Leading Lights from Law & Organizing to be Honored at Brandworkers Awards Dinner | Industrial Workers of the World

National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee and Immigrant Workers of the Campaign for Justice at Flaum Appetizing to Be Honored at the 2nd Annual Brandworkers Awards Dinner

New York, NY -- Leading lights from the progressive legal and organizing communities will be honored on October 28th at the 2nd Annual Brandworkers Awards Dinner. The National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee and the Workers of the Campaign for Justice at Flaum Appetizing Corp. will receive "Champions of Economic Justice" awards to honor their achievements in the movement to win fair pay, equality, and respect for all workers.

"We couldn't be more gratified to honor these inspiring fighters for economic justice," said Daniel Gross, the founding director of Brandworkers. "They are in the trenches every day waging innovative and dynamic campaigns for workplace justice and dignity. It's an honor for Brandworkers to acknowledge their tremendous contributions to the movement."

The National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee is the country's leading organization of progressive lawyers, legal workers, and law students serving labor unions, worker centers, and individual employees. The Committee is on the cutting-edge of providing innovative legal strategies to combat the intense employer resistance that characterizes organizing drives in the United States today. Firm believers in the need for global solidarity, the Committee and its members are leading participants in the international labor rights arena and recently helped spearhead the landmark amicus brief to the Mexican Supreme Court, filed by 47 prominent labor rights organizations and attorneys from around the world, in opposition to the Mexican Government's attempt to undermine the independence of the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Allied Workers.

The Workers of the Campaign for Justice at Flaum Appetizing Corp. are recent immigrants from Mexico and Ecuador using innovative legal, advocacy, and organizing tools to challenge sweatshops conditions at one of New York City's top processors and distributors of kosher foods. The workers are members of the Focus on the Food Chain campaign, a joint initiative of Brandworkers and the Industrial Workers of the World (NYC) labor union, to create good, family-supporting jobs in the food processing and distribution warehouses of New York. Flaum Appetizing illegally withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation owed to workers and responded with vicious anti-immigrant retaliation when workers stood up for their rights. Despite the illegal retaliation, the workers of Flaum, through diligent and creative organizing, are well on their way to win justice at the company. The workers' effort to limit the scope of the Hoffman Plastic Supreme Court case, which condoned discrimination against many workers based on immigration status, could have important ramifications for workplace justice projects across the country.

The 2nd Annual Brandworkers Awards Dinner is hosted by (organizations for identification purposes only):

Co-Chairs:

Beth Baltimore, Esq., Legal Services NYC (Bronx); Heidi Boghosian, Esq., National Lawyers Guild; Andrew Chapin, Fordham Law School; Hillary Exter, Esq. Fordham Law School; Melanie Greenberg, Writer; Michael Hirschhorn, International Human Rights Funders Group; Gonzalo Mercado, El Centro del Inmigrante; Daniel Meyers, National Lawyers Guild (NYC); Sandy Pope, Teamsters Local 805; Michael Ratner, Esq., Center for Constitutional Rights, Nancy Romer, Ph.D, CUNY & Brooklyn Food Coalition; Lizabeth Schalet, Esq., Lipman & Plesur; Michael Steven Smith, Esq. Attorney & Law & Disorder Radio, WBAI; Anand Swaminathan, Esq. Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard; Amelia Tuminaro, Esq. Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss; Juno Turner, Esq., Outten & Golden; Alex Van Schaick, CUNY Law.

Board Members:

Cesar Barturen; Leanne Davis; Raymundo Lara Molina; and Greg Pason.

In addition to the awards ceremony, the dinner will feature live music from Rainy Day Cacophony and The Dust Busters as well as a traditional performance from the Latin American dance troupe of El Centro del Inmigrante.

Brandworkers is a New York-based not-for-profit organization protecting and advancing the rights of retail and food employees. By providing innovative legal and organizing support to working people, Brandworkers challenges corporate misconduct on the job and in the community. The Focus on the Food Chain campaign promotes a sustainable food system which incorporates respect for workers' human rights. The Brandworkers Legal Defense-Plus program provides free legal rights information to individual workers and identifies opportunities for collective change through organizing and class action litigation.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please go to: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/126090.

If you are unable to attend, please consider making a contribution to Brandworkers in honor of this year's awardees: http://www.Brandworkers.org/contribute