Employees of Popular NYC Bakery Move to Unionize Over Company’s Support for Israel, ‘Zionist Projects’
A Breads Bakery location in New York City. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
Staff members at the extremely popular New York City establishment Breads Bakery announced they are unionizing over working conditions, unfair wages, and the company’s support for Israel.
Over 30 percent of workers across the company’s locations in New York have signed authorization cards to join the newly formed Breaking Breads Union, which will be represented by United Auto Workers. They compared their hardships as staff members of the company to so-called “genocide” taking place in the Middle East and are demanding that the bakery sever all ties with Israel.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the workers said they refuse to participate “in Zionist projects” such as fundraisers that support what they claim is Israel’s “occupation of Palestine.”
“We demand a future with a redistribution of profits, safer working conditions, more respect, and an end to this company’s support of the genocide happening in Palestine,” they previously said in statement released on Jan. 2. “We cannot and will not ignore the implicit and explicit support this bakery has for Israel. We see our struggles for fair pay, respect, and safety as connected to struggles against genocide and forces of exploitation around the world. There are deep cultural changes that need to happen here, and we need to see accountability from upper management.”
Staff members supporting the union said they delivered the same statement as a speech in front of the bakery’s owner and Israeli founder Gadi Peleg as well as its CEO, fellow Israeli Yonatan Floman, inside the bakery’s Union Square flagship location and also outside of the establishment.
The New York City bakery produces artisan, handmade breads and pastries, but is most famous for its babka. It has five locations across Manhattan, has been featured on television, and has done collaborations with high-profile figures including chefs and cookbook authors Martha Stewart, Padma Lakeshmi, Katie Lee Biegel, and Molly Yeh, as well as Israeli chef Ben Siman-Tov. The bakery regularly sells pastries or breads inspired by the Jewish holidays, such as Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, and Purim. It is reportedly a spinoff of a Tel Aviv bakery, and its menu includes challah, bourekas, and other traditional Jewish foods.
Following the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Breads Bakery launched a project called “Strand With Us,” in which they sold special heart-shaped challahs on Fridays and sent all profits to support Magen David Adom emergency medical services in Israel. The bakery raised more than $20,000 as part of the project. The company also donated its signature black-and-white cookies to a bake sale fundraiser that raised $27,000 to help a Tel Aviv-based organization preparing meals for displaced families and hospital workers in Israel. The bakery additionally sold cookies featuring the Israeli flag, according to Breaking Breads, and annually participates in the Great Nosh, a Jewish food festival on Governor’s Island that is supported by some pro-Israel groups that donate to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
In November 2023, one location of Breads Bakery in Manhattan was vandalized after someone spray-painted with red graffiti the message “Free Gaza” on the store’s window.
In a statement on Wednesday, Breads Bakery said it is concerned about “divisive political issues” in its bakeries.
“Breads Bakery is built on love and genuine care for our team. We make babka, we don’t engage in politics. We celebrate peace and embrace people of all cultures and beliefs,” the company said. “We’ve always been a workplace where people of all backgrounds and viewpoints can come together around a shared purpose, the joy found at a bakery, and we find it troubling that divisive political issues are being introduced into our workplace.”