Courtesy of Mika Nagasaki
Protesters stand outside Kawa Sushi, where one worker said he was fired after attempting to unionize.
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More than 20 people picketed outside the West Village restaurant Kawa Sushi yesterday. They accused the restaurant of unjustly firing Tian Wen Ye, a delivery worker, for organizing other workers.
According to Wen Ye, the owners of Kawa Sushi, Yi Xiang Cao and Yi Feng Wang, paid four men to threaten him after he attempted to unionize. When he reported the incident to police, he was told to wait outside the restaurant. While Ye waited, he was fired for not delivering food.
"We are here today, joined here by restaurant workers all around the city to support Tian Wen Ye, because we will not allow the employers to retaliate against our workers this way," said Tony Tsai, vice president of 318 Restaurant Workers Union.
Tsai worked with Josephine Lee, a campaign coordinator for Justice Will Be Served — an organization committed to fighting unfair labor practices in restaurants and laundry facilities — to organize the protest. He called on New Yorkers to boycott Kawa Sushi until Ye is rehired.
This is not the first time Ye has had trouble with the owners. In March 2007 he was fired when he brought a complaint about low wages to the Department of Labor.
"They've been making a lot of profit for both restaurants," Tsai translated for Ye. "But instead they only paid the workers $1.90 an hour, and we have to work 72 hours a week."
Following the suit, the owners were ordered to pay back wages to Ye and other employees and to raise their base pay to $4.85 an hour, the New York State minimum wage for tipped delivery workers.
Ye said, in spite of all these problems, he still wants to work for Kawa.
Jack Wang, manager of Kawa Sushi, said the owners decided to fire Ye because he did not work as hard as other workers and refused to perform daily tasks required of all employees.
"That labor case is over. It's in the past," Wang said. "He was fired now, and it has nothing to do with the case."
But Wang worries that Kawa Sushi may lose customers or suffer financially due to Wen Ye's claims.
"I'm sure there will be. There will be damages because of this. All [Ye] wants is money, not justice," Wang said.
West Village resident Mya Acharya, 19, walked by the restaurant during the protest.
"I probably won't be eating here after this," she said.
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