The owner of Kensington’s Golden Farm is suing a community group for $3 million, alleging that store revenues have fallen 20 percent since they began picketing outside of his shop, says the Daily News.
Owner Sonny Kim is charging that New York Communities for Change has caused his business “severe irreparable harm,” when the group began to boycott his store a month ago on behalf of one of Kim’s employees, Felix Trinidad, who died in July and whose family is owed his back wages.
Kim’s lawsuit also cites “abusive, obstructive and unreasonable demonstration tactics” — like picketing with drums and whistles inside the store, says the Daily News.
Boycott organizers said the rally’s purpose has also been to get Kim to negotiate a contract with paid sick days as well as fair wages – at the onset of the feud, Kim’s employees were paid $4.86 per hour for 72-hour work weeks.
“The intention is to scare us away — but we won’t be scared,” NYCC organizing director Jonathan Westin told the paper. “We will fight this every step of the way.”
City Councilman Brad Lander, D-Park Slope, was a former Golden Farm customer until the feud, but has placed himself squarely on NYCC’s side.
“(Trinidad’s) low-income family has no other source of income; they’re surviving on contributions and donations,” Lander, a Park Slope resident, told the paper. “The right thing for Sonny Kim to do is to help them out.”
