beginning.
(applause) If it's the case the company closes and we need to go outside to the streets to picketing, I want to know if you are going to be able.
If that should come to be, I will be there.
That's great.
That's good.
I feel good that you feel like that.
We need to keep together, we need to fight.
- I've been fighting all my life, you know what I mean?
ELIZABETH L ÓPEZ: My husband has a new campaign.
MARIA CHICKEDANTZ: This is Mahoma from Laundry Workers Center as well.
ELIZABETH L ÓPEZ: He has changed.
He's not that shy, quiet person.
I wanted to show him that even though I wasn't there for him at the protests in the past, that I had his back.
What made me change my mind was because I saw the cause that he believed in was a cause really worthy to fight for.
Our two small sons, I want them to grow up to be just like their dad: a fighter who doesn't give up.
(chanting): We won't take this any longer!
One, two, three, four, no one should be working poor!
JOSHUA DUAH: Don't run away, don't be a coward, please!
Don't be a coward.
Don't be a coward!
ELIZABETH L ÓPEZ: I would tell Mahoma, "You're going to get in trouble, you're going to get arrested, you're going to get deported."
My husband would tell me that you cannot be afraid to lift your voice and to express your opinion, because you have the right to do it.
♪ Give me a whole wheat bagel, toasted, jelly only.
- Heavy?
- Yes.
Scooped out, can you scoop it out for me, please?
I'm very glad that they're back in the neighborhood and that they got more benefits, which I'm sure are well deserved.
I haven't been here since I got arrested right there.
Can I get a large coffee with half-and-half, no sugar?
- Large coffee, half and half, no sugar?
- Thank you.
I'm letting the attorney for the former company know that Gretel is working the register again.
About a dozen times throughout the campaign, the union was told by the company that Gretel would never work here again.
So when he gets to work today, this is what he's going to see.
DONALD ANTHONYSON: This is a good victory.
It matters, you know?
It matters because you guys come from a long way.
And to stand up to do this?
Hell yeah!
Way, way much better than what most people would expect.
♪ ♪
