Melinda Tuhus Photo
Bruno Suraci said he fired Gregorio Mendoza for sleeping on the job and other violations. Mendoza said, in an interview from Mexico, “There are cameras everywhere in there. None of them will show me sleeping on the job.”
Suraci (pictured) runs Suraci Metal Finishing in a sprawling building where Poplar Street dead ends into River Street in Fair Haven.
Several members of a group called the New Haven Workers’ Alliance held a news conference there on Friday afternoon to support Mendoza. He said he was fired in May, after suffering injuries to his back and legs, and the company owes him about $8,500 for overtime, vacation time, and his last day of work. He had worked there for five years. He said that shortly before he was fired, he worked 82 hours in one week, a fact which he said he believes precipitated his injury.
He said Suraci’s “right-hand man,Victor” explained to him in Spanish that his boss would cover his medical bills.
But when he presented the bills, Mendoza said, Suraci got angry, and fired him on May 10.
Protest organizer John Jairo Lugo (pictured) said that Mendoza returned to Mexico in mid-August to deal with a family problem. Before leaving, he filed a complaint against Suraci with the Connecticut Department of Labor, which sent someone to the plant to investigate. (A spokesman for the DOL declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.) Lugo said the group decided to act rather than wait what could be a long time for the DOL to issue a ruling.
“We tried to talk to [Suraci] twice, but he referred us to his lawyer,” Lugo said, adding, “This company is in Fair Haven,” and should act like a good neighbor.
Suraci said his company is a good neighbor.
“We have 91 employees, and 60 were hired just this year. He [Mendoza] is the only one who’s disgruntled,” Suraci said in an interview at the plant Friday. “We have an agreement with the Roger [Sherman] House and ACES to hire men leaving prison and the disabled,” respectively.
He described his company’s work as “metal coating and different types of treatments to supplement the supply chain. We’re one of the few companies hiring in Connecticut, but it’s hard. We’re competing against China and Mexico.”
When this reporter tried to ask more questions about Mendoza, another man in Suraci’s office said to contact the company’s attorney and to leave the premises. Attorney Justin Falco did not return calls seeking comment.
When asked in a phone conversation if he would like to return to the U.S. to work, Mendoza, who has a wife and six grown children in Mexico State, said it was unlikely: “It would be hard for me to return at my age.” He’s 57.
At the end of the brief press conference, Lugo said Mendoza’s supporters would be back every week outside the plant until justice is done. He also urged several of the workers who were either working or on break outside the building “not to be afraid to contact us” if they have problems with their boss.
I really support John Lugo's tireless work on behalf of the latino community in Greater New Haven. However, this work is often performed while he collects a salary from Community Mediation, Inc. (the non-profit on Elm street). The City of New Haven, as well as other donors- public and private- might take issue with this. Charlie Pillsbury, the great New Haven Don Quixote, let this go on for years before his retirement.