The Professor and the Farm

Golden Farm and the Fight for the Rights of Low-Wage Workers

As everyone in the Kensington neighborhood knows by now, the Golden Farm grocery has been the site of an ongoing fight by the store’s workers to obtain their rights to fair wages and working conditions. This fight began over a year ago when the Golden Farm workers took the store’s owner, Sonny Kim, to court to put an end to his illegal practice of wage theft. With the Kensington community’s support, and the support of dedicated community organizations and local leaders, the workers won their fight to be paid the legal minimum wage,  had a union certified to represent them, and are now fighting to get Kim to sign a contract guaranteeing them their basic rights.

What everyone may not know is that the Golden Farm workers courageous effort is part of a citywide movement that has been going on over the past decade made up of low wage workers, many of them new immigrants, to stand up against the rampant exploitation that takes place in many industries and demand that they be treated fairly, legally and decently as valued workers and members of our communities.

MEET WORKERS and find out more about this vibrant new wave of organizing that is taking place in Kensington and beyond with Professor Immanuel Ness of Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center for Worker Education and author of Immigrants, Unions, and the New U. S. Labor Market. Professor Ness has been actively documenting these important and exciting developments for the past 15 years, and has much to share about the history of workers and communities coming together in the fight for fairness—where we have come from, and where we can go together.

Don’t miss this great discussion!

Thursday, December 13, 8:00 PM

309 East 5^th Street (between Church and Albemarle Avenues)

Sponsored by Occupy Kensington and Golden Farm Justice