New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Ex-Dunkin’ worker files unfair labor practice charges
Single mother alleges dismissal was because of unionization interest
GREENWICH — Applegreen, the operator of a Dunkin’ at a service plaza on the Merritt Parkway at the edge of Greenwich, is facing unfair labor practice charges and a unionization drive after firing an employee of three years, Elva Salazar.
Salazar says she had never missed work and routinely clocked 25 to 30 hours per week. But after managers saw her talking to representatives of the Service Employees International Union 32BJ in the parking lot in late March, she said she was scheduled for only eight hours of work and reprimanded for what she described as minor shortcomings on the job.
“I feel terrible about being let go because, above all, I think it’s unjust. If there were some reason for it happening, that would be different,” Salazar said through a translation by Franklin Soults, a senior communications strategist for SEIU 32BJ.
Her complaint, filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday, alleges that anti-union discrimination led to her dismissal. The NLRB investigates 20,000 to 30,000 charges per year and, in some cases, seeks back-pay or reinstatement for employees.
Applegreen, which is responsible for the hiring practices and pay at the Dunkin’ on the Merritt Parkway, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Hearst Connecticut Media.
Salazar said she was informed of her termination Sunday, when she arrived for her first scheduled shift after speaking at a news conference at the state capitol April 12 in support of Connecticut’s Fair Work
Week bill. The bill would require hourly-wage employees to be paid for shifts canceled within a week of their scheduled date.
“I wanted to eventually win the right to be in a union. I want them to respect our hours above all, which is what started (the union process),” Salazar said. “Because a lot of us have second jobs, we need dependable schedules.”
Salazar said she works a full-time job that pauses in the summer. Sometimes Dunkin’s managers would put her on the schedule to work on days she was at her other job; those days were marked as unavailable on her original work application, she said.
“Unfortunately, many low-income workers are working maybe three different 19-hour-per-week jobs to piece together a living, so they have to be able to coordinate the schedules of all three workplaces,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven.
“If somebody tells them arbitrarily, ‘No, you have to come in’ when they’ve already planned to commit to work somewhere else at that time or have not made arrangements for child care at that time, it can wreak havoc in the life of a family that’s living on a very narrow margin and trying to plan very carefully,” Looney said.
Salazar, a single mother, lives in Port Chester, N.Y., and said she is worried about paying rent since losing her position at Dunkin’. Her two sons both recently joined the military, and she said she feels pressure to support herself.
But it’s not just about her: “So many people are barely making it,” Salazar said.
“Incidents like what’s happened here point out why the bill is necessary,” Looney said. “Ideally, they could be bargained by a union. But when a union doesn’t exist, the state has to come in and try to create equity by making it a matter of law.”
SEIU 32BJ labels itself as
the “largest union of property service workers in the U.S.” and is working to support a unionization drive at service stations across Connecticut.
The Dunkin’ where Salazar worked is part of a service station operated by Applegreen. And since it is located on state property, she was a state subcontractor and should have received a standard wage of at least $16.90 per hour; she worked for $15 per hour there, Soults said.
The union shed light on this disparity and helped workers across the state file complaints for investigation by the Connecticut Department of Labor last week. Salazar also participated in this complaint process, which alleges illegal underpayment of multiple employees; her filing Wednesday with the NLRB addressed her individual concerns of anti-union discrimination.
SEIU 32BJ has a history of successfully helping workers in Fairfield County.
In September 2020, former workers of three McDonald’s locations at service plazas in Darien and Fairfield received $870,451 from Michell Enterprises LLC of New Canaan after the employer didn’t pay the standard wage.
In another case, four workers at a Darien McDonald’s received back pay and two were reinstated in their jobs after a federal administrative judge ruled Michell discriminated against the former employees for union activity.
Soults said he feels confident in Salazar’s NLRB charges, and he is hoping for a resolution akin to the union’s other cases.
The write-ups of her job performance seemed retaliatory for her union inquisition, Soults said. She received one after she declined to work on a Tuesday, a day she had always marked as unavailable. A manager reprimanded her after she called in sick one day before her shift, citing intense arm pain, and another time when she arrived five minutes late to work.
And soon after, she was fired. Salazar said a higherranking employee expressed confusion at her dismissal.
On Tuesday, five Dunkin’ workers submitted unionauthorization cards to SEIU 32BJ, showing interest in electing the union, said Soults.