A crummy deal
Bakery workers tell how feds ruined lives
AFTER YEARS of raising dough for their company, they were tossed out the door like crusty old bread.
Two workers forced to leave a Queens bakery because of their immigration status are now fighting for severance pay — outraged that they were let go as part of President Trump’s harsh new policies.
“It’s so unfair what happened,” Alejandro Teutle, 28, told the Daily News through a translator Saturday. “Me and my co-workers gave many years of hard work ... a lot of work ... to lift up the company and to make it what it is today. We deserve better because we have worked very hard.”
Teutle, a native of Puebla, Mexico, was one of about 15 Tom Cat Bakery workers looking for new employment after the Department of Homeland Security initiated a 1-9 audit and identified 26 immigrant workers at the Long Island City business who had to show proof they can legally work in the U.S.
Teutle had been working at Tom Cat since coming to the U.S. in 2006. The father of a 2-yearold son was a bakery “proofer” and spent his days inspecting the dough to make sure it’s ready for baking.
Teutle officially became unemployed Friday after he could not provide proper paperwork about his immigration status.
He and about a dozen others are working with the advocacy group Brandworkers, fighting for a better severance package.
Currently, Tom Cat is offering one week’s pay for every year of service, plus cashed-out sick, holiday and vacation days, and health care for 90 days, according to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, which has represented the endangered Tom Cat employees since the crisis arose.
“What they offered was crumbs, and we deserve more,” said Teutle, who relied on his salary to provide for his boy, as well as his parents, two sisters and a brother back in Mexico.
Worker Manuel Lema is also looking for a new job after a decade of employment with Tom Cat. The 51-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant, who has been in the U.S. for two decades, was the main breadwinner for his wife and three children.
“When the audit happened it really bothered us a lot,” Lema said. “I feel that it came as part of the persecution on immigrants from Trump.
“I work very hard producing bread day by day to feed New Yorkers and other people in other states that receive bread from Tomcat,” he added. “I work hard so that they can put bread on their table. When this happened I felt saddened and disappointed.”
“They don’t want to acknowledge that we have dignity,” Lema said about Tom Cat.
Word of the mass termination has sparked several protests at both the bakery and Trump Tower. On Friday, five supporters working with Brandworkers were arrested after they handcuffed themselves to a delivery truck in the hopes of halting company production for the
day.