By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
WEST VILLAGE – About 20 people armed with signs gathered outside of an Eighth Avenue sushi restaurant Wednesday to protest the firing of a deliveryman who allegedly was let go after attempting to unionize workers.
Tian Wen Ye, 32, said he was threatened physically and fired from Kawa Sushi on Oct. 22 after he tried to galvanize workers who had been making sub-par wages at the Eighth Avenue eatery.
“I wanted to organize a union to demand better pay,” Ye said in a written statement handed out at the rally. “Because of this the owners started to retaliate against me.”
Ye, who was the delivery manager, claims he was physically threatened by four restaurant employees and ultimately fired.
Kawa Sushi's manager disagreed with Ye's assessment, saying his bad behavior led to his dismissal.
“It’s not the truth,” Kawa Sushi manager Jack Weng said. “He was fired because he refused to deliver food.”
Ye's employers claimed in a written statement that he also failed to hand out sushi menus to residents and sometimes stole tips from deliveries he made.
Ye's firing wasn’t the first confrontation he had with his employers.
In March 2007, Ye said he was fired for complaining about his rate of pay. However, Ye and three coworkers got their jobs back and were paid for income lost after winning a federal lawsuit against the sushi restaurant for paying them below minimum wage.
Ye said the owners, Yi Xiang Cao and Yi Feng Wang, forced deliverymen to work 72 hours a week for only $1.90 an hour.
Josephine Lee, a spokesperson for the organization that coordinated the rally, said Ye’s working conditions were “completely unacceptable.”
Lee's organization, called Justice Will Be Served, helps predominately Chinese workers obtain fair employment conditions.
Previously, Justice Will Be Served organized protesters against Saigon Grill Restaurant and Simply Nails, both on the Upper West Side.
“We cannot allow this to continue in this city,” said Tony Tsai, vice president of 318 Restaurant Workers Union.
Ye immigrated to New York in 2001. He lives in Brooklyn and supports his unemployed wife and two children.
“It’s become increasingly difficult to support my family,” Ye said via a translator. “Financially it’s important to fight to get my job back.”
Ye hopes to be reinstated with fair wages and an improved working environment.
Protesters at the rally also called for the boycott of Sushi Yawa, on 25 West 8th St., which has the same owners as Kawa Sushi.
