JULY 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 29
LAST OF THEIR KIND CLUB BUSTS UNION
BY BROOKE LEWITAS
The Pine Hollow Country Club
fired on June 3 its two remaining
groundskeepers without warning,
prompting the workers’ union to
file charges with the National Labor
Relations Board.
The two men fired were Juan Caba
and Yunardo Nuñez. These workers
are represented by the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU).
SEIU has 2 million workers in sectors
including healthcare and property
management.
“I don't know how I will pay the
mortgage on our new house,” Nuñez
tells the Press. "We deserve better
treatment."
Caba worked at Pine Hollow for 20
years before he was terminated.
There, he was responsible for the upkeep
of the 18-hole golf course as well
as the eight tennis courts. During the
season, he and the other groundskeepers
worked 12-hour days starting at
5:30 a.m., six days a week.
The club used to employ nine
groundskeepers, all of whom belonged
to the union. One of the men died from
Covid complications. The remaining
eight were called and asked to return
to work at the start of the season.
Then, six of them were informed they
were no longer being asked to return,
union officials say. This was a violation
of their union contract.
Pine Hollow was recently purchased
by Manhattan-based real estate firm
Wilshire Enterprises Inc., in a process
that the union claims to have been shut
out of.
"We immediately reached out to them
and said that we wanted to work with
them,” says Assistant to the President
and also the head of the union on Long
Island Lenore Friedlaender. “We
tried to call and track them down,
but they never returned a phone call,
a letter, an email. We reached out to
the attorney who was handling the
transaction, and nothing."
Friedlaender was able to get in contact
with one of the co-owners by calling
another club in his ownership.
"I called there, and he called back,”
Friedlaender says. “The conversation
was very short. I started explaining
that the groundskeepers wanted to
keep working there. He said, ‘I'm not
going to talk to you,' and hung up."
Caba adds, "Everyone has the right to
buy and sell their businesses as they
see fit, but the club should have been
responsible and told us what was going
to happen to our jobs. Whenever
you'd ask a question, they would shrug
and say, ‘I don't know.’"
The terminated groundskeepers were
the only unionized groundskeepers
on the Island, according to the union.
When the union representative and
employees returned to the club after
their termination in order to get some
clarification, they realized that they
had been replaced by several nonunion
workers.
"Discrimination in hiring is illegal,
and discriminating due to union
membership is illegal," Friedlaender
said.
Neither Wilshire Enterprises nor the
Pine Hollow Country Club responded
to multiple attempts for contact.
SEIU filed charges with the National
Labor Relations Board on June 4. On
June 9, three of the eight were offered
the chance to return to work. Two of
them have accepted.
Caba says,"I felt terrible. It was a shock.
I left my youth there at the club. Now,
I have to scramble to make my daily
bread. If I can't work there, I have
to work somewhere. So I'm running
around trying to figure out what I can
do to make some money."
Pine Hollow Country Club (Photo by Ed Shin)
“I left my youth there at the club,” says Juan Caba.
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
