NLRB Charges Canter’s With Unfair Practices

Canter’s delicatessen, an institution on Fairfax Avenue since 1948, faces charges of unfair labor practices arising from a long-running dispute over health insurance and unionization at the 24-hour deli, bakery and restaurant.

In an order setting a trial before an administrative law judge on June 2, investigators for the National Labor Relations Board cited complaints that management at Canter’s threatened to fire picketing employees, made vulgar, obscene or racist comments to union representatives and bypassed the restaurant workers union when it introduced its own health plan in the summer of 1990.

Maria Elena Durazo, president of Local 11 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, hailed the news Tuesday, saying Canter’s has been trying to oust the union since contract talks broke down in August, 1990.

“For the men and women who day after day have been told by the Canter family members to ‘go back to Mexico,’ called ‘dirty Mexican’ and ‘cockroach’ right outside the restaurant (and) fired on trumped-up charges, this is finally their hour of justice,” she said.

Terri Bloomgarden, chief financial officer for the family-owned restaurant, denied the charges. Canter’s, which attracts an eclectic clientele, is the largest unit represented by Local 11.

“The employees and management feel that this is just a stalling tactic to prevent the employees’ right to take a decertification vote,” Bloomgarden said, citing a request by some employees for an election to determine if the union should remain as their bargaining agent.

“We are just trying to run a business and keep 150 people working,” she said.

The election, requested in October, 1990, has been delayed by the union’s complaints of labor law violations, charges that the NLRB’s attorneys will present at the June 2 hearing.

By issuing the complaint, the labor relations board indicated “there’s sufficient evidence to warrant a trial over the allegations brought by the charging party--in this case the local,” NLRB supervisor-examiner James Small said Tuesday.

Although investigators found enough evidence to warrant a trial, Sidney Rosen, acting NLRB regional director, said, “We’re not crediting (the arguments) of one side over the other.” He said that the judge’s ruling, which may not come for several months, will represent the federal agency’s position unless it is appealed to the labor relations board’s headquarters in Washington.