Maria Rios makes minimum wage working on the serving line at Furr's Fresh Buffet in Santa Fe.
The restaurant didn't pay Rios money she was owed when it temporarily closed March 18 because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. About 40 of her co-workers were in the same fix. None received a final paycheck.
They said a manager told them not to expect the money they were owed.
They had no labor union to turn to for help. Instead, Rios and eight other laid-off Furr's employees created something almost as strong: a workers committee.
This small group invoked a provision of the National Labor Relations Act to make its case for prompt payment.
The law was enacted in 1935 during the Great Depression, when exploitation of workers was common. It prohibits employers from retaliating against workers for organizing to improve their wages and working conditions.
The nine-member committee received help from the immigrant advocacy group Somos Un Pueblo Unido. Committee members brought a state complaint against Furr's and notified the company by certified mail that they expected to be paid.
Rios said she and all 40 employees received their money in mid-April, about a week after the committee had formed and a month after the restaurant's temporary closure.
Furr's, with 16 stores in four states, is headquartered in San Antonio. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
But as far as Rios can tell, there are no bad feelings between management and workers.
The Furr's restaurant in Santa Fe reopened this month, and Rios had her old job back.
She described the working atmosphere as congenial. Earning a paycheck again is a blessing.
An employee of Furr's for five years, Rios had been without work since the restaurant's temporary closure.
"Everything is fine. I have the same schedule," Rios said after the restaurant had been reopened for two days.
She worked about 25 hours a week before the pandemic. Rios is single and supports herself.
For obvious reasons, many workers are hesitant to challenge the boss on matters of money or working conditions.
Somos Un Pueblo Unido (We Are a United People) advises them of their rights under labor laws.
Somos has helped establish more than 70 workers committees in Santa Fe since 2008, said Marcela Díaz, executive director of the organization.
Most of these committees never received a single headline. The ones that made news did so because companies retaliated against workers who united, Díaz said.
Perhaps the most famous cases involved Squeaky Clean Car Wash and a private company contracted to provide janitorial services for the Santa Fe Public Schools.
Workers at the car wash said they were harassed by a supervisor and cheated on pay. Six were fired after forming their committee.
Somos and the workers filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board's regional office in Phoenix.
The federal agency sided with the workers. Squeaky Clean rehired them with back pay. It also paid $60,000 to compensate workers for violations of minimum wage and overtime laws.
In the other case, 16 janitors who were fired from their jobs received a total of $130,000 from Merchants Building Maintenance LLC, which had a contract with the school district.
The janitors, many of them young women, had complained about sexual harassment in the workplace. They and the rest of the crew said they were punished for establishing a committee to improve working conditions.
A judge for the National Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of the janitors, ordering the company to reinstate them with back pay.
Merchants Building Maintenance appealed twice before paying the $130,000 settlement. All of that took six years.
Most cases are at the other extreme, like the resolution at Furr's cafeteria.
The workers committee at Furr's didn't go to the National Labor Relations Board, but it filed a wage theft complaint with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.
Díaz said this move helped the workers' cause in a time of trouble. Jobs for restaurant employees were scarce because of the pandemic.
Challenging the company was an act of necessity for Carmen García. She worked full time as a baker at Furr's for 23 years, never making more than the city minimum wage. It had increased to $12.10 an hour March 1, just two and a half weeks before Furr's closed temporarily.
García, a single mother of a teenager, said she was owed $600 by the restaurant. With her rent due, it was all the money in the world.
She and other gutsy workers formed their committee. They weren't looking for a fight. They weren't asking a company to do something out of the goodness of its heart.
All they wanted was what they had coming.
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June 14, 2020 at 09:30AM
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Smart workers don't complain; they organize | Local Columns - Santa Fe New Mexican
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