David Sepulveda Photo
Demonstrators outside the restaurant Friday evening.
State Street’s mobster-themed Goodfellas Restaurant was hit Friday with a federal lawsuit by five former employees who accused them of continued wage theft and harassment.
Yale Law School’s Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization filed the suit on behalf of the workers, who accused Goodfellas managers of failing to pay minimum wage or overtime; and of “belittling them” with “racist, xenophobic, and homophobic slurs, and also subjected them to brutal physical working conditions,” according to a release. The suit also charges that their bosses, who have previously been cited for wage and overtime violations, “threatened and intimidated them … to prevent them from seeking legal redress.”
A Goodfellas owner “called us dogs and screamed at us constantly,” the release quotes plaintiff Abimael Perez as saying.
The owners denied the allegations through an attorney, Charles E. Tiernan III.
Update: “The first they heard about a lawsuit was” a request for comment from the Independent, Tiernan stated. “They have not been served with suit papers and deny the allegations outlined in the article which appears in The Independent.”
Click here for a previous story about how the restaurant forked over thousands of dollars in unpaid back wages amid a state labor investigation. And click here for a story about when the restaurant served as the backdrop for a crucial scene in a real-life mortgage-fraud drama.
Around 30 people demonstrated outside Goodfellas Restaurant Friday evening as Unidad Lantina en Accion organizer John Lugo used a bullhorn to make his case for economic justice and fair worker treatment. Signs demanding respect and justice and several worker solidarity-themed posters were carried by marchers. A large, colorful banner urged a boycott of the popular eatery.
Several police officers showed up. They directed marchers to leave the required legal access on the sidewalk but did not otherwise interfere with the demonstration. Inside the restaurant, diners seemed unfazed by the outdoor activity.
Goodfellas management had “no comment” in response to the demonstration or the freshly filed lawsuit in federal court alleging violations of labor laws.
Lugo welcomed the police presence: “Now that the police are here, we should encourage them to go inside and arrest the owner because he is a criminal and should be in jail.” Lugo noted that is the third such time the organization has taken action relative to wage and overtime violations, worker exploitation and mistreatment of workers including a charge of verbal and emotional harassment of a worker based on his sexual orientation.
Paul Bass contributed reporting.