48th St. Wu Liang Ye Pulled Into Protest
The Rock Center Tree Lighting wasn’t the only thing causing craziness on 48th Street yesterday. Fork in the Road is reporting that disgruntled Wu Liang Ye workers (from the now closed 39th & 86th Street locations) were protesting the branch on 48th btw. 5+6th yesterday. You might remember that back in July these same workers held a demonstration outside the Wu Liang Ye on 39th and 3rd Lex., claiming that the restaurant (along with the 86th Street location) was owned by the Chinese Government and horribly mistreated their employees. In October, a judge ruled that the locations had to pay back wages and compensation to the workers, but those two branches have closed since then- leaving the Wu Liang Ye on 48th Street the only location left to protest in front of (even though 48th Street was excluded from the lawsuit by proving they had a different owner.)
The workers told Fork in the Road they don’t care what the paperwork says, all three Wu Liang Ye locations were opened and run by the same person. If these allegations turn out to be true, it’s hard not to side with underpaid and mistreated workers- but my stomach hopes that the 48th Street location really does have nothing to do with this. Wu Liang Ye serves some of the best Szechuan food in Midtown (a fact that I discovered thanks to Fork in the Road, coincidentally enough.) It looks like Blondie and Brownie agree with me as well. They broke the picket lines yesterday for some Dan Dan Noodles.
Related:
Workers Stage Protest Against Chinese Govt. Owned Wu Liang Ye
Fork in the Road Weighs in on Wu Liang Ye
Posted by Zach Brooks at 8:30 am, December 3rd, 2009 under Wu Liang Ye.
5 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
5 Comments
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Thanks! I fixed it…
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I almost ordered from them for dinner last night. Glad that I didn’t even if their food is delicious!
I respect picket lines when I know about them.
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@officeworker: I had no idea that there was a protest when I went to pick up my order (fyi Blondie wasn’t involved and didn’t have lunch with me yesterday), and I seriously considered not going in to pick it up at all. Because I generally check out new places on Midtown Lunch to see any reviews before I commit I had actually just read Zach’s various write ups on ML about this location including the one from this summer that linked to the New York Times article that said this particular branch was not named in the lawsuit that the workers were seeking damages for and that they had proven in court that they were under different ownership and actually gotten that case dismissed against them. I have mixed feelings about the whole situations. The actions of the restaurants name in the lawsuit are outrageous, and I very much side with their workers, but if this branch was not named in the suit and they were able to convince the courts that their ownership has been separate for years then I need more information about actual allegations against this particular branch. I will be following this story and if the truth comes to light that this particular branch is involved or acted in a similar way to the other restaurants with a full time, I will definitely publically boycott them until the situation with their workers is rectified.
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The Wu Liang Gang aint nothin to F*ck wit…
FYI – Wu Liang Ye was on Lexington, not 3rd….