Palermo’s Pizza reached a settlement agreement Friday with the National Labor Relations Board acknowledging it committed labor law violations, following allegations of labor practice violations from employees.
The agreement came after workers from Palermo’s factories went on strike, accusing the pizza company of unlawfully firing workers for their attempts to unionize, as well as over immigrant audit threats.
In the agreement, Palermo’s admitted it violated labor laws by threatening to fire workers for unionizing, telling employees that joining the union was “futile” and physically blocking workers from leaving the factory to join the strike, according to a statement released by Voces de la Frontera, a Wisconsin-based immigrant rights group.
The UW-Madison Student Labor Action Coalition and the Labor Licensing Policy Committee have urged university administration to cut ties with the pizza company until the workers were rehired and allowed to unionize.
As a result of the settlement, Palermo’s will offer to rehire nine employees with full pay, including worker Stephanie Ramirez, who lost her job after attempting to join the workers’ union.
“I am happy that the NLRB has agreed that we were wrongly fired, and I’m grateful to go back to work after six months of trying to make ends meet,” Ramirez said in a statement. “It is shameful that Palermo’s would characterize illegally firing my co-workers and I as a ‘minor technicality’ when all we did is stand together to improve working conditions and make this a better company.”
