Rolf's Patisserie Workers Denounce Illegal Factory Closing, Wage Theft -- Arise Chicago

On Dec. 10, 2011, the 136 workers at Rolf's Patisserie rested at their homes, prepared to return to work on Dec. 12. They had no idea that the next day, they would be unceremoniously fired, thrust into the already-swollen ranks of the unemployed without warning just two weeks before Christmas. Nor that four days later, their final checks would bounce.

"It was devastating," says Deyanira Alvarez, who worked as a customer service representative for Rolf's for four years. "After losing my job, my last check bouncing, our Christmas ruined--I'm still in total shock. I can't believe a job can hurt like this."

Rolf's workers were told on Dec. 10th that their plant would be briefly closed for cleaning on the 11th, but they should report as usual on Dec. 12. On the 11th, the factory's president and owner Lloyd Culbertson--a former investment banker--asked the production manager to log him into the company's web site, then demanded the worker leave the room. Thirty minutes later, workers checked the company's site. They were shocked to discover a three-sentence announcement that the plant was now closed. Culbertson had not informed any of the plant's 136 workers of the plant's impending closure; the site's announcement was the first any employee had heard that they were terminated.

"After working there for years, he told us through a web site," said Karen Leyva, who worked as an office assistant manager at the end of her six-year career at Rolf's. "

As if the mass firings on the cusp of the holidays were not painful enough, workers took their final paychecks to banks and currency exchanges after December 15--only to have them bounce. Any joy the holidays could have brought was immediately snuffed out. "We didn't have a holiday," says Alvarez. "We didn't have a Christmas dinner, we didn't have any Christmas presents--nothing.

"I thought I had one last paycheck to get my family through the new year. But then it bounced." says Alvarez.

For Leyva, the fees from the bounced check alone are overwhelming. "Now that I have no job, how can I even afford to pay those fees?" she asks.

Workers are alleging a violation of the federal WARN Act, which gives workers the right to know of a plant's closing 60 days in advance or 60 days severance pay. The act gained recent national prominence when workers at Chicago-based Republic Windows and Doors occupied their former workplace in 2008, demanding and winning the severance pay due them under the WARN Act. A class action lawsuit will be filed on the workers' behalf this morning and will be shared with the public in front of the now-shuttered Rolf's factory at 11 AM.

"We all know this is a bad economy. But the workers and their families are the ones who suffer," says Adam Kader, director of Arise Chicago's Workers Center. "It's a microcosm of working families' pain under the recession. Workers who gave their lives to this company have been shoved into the street with only a check marked 'insufficient funds' in their pockets."

Arise Chicago builds partnerships between faith communities and workers to fight workplace injustice through education and organizing and advocating for public policy changes. Its Worker Center is a community resource for workers, both immigrant and native-born, to learn about their rights and join fellow workers to improve workplace conditions.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• wage
• theft
• arise
• chicago
• labor
• work
• lincolnwood
• picket
• protest
• bakery
• rolf's
• patisserie
• WARN

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