Ben's Delicatessen On Strike

A brief history about Ben’s Delicatessen restaurant

Ben’s Delicatessen was established in 1908 by Ben Kravitz and his wife Fanny. They set up shop at the corner of Metcalfe’s and Burnside Ave (Now de Maissoneuve). The restaurant became very popular and remained so for years to come. The restaurant continued to flourish after Ben’s death in 1956, when his three sons Al, Sollie and Irving assumed the ownership of the business.

Things changed upon the death of Irving at which point, control of the restaurant shifted to his widow and his son (Jean and Elliot). That is when working condition started deteriorating and the harassment began. The employees decided to Unionize in 1995. Despite these efforts conditions kept on declining, especially after the death of Al, the last surviving son, in 2000.

Which bring us to now, September 2006, and our third collective agreement which expired on February 17th. The bosses never respected any collective agreement they signed and working conditions have devolved to a point that is untenable. The climatization climatization system broke down and no efforts have been made to get it repaired, therefore it gets extremely hot in the summer and quite cold in the winter. The dishes, glasses and utensils supply are not sufficient to accommodate even medium business. When employees leave or retire, they are not replaced, forcing the remaining stuff to fulfill their duties.

We are demanding respect, a stop to the harassment and decent work condition. For these reasons, in July, we asked the employees for a vote which was given unanimously and we acted upon it on July 20th. Since that date, we did not hear a word from the bosses’ side. We are ready to keep striking for as long as it takes to get our demand met. We are ready to sit down to talk any time, day or night, weekdays or weekends.

Finally, we would like to thanks the CSN and CTS executive committee for their continued support.

The Union/Syndicate for the employees in Charcuterie BEN’S.

posted by Ben's Delicatessen @ 8:34 PM