Palermo’s To Re-Hire 8 Striking Employees

A year after Palermo’s Pizza fired striking employees, the Wisconsin company has agreed to return eight of the workers to their jobs with back pay, allow a union election and post a notice to employees that Palermo’s would obey labor laws.

The firings led to unfair labor practice charges against the company and spawned a series of protests and a boycott that eventually spread across the country.

The USW worked closely with the Palermo’s employees and helped organize the national protests.

USW District 2 Director Mike Bolton said there were positive and negative aspects to the settlement. “It took much too long to get even this small bit of justice for these workers,” he said. Also, too many workers won’t get the chance to vote in the union election “because they were fired for speaking out,” Bolton said.

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