Unionizing Breads Bakery workers face pushback from management, customers

A screenshot of a video taken by members of the Breaking Breads Union of the moment they told Gadi Peleg, the owner of Breads Bakery, that they were unionizing with Local 2179 of the United Auto Workers.

Breaking Breads Union

• 
• 

At the beginning of a video filmed at Breads Bakery’s flagship location in Union Square on Dec. 29, Gadi Peleg, the owner of the bakery, was, for just a moment, smiling.  

But seconds into the video, the face of the owner of one of the city’s most famous bakeries drops as the current and former employees behind the camera inform him that, after more than a year of organizing, they are unionizing with Local 2179 of the United Auto Workers.  

One of the workers behind the camera, Leah, who declined to provide their last name, told The Chief last week that the organizing campaign, that has so far resulted in over 30 percent of workers signing union authorization cards, started over two years ago. 

"The more we talk to and get to know each other as workers, the more you realize the same structural things are impacting all of us, and that the only way we can change those is by collectivizing and by demanding this stuff together,” Leah said. “Our demands come from over a year of conversation with each other.” 

Workers in the Breaking Breads Union told The Chief that those demands include higher pay in a bakery where many workers make minimum wage, improved safety protections, clearer paths to promotion, guaranteed hours and more.

"Coming in making minimum wage for a corporation that generates this much profit for its owners and for upper management is pretty abhorrent, especially in a city like New York where the cost of living is so unbelievably high,” said one Breads Bakery cashier who declined to provide their name, fearing retaliation.  

Since the union campaign went public, much of the attention on social media and in news outlets has focused on the union's demands for the store's Israeli owners to halt their financial support for Israel. But workers and Will Bobrowski, the first vice president of Local 2179, insist that the unionization was spurred by the day-to-day workplace issues.

 "The workplace issues are the frontline issue," Bobrowski said.

Management retaliating 

Peleg, in the union’s video, declined to shake Bobrowski’s hand. “This will only make things worse and it’ll be very disruptive to all of us,” Peleg scolded workers. “It’s a shame.” 

Workers recounted to Peleg an incident where a locker inside one of the bakeries fell on a worker’s head, giving them a concussion. Workers told The Chief that this incident highlighted the lackadaisical safety precautions at Bread’s Bakery, which, combined with low pay, leads to frequent turnover.  

Peleg claimed in the video to not know about the locker incident or who Leah was, asserting that they aren’t an employee of Breads. 

That’s true, Leah said, because they were fired in September after management discovered that workers were organizing, in what the union said was clear, illegal retaliation. Peleg in the video denied that Leah had been fired for leading the unionization campaign.  

Since announcing their union in late December, workers say they’ve faced more pushback and surveillance from Breads Bakery leadership. 

Managers have repeatedly taken down pro-union literature from break rooms and forced workers to take part in captive audience meetings where outside consultants, who workers said were referred to as “persuaders,” gave presentations on unions.

A spokesperson for Breads Bakery did not respond to a request for comment.

Workers are attempting to form a wall-to-wall union covering more than 250 bakers, drivers, baristas, bussers, servers, logistics workers and more across Breads Bakery’s six locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Pro-Israel customers hammer union 

It’s not uncommon for managers to push back, even in violation of the law, when workers unionize, but Breads Bakery workers said they received flack for unionizing from dozens of customers as well who objected to the pro-Palestinian positions that the union took. The owners of Breads Bakery are Israeli, and a large portion of the shop’s customer base is made up of Israeli tourists and pro-Israel New Yorkers who enjoy the bakeries’ Ashkenazi Jewish specialties like Babka.  

While the workers insist that the workplace conditions are paramount, they included in their demands for the store to “halt the use of bakery profit to materially support the Israeli occupation.” This was in reference to fundraisers that Breads Bakery management have held for Israeli foundations during Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip which several international humanitarian organizations have classified as a genocide, following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

“They are cutting corners and creating liabilities and dangers and hazards to generate as much profit off our backs and then without my consent using the profits that they're making by underpaying me to support what a lot of us see as a genocide,” the breads bakery cashier said of management’s support for Israel. "That is a labor issue." 

In the wake of workers’ publicizing their demands, pro-Israel accounts publicly urged customers to flood Breads Bakery on Jan. 9 in a call to “Keep antisemitism out of unionization” and show support for a company that is “under attack for being a proudly Jewish Israeli company.” 

Several pro-Israel influencers posted videos urging New Yorkers to support the owners of Breads Bakery.

All day, workers said, they were harassed by angry customers. 

"I had a woman come up to me, and I hand her a cinnamon roll and she says, 'just so you know I'm buying this for Israel,’” the cashier said. "I'm just trying to do my job.” 

"The energy has been terrible,” another worker said. “But honestly it's not really that different from how we get treated by a lot of clientele at Breads.” 

Employees said that at the end of the day, managers celebrated what they said was a remarkably busy day, without acknowledging the backlash that many employees faced.  

Leah said that despite their firing, the anti-union moves by management and the harassment from customers, workers will continue to push for a union.  

"Even though they fired me and they're trying to harass and retaliate against people, we're not going to stand down,” they said. “We know that we are standing up for ourselves and we are standing up for what is right and what we deserve."