Anonymous Submission to Jersey Counter-Info
Nine Jollibee workers at the Journal Square location were fired in July 2023 for forming a union. These workers were pushing for better worker conditions and higher wages. The recently fired and current Jollibee workers and community members supporting them are now fighting back to defend their rights as workers. They have been holding protests, which has gained mainstream news media coverage, and have created a support page, which can be found here.
The “Justice 4 Jollibee Workers Campaign” is just getting started and needs public support. To support their campaign donations can be sent here.
The Jollibee workers’ letter to management as a result of the mass firing:
“To Jollibee Management,
We are here today to tell everyone that Jollibee violated our rights as workers and that Jollibee needs to be held accountable. We are also here to continue to demand higher wages for our co-workers, holiday pay, better working conditions, uphold our rights as workers and above all respect from this corporation and management. You may have illegally terminated us, but you will not silence our voices and the voices of Jollibee workers. We know our rights. Under the National Labor Relations Act, a Federal Law, it says that, we, workers, have the right to engage in protected, concerted activities to address or improve working conditions; and even form a union. Under this law, we have the right to act with coworkers to address work-related issues in many ways, including talking with one or more co-workers about our wages and benefits or other working conditions, circulating a petition asking for better hours, participating in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions, and joining with coworkers to talk directly to our employer, to a government agency, or to the media about problems in our workplace. Jollibee or any employer cannot discharge, discipline, or threaten any worker for, or coercively question any worker about, this “protected concerted” activity.
We demand the following: 1) Reinstate all illegally terminated workers, 2) Backpay and compensation for the hardship that Jollibee has caused us from losing our jobs, 3) for Jollibee to publicly apologize to us and all Jollibee workers for violating our rights and 4)
to respect our right to organize.
Late last year, we, workers at Jollibee Journal Square, started talking about asking for a raise and other issues in the workplace. As a result, we resolved to write a sign-on letter to demand: wage increase, holiday pay and other improvements in the workplace. In January of 2023, we started gathering signatures. After a couple of weeks, we garnered the support and signatures of more than 90% of our co-workers in our store. In February, you laid off 9 of us from this store after you learned of our plans to present a signed letter to Jollibee demanding $17/hr, to receive double pay on holidays, and to pay borrowed workers from Journal Square properly.
Instead of respecting the workers, management instead said that Jollibee has been losing money for years, and so everyone with less than 6 months on the job would be laid off. Within a month, Jollibee started interviewing and hiring new workers. We know the truth. We know that in fact, you were trying to undermine us, workers who are simply trying to improve our conditions in the workplace. Jollibee retaliated and terminated us illegally for organizing.
You tried to silence us and kill our belief in the collective power of the workers. But we are here to say that we will never stop fighting for our rights as workers and the rights of all Jollibee workers in the U.S. and Philippines. Last week, we filed an official complaint to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board to report your violation of our rights to organize.
Today, July 6, we are also launching the Justice 4 Jollibee Workers campaign, which has been garnering wide support from the Filipino community and beyond. We chose this day because it is National Fried Chicken Day, when the company seeks to squeeze more profits from the workers at the expense of workers. Many Jollibee workers like us have experienced more dangerous conditions and more bad treatment from management to meet the company’s demand for profit on National Fried Chicken Day.
The Justice 4 Jollibee Workers campaign is not just about what happened to us, but is about all of us workers organizing together. We urge fellow Jollibee workers to speak up for better working conditions and higher wages and join the campaign! Again, we demand that you reinstate us in our jobs, that you compensate us for lost wages, that you agree to our original demands for ALL Jollibee workers AND that you issue a public apology for your treatment of your workers.
We won’t stop until we win our demands and until all Jollibee workers enjoy their rights and genuine respect at work.
Have a jolly day.”