By: Kari Sonde

Bröd Kitchen, an eatery located on the corner of West 4th and Greene Street, has just closed, marking yet another establishment that has failed to take hold in that (possibly cursed?) spot.

However, instead of quietly disappearing like former resident Campus Eatery, Bröd Kitchen has been shut down in a blaze of union-busting backlash. After labor activists gathered on February 19, the store was shut down before a second protest on the following Friday.

The original Bröd Kitchen location on the Upper East Side faced union protests in 2012, when the former bakery there (the unfortunately named Hot & Crusty) attempted to fire the mostly undocumented employees who wanted to unionize. Ultimately, the workers took over the store with the help of some student groups and Occupy Wall Street stragglers.

Their campaign ended up being quite the success: the bakery closed down, and the new owners recognized the Union and re-opened and re-hired the employees who had been working at Hot & Crusty.

Bröd Kitchen’s initial success led to a second location on West 4th street, a non-unionized location that offered the same menu. Hugo Uys, an official at Bröd Kitchen, then announced a shutdown of the 63rd street store, while also in the planning stages of opening another non-unionized location of Bröd Kitchen in Hoboken, NJ.

“Closing the Brod Kitchen on West Fourth is a strategic move made by Brod’s management. The shutdown tries to eclipse any of the experiences that Brod Kitchen workers and their supporters have been trying to share with the community. We should not let that stop us from fighting against this blatant union-busting.” said Kendra, a member of the Student Labor Action Movement at NYU.

Mahoma Lopez, the leader of the former Hot & Crusty protests, was fired after an initial protest on January 28, prompting the protesting of the West 4th location. The store was even broken into.

The protests were supported by over 15 NYC unions and community groups, including students from NYU and CUNY, as well as the Central Labor Council. Flyers were passed around with Uys’s phone number as well as information about the protests.

“Hugo Uys, the owner of Brod Kitchen is one of the worst union busters. When the workers at the 2nd avenue Brod Kitchen had to renew their contract because it expired, Hugo shut down their store and expanded to west 4th street to get rid of them,” said a statement from NYU4BrodKitchen. “Now that we (Brod Workers & the NYU community) have established a presence at the west 4th street store he’s closed it down too, and has started to open a store in Hoboken and grand central plaza: he is clearly lying when he says the union puts him out of business.”

“Bröd workers are not alone; they have the support of the working class here in NYC and beyond. Bosses like Bröd owners can use dirty tactics, but they don’t know that the real power comes from workers,” said Rosanna Rodríguez, the co-executive director of the Laundry Workers Center, an organization that fights for workers’ rights.

In the end, the West 4th location was shut down, leaving another spot to fill on the ever-changing corner of Greene and West 4th. It remains to be seen what overpriced, campus cash sucking, average food-ed cafe will make its nest there. Will it ever become the longterm home of an affordable, on-campus eatery? Stay tuned.

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