Photo retailer B&H faces unwanted exposure over worker safety

Even amid fast food workers’ fight for $15 an hour and other low-wage worker campaigns, the action against B&H is unusual for the gravity of the health and safety abuses alleged by its employees, say organizers and lawyers working with the campaign.

In the main B&H warehouse located in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, the walls and ceilings are insulated with fiberglass that fills the air and flecks off onto the worker’s skin, causing rashes, respiration problems and daily nosebleeds, employees say. Inside a second warehouse, on Evergreen Avenue in Brooklyn, employees say they have worked amid asbestos-insulated tubing. “They would tell us to clean the tubes,” recalled maintenance worker Miguel Angel Muñoz Meneses, “but nobody wanted to touch them.”

The men, many of whom are undocumented, testify of suffering from kidney stones, dizziness and fainting after being denied access to water or bathroom breaks. They say there is often a lack of basic safety equipment. “If we ask for gloves, they answer that they do not have gloves, because gloves are too expensive,” said Isaias Rojas, a B&H employee.

One man reported he was badly cut while lifting boxes, and the managers refused to call an ambulance, instead advising him to simply wait until the bleeding stopped. Another said a manager threw hot water on him and slapped his face. Others report those who complain are fired or threatened with deportation.

“They treat us as if we were animals,” Florencio Salgado said. “We are involved in this because we are tired of being abused.”

For many of the men, the most egregious offense occurred on Sept. 5, 2014, when two tractor trailers parked adjacent to the Navy Yard warehouse burst into flames, sending clouds of black smoke into the shipping and receiving section as the workers were inside.

Silverio Cano Alberto, who has worked for B&H for seven years, said he was on the second floor as the flames licked the outside of the warehouse.

“There was smoke and yelling and no one, including the manager, paid any attention,” he said. “Finally, they told us we could leave, but we each had to pass through the metal detectors, which took about a half hour. When I got outside, the parking lot was filled with firemen and police. Imagine — if the fire had spread, we would never have all made it out.”

Stephanie Luce, a professor of labor studies at the Murphy Institute at the City University of New York, said that, if verified, these allegations would constitute violations of the “highest level of basic rights.”

The pain grew worse as the months stretched on. But Orellana, an immigrant from Honduras with little formal education, had few options. “Even if I feel I am dying from the pain, I have to work,” he said.

His depression worsened as he felt alienated from his family, he says. He became overwhelmed with suicidal thoughts.

Many of Orellana’s co-workers also report experiencing stress, anxiety, depression and panic attacks during the 12- to 17-hour shifts in the windowless rooms.

Jorge Lora, who was a teacher in the Dominican Republic before moving to the United States, decided to become one of the early leaders of the campaign because he was tired of what he describes as verbal abuse. “They make me feel as if I was nobody,” he said. “It makes me feel beaten down, like I’m a loser. … I don’t mind hard work, but what I don’t like is the humiliation.”

B&H Photo Video has a record of alleged workplace discrimination violations. In 2007, B&H settled  $4.3 million discrimination lawsuit filed by Latino workers over unequal pay and lack of health benefits. The suit forced B&H to submit to monitoring by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Yet, despite the monitoring, B&H was soon slapped by a new round of lawsuits. In 2009, a group of female workers sued the company, arguing they were paid less than male employees and were not promoted because of their gender. B&H promptly fired the lead plaintiff. (The suit was later dismissed.) In 2011, in the third suit in five years, B&H was hit by another multimillion dollar racial discrimination lawsuit, filed by two Latino workers, who claimed the company refused to promote them and that B&H was an “abusive work environment.”