'Day Without Bread': NYC Bakery Workers Plan Citywide Strike After Immigrant Firings

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — We've endured a day without immigrants, a day without women and even a day without bodegas in the name of standing up to President Trump and his policies. But can we endure a day without bread?

Workers at New York's oldest artisanal bakery who say they're facing immediate termination due to their immigration status are urging all "restaurants and consumers across the city to refrain from selling or eating bread" this Friday for what would be the city's first-ever "Day Without Bread."

Tom Cat Bakery's management previously told workers at the Queens factory that the company was being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, the protesters claim.

Now, "thirty-one workers, many of whom have been at the bakery for a decade or more, have been told they will be fired April 21 if they do not provide new employment documents," according to a statement issued by Brandworkers, a nonprofit representing the workers.

Tom Cat Bakery and DHS did not immediately return requests for comment.

UPDATE: A representative for Tom Cat Bakery named Bill Wacheel, who identified himself as "a dear friend of the president," gave us a call back Wednesday evening. He claimed the Department of Homeland Security began a routine audit of the immigration status of the bakery's 200-plus workers back in winter 2016, under the Obama administration. Of the 31 employees who've been flagged in the audit, he said, 11 have "been able to satisfy the government requirements" for immigration papers — leaving 20 employees on the chopping block this Friday. "From our point of view, we pray they’re able to satisfy the government," Wacheel said. "Those who can't stay are being given generous severance packages. ... Anyone who suggests to you that the company didn’t do enough, ask them, what more would you like us to do?" As for the protest movement, he said: "The louder they beat their drums, the more detrimental it is for the other workers."

A handful of NYC restaurants have already pledged their support for the movement.

Colors Restaurant on Manhattan's Lower East Side won't be serving bread Friday (although that won't be too difficult as the restaurant is already gluten-free). And two Brooklyn fooderies — Harvest & Revel, a catering company in Crown Heights, and Samesa, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Williamsburg — will donate a portion of any bread sales they make Friday to the Tom Cat workers' relief fund. A GoFundMe campaign has raised almost $30,000 so far toward "essential expenses, like rent and food" for the affected workers, many of whom have families to support.

Tom Cat has no storefront but provides baked goods to big chains like Citarella, the Darden restaurant group (which owns Olive Garden) and the Grand Hyatt hotels. The bakery is an arm of Yamazaki Baking — the world's largest bread-baking corporation, based in Japan.

Bakery workers and their supporters held a hundreds-strong rally earlier this month outside Trump Tower demanding "the Trump Administration halt an ongoing clampdown by the Department of Homeland Security that threatens to tear apart families and communities."

They've since picked up an impressive list of allies: NYC Public Advocate Tish James; Comptroller Scott Stringer; Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer; City Councilman Brad Lander; the New York Immigration Coalition; the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union; Restaurant Opportunities Center-United; the Food Chain Workers Alliance; Make the Road; New York Fight for $15; and ACLU People Power, to name a few.

UPDATE: A lead organizer for the Yemeni bodega strike earlier this year, Rabyaah Althaibani, announced Thursday that he and other bodega workers are behind the Tom Cat bakers 100 percent. "Tom Cat Bakery workers are bravely defying the Trump administration's inhumane immigration clampdown, and they have the full support of Yemeni bodega owners and workers across New York," he said in a statement. "Their fight against America's broken immigration system is our fight too."

You can add your name to the list of allies by signing this petition, showing up to the workers' rally Friday at their factory in Long Island City or — for the city's bravest — staying away from bread all day.

There's also a nationwide general strike coming up on May 1, during which workers across various industries will protest the reported spike in non-criminal deportations under Trump and the federal crackdown on America's immigrant labor force.

“Our fight will not stop when we walk out of Tom Cat for the last time on April 21,” Elias Rojas, a worker at Tom Cat Bakery, said in a statement. “We are joining thousands of other immigrant workers across the country in a General Strike on May 1 to intensify our fight against America's cruel immigration system. We’re not backing down.”

Lead image via Google Maps