How Fresh Direct Delivers Misery Along With Your Groceries-And How Workers and Community are Fighting Back
AlterNet
By AlterNet
New York City, like most of the country, is hurting for jobs—good jobs that pay a living wage and provide benefits so that people can support their families. Yet billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with Governor Andrew Cuomo and Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr., is about to hand over $129 million in public money, through tax exemptions and direct subsidies, to FreshDirect, a grocery delivery service that is notorious for underpaying its workers, has faced multiple accusations of discrimination and has been accused of using all sorts of shady tactics to block its workers from joining a union.
FreshDirect has made its home for years in Long Island City, Queens, but now claims to need a bigger facility. After New Jersey's governor Chris Christie waved a $100 million package of subsidies and tax breaks at the grocer, New York's politicians felt the need to win its allegiance back. New York Times reporter Michael Powell wrote of the plan, “The deal puts the welfare in corporate.”
