Yale Daily News has published a strongly worded editorial urging the university to evict Gourmet Heaven if the deli does not respond to new allegations of retaliatory firings and continuing wage theft. Here’s an excerpt:Watch movie online The Transporter Refueled (2015)
The law, in this case, seems feebly equipped to protect the people that are most vulnerable. The only remaining path to justice is through direct action on the part of our University, which serves as both Gourmet Heaven’s landlord and clientele.
First, University Properties should pressure Cho to ameliorate employee conditions with the threat of eviction. University Properties is complicit in mistreatment at Gourmet Heaven. It has only been willing thus far to issue a vague statement, promising that it “will not renew the lease of any tenant not in complete compliance with the labor laws.” But we cannot wait until July 2016, when Gourmet Heaven’s lease expires, to address these violations.
Administrators must ensure that the many allegations against Gourmet Heaven — including workplace intimidation, cash payments and deplorable housing conditions — are fully investigated. And should any allegations be substantiated, University Properties has the legal basis, and the moral obligation, to terminate the lease immediately.
Second, we call for a continued protest and boycott of Gourmet Heaven, both to pressure Cho as well as University Properties. For students to boycott a business on Yale’s property sends a clear message to administrators that we believe something is wrong. And as Gourmet Heaven is our only late-night food option, the boycott sends a message directly to Cho: It’s not that we prefer a different sandwich, but that we will not stomach his unjust labor practices.
The approach we take toward Gourmet Heaven matters beyond this specific case. We have little power to change wage theft on a national level, but we can set the precedent that our community will not tolerate open allegations of worker abuse going unchecked. We do not know the scope of labor injustice in New Haven, or even within University-owned properties. But acting on this one case, we can establish how the University should act when allegations of worker mistreatment arise in the future.