FreshDirect "suspended" a couple dozen employees and fired "at least one of them" this week. Nearly all of them were Hispanic immigrants, and the grocery delivery company claims they didn't provide accurate proof of their legality. Coincidentally, there's a FreshDirect warehouse employee union vote scheduled for December 22-23—funny how these things work out, huh?

The Teamsters have been trying to organize FreshDirect's more than 900 Long Island City warehouse workers since the summer, and at the upcoming vote, workers can choose between joining them or the United Food and Commercial Workers, who represent other FreshDirect drivers and others. Or they can choose to join no union at all, also known as the "don't fire me" option.

FreshDirect insists they only suspended these people because of problems with their Social Security numbers, following a new government rule that was blocked from taking effect by a federal judge back in October. Feliz Navidad!

We are hereby boycotting FreshDirect, which will not be that hard as they refuse to deliver to our sketchy neighborhood.

Teamsters and FreshDirect Spar Over Suspensions of Immigrant Workers [CityRoom]