Protest at All-Volunteer Housing Works Thrift Shop
Backed by RWDSU, workers use massive rat to make a point at Park Slope outlet
BY MATT TRACY
Against the backdrop of
a massive infl ated rat,
current and former
Housing Works employees
huddled with union representatives
outside the non-profi t’s South
Slope thrift shop on September 12
to protest the exclusive use of volunteers
to operate the store.
The staffers, already fed up with
Housing Works management after
a series of recent layoffs, encouraged
folks in the neighborhood to
boycott the shop after it ended a
months-long, COVID-induced hiatus
by reopening without any paid
employees.
“They opened a thrift shop using
free labor even while laid-off retail
workers still haven’t been given
their jobs back,” Brian Grady, an
out gay housing coordinator for
Housing Works, said during the
rally.
The organizers also used the
weekend demonstration at the
Housing Works outpost to continue
demanding forward progress in
their protracted union organizing
effort, which remains at a standstill
following surprisingly fi erce
resistance from the non-profi t’s out
gay CEO, Charles King.
After the Brooklyn offi ce of the
National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) gave workers a green light
to move ahead with an election,
King appealed his workers’ election
bid to the NLRB’s Washington, DC,
headquarters, a move that halted
the union vote and has drawn
stinging criticism from workers
at the non-profi t, which provides
assistance to individuals living
with HIV/ AIDS and experiencing
homelessness.
“They’d rather ask the Trump
administration’s appointees at the
NLRB to protect their interests
than bargain in good faith with
their employees,” Grady added.
Those same workers who lost
their jobs — despite King’s assertion
to Gay City News last month
that the laid-off workers would get
offered an alternative gig — were
Housing Works employees seeking to unionize sent their employer a message with a large rat in front of
a store operated only by volunteers.
Brian Grady and Brian Fleurantin, who are still employed at Housing Works, blasted their employer for
delaying their union drive and using unpaid volunteers following a wave of layoffs.
outraged when they found out that
volunteers would be running the
Housing Works thrift shop at Seventh
Avenue and 14th Street.
“With 24 percent of workers in
NYC out of work, Housing Works
should call back laid-off staff,”
workers wrote in a fl yer they
passed out to pedestrians passing
by the store. “We believe it is
not fair for Housing Works to rely
on unemployed or underemployed
working people to work for free.”
Members of the Housing Works
organizing group were accompanied
at the demonstration by representatives
from the Retail, Wholesale,
MATT TRACY
MATT TRACY
and Department Store Union
(RWDSU), which has represented
employees in talks with Housing
Works management since last year
when workers marched off the job
and put their employer on blast for
what they said were poor working
conditions, pricey health insurance
plans, and other complaints.
The negotiations have made little
progress, with union representatives
stressing that King is stonewalling
them at every turn.
“The bottom line is this: Every
time workers at Housing Works
have tried to demonstrate the overwhelming
support the union has,
EMPLOYMENT
Charles King has fought any effort
to let his members have a voice,”
RWDSU’s out gay president, Stuart
Appelbaum, told Gay City News
last month. “Time after time. It’s
been consistent. Always with a different
excuse.”
Former Housing Works staffers
who have lost their jobs in recent
months detailed their experiences
during the September 12 rally.
Emily Chiavelli, who worked as a
Housing Works sales associate,
said she was initially furloughed
in March and subsequently lost
her job in May when she quietly
received a termination letter in her
email’s spam folder.
“I texted my manager to ask
about it and that’s how she found
out,” Chiavelli said. “Housing
Works needs to hire all of the paid
employees and let them vote.”
In interviews with Gay City
News’ sister publication The Brooklyn
Paper this month, many former
workers accused Housing Works of
terminating them in retaliation for
their union organizing efforts. Eric
Fretz, a former Housing Works
thrift shop worker who told Gay
City News last month that he suspected
his termination from the
organization earlier this year was
retaliatory, argued that Housing
Works is taking extra advantage of
volunteers to do work that was previously
done by paid workers.
“Having volunteers is fi ne,” Fretz
told Gay City News at the demonstration.
“When I worked in Park
Slope we always had volunteers in
the store, but there was always an
understanding that the staff did
something. This is a completely
different thing.”
He added, “Every word out of
Charles King’s mouth is a lie.”
When reached by email, a Housing
Works spokesperson acknowledged
that the store is being entirely
run by volunteers. Housing
Works president Matt Bernardo
said in a written statement that
the store reopened as part of a pilot
program to determine how volunteers
can work with the organi-
➤ HOUSING WORKS, continued on p18
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