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Just because Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is set to become Governor in a few days doesn't mean he's slacking on the old job. The AG's office says that SoHo store Yellow Rat Bastard has cheated employees out of $1 million. According to the NY Times, Spitzer says that the store and its affiliates have paid less than minimum wage, failed to pay overtime, and fired or demoted employees for complaining to the AG's office. And not only were there abusive managers, there actually were rats running around the store!
Kino Crosby, security guard who told Spitzer's office that he worked 12-13 hours a day but never got time and a half, described the work environment, "When you arrive early in the morning, sometimes the rats attack you. I was almost bitten." And another cashier said that when lines would get long, managers would say, "What are you, stupid? You didn’t go to school? Can’t you go faster?"
The stores include Rubber Sole, Antique Orange, Sloppy Joe's, F.A.T. Jeans, Shoes, Boys and Chicks, and other YRB stores. The assets of Alla Levy, one of the owners and wife of the store's founder, were frozen.
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Wow who would have thought the management was a scam just like the store :P
Haha, as a person who was friends with most of the staff in 2004, I can tell you that these things are all entirely true and really just the tip of iceberg.
Fortunately, the employees filed a class action lawsuit against YRB and won the right to be paid minimum wage.
However, after FICA and taxes, they are making almost the same amount as they were before!
YRB is shady. No doubt about it.
Unionize!
They used to have rats in the window (like chicks at Easter) as 'advertising' during the hot Days of summer, baking in the sun, without water. It stopped when animal rights activists picketed.
They also painted the entire sidewalk yellow until Landmarks came down on them
Real scum
People go to this place? And, those other stores? are they stores or brands?
Damn, hipsters will buy anything.
Anyway, what a shock, a store with a name like yellow rat bastard cheats their employees.
They do sound like scumbags. Bring back OK Hardware on Broadway.
Oh shut up about hipsters already.
Looks like someone got their vintage T-shirt all frazzled.
The name is a reference to a Sin City comic. And the employees are working with a union - the Retail Warehouse and Distribution Services Union (RWDSU), which is affiliated with the UFCW. They are also working with the community group GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side.) Kudos to Spitzer for taking these guys on and to the workers for holding management accountable for its criminally exploitative practies.
How does a t-shirt get frazzled?
actually it's not really hipster fashion, a lot of the clothing there is sort of post-rave, i guess.
i will admit that a lot of my wardrobe came from YRB; they were one of the only stores in the city that sold UFO's
they're jooos! I tell you, jooooos!
Post-rave, hipster...i don't know how accurate those descriptions are...it almost seems like it's the sterotypical "New York Store" for tourists. It has a scandalous name (try opening a store with that name in Omaha), has a fake gritty look and has "underground" clothing brands that Midwestern Gap and American Eagle wearers think NYers are into. It's a tourist store.
OMg are you serious? there are rats tehre? man that dude is bitchyy. and i just like applied to work tehre today . i wonder if i should work tehre now i mean i need money to buy stuff and all =T