Spices & Tease: RAP Protesters Confront a Retail Bully
In 2015, workers from Spices & Tease’s Grand Central Location came to RAP to discuss a myriad of labor violations at the workplace and see what could be done. As a small, boutique pop-up chain at Grand Central Station and Chelsea Market, there we few employees and the owners took advantage of there being such a small workforce to challenge them. Nevertheless they were highly motivated and delivered a petition to the owners with a set of demands, chief of which was that they be paid fully for their hours worked and that their paychecks be distributed on time.
After delivering their petition through a non-violent action at the Grand Central store, management fashioned an illegal employee contract, attempting to force them into binding arbitration and even renouncing their ability to use the United States constitution to defend themselves. They fired the worker who led the action for refusing to sign it. RAP supported the workers in filing an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) claim which ultimately won and forced the company to tear up the contract, pay back wages and offer the terminated worker her job back.
Spices & Tease Worker Petition
Dear owners of Spices & Tease,
We all enjoy working at Spices & Tease and would like to see the company prosper moving forward. Because of this, we’ve compiled a list of issues that we want to see addressed which would benefit us, the workers, the company and most importantly our customers:
Compensation- Our paychecks regularly fail to reflect the hours we work and furthermore, they are often late. We deserve to be paid for the time we work and receive our paychecks in a timely fashion.
Health and Safety- Some of our equipment is faulty or outright dangerous to use. To continue to use it could be hazardous for us, our customers and likely the space we rent. Many of our working practices, as directed by ownership, are outright unsanitary and a disservice to our patrons.
Scheduling- A two week advance notice of our schedules would allow us to better plan lives in and outside of work. Receiving our schedules one day before we work is unacceptable.
Understaffing- If we can’t staff the stores appropriately, we can’t serve our customers adequately. We shouldn’t have to pick between taking our break and serving customers.
Training- There is no recognizable training or orientation process. This reflects the lack of leadership and general attention which has led to several of these grievances.
Respect- Nobody should be subject to disrespect on the job and we are no exception.