28 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • APRIL 2021
SOUTHAMPTON’S TATE’S BAKE SHOP ACCUSED OF USING
Tate›s Bake Shop factory in East Moriches may soon be a union shop. (Photo by Barbara Lassen)
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
Southampton-based Tate’s Bake Shop,
a household name thanks to its crispy
cookies sold nationwide, saw its sweet
success story sour following allegations
that it intimidated undocumented
workers seeking to unionize by saying
they could be deported if they did so.
The company’s nearly 500 East Moriches
based factory workers, who make
1.5 million cookies daily—enough for
every Suffolk County resident to eat
one per day—raised concerns about
working conditions during the first
peak of the coronavirus pandemic in
spring 2020. So they reached out over
the summer to union leaders, who led
a campaign to organize the employees.
But before the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) mailed eligible workers
their ballots on March 26, accusations
surfaced that the company was trying
to intimidate employees from joining
Amalgamated Local 298.
“Telling employees that they will be
deported if they vote for a union is
scary,” a worker who did not want to
give his name told the Press’ Spanish
language sister publication, Noticia
Long Island. “We hope that the vote can
take place without fear of retaliation.”
The news came amid a growing push
to unionize Amazon.com workers in
Alabama who began voting by mail in
February on whether to become the
first group of U.S. Amazon employees
to unionize. In response, President
Joe Biden has expressed support for
the Amazon employees and defended
workers’ rights to form unions.
Accusations of violating federal laws
prohibiting the intimidation of workers
seeking to unionize—let alone suggesting
that workers who are members
of a marginalized immigrant community
could be deported for exercising
their rights—stand in stark contrast to
the quaint story of Tate’s being founded
by Kathleen King, who got her start
selling the popular homemade cookies
at an East End farmstand in the 1970s.
King sold the company for $500 million
in 2018 to Illinois-based Mondelēz International,
Inc., the parent company
of Oreo, Nabisco, Ritz and other cookie
and snack makers, which reported $27
billion in revenue in 2020.
“OLA was made aware at the height
of the pandemic… that workers were
expected to work in environments
that were not fully safeguarded,” says
Minerva Perez, executive director of
OLA of Eastern Long Island, a nonprofit
group that advocates for Hispanic immigrants.
“We learned that at one point
most of the building was shut down due
to COVID but a factory area with 40 or
so immigrants was kept going.”
After OLA’s attorney reached out to
the company about the concerns, the
section was closed, Perez says.
“We are concerned by any alleged
threats of deportation made by an employer,”
she adds. “While OLA cannot
comment on the allegations directly, we
can certainly stand by our workforces
that are often made up of immigrant
labor as they are the bedrock of our
economy and communities in so many
ways. OLA urges that respect be given
to workers everywhere and an end to
exploitation and threats wherever they
emerge.”
The union has filed a complaint against
the company with the NLRB in response
to the claims.
“They have the right to vote in free
and fair elections without fear of
deportation and retaliation from the
leadership,” said Joseph Giovinco, secretary
treasurer of Local 298, which
is part of the 8,500-member Eastern
States Joint Board and its affiliate, the
“We hope that the vote can take place without fear
of retaliation,” an anonymous worker said.
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