A group of former Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen and Market employees, and supporters, rallied in front of the Foxtrot Commissary in Pilsen on April 26, 2024, to demand back pay following abrupt closures of all Foxtrot and Dom’s stores. (Eunice Alpasan / WTTW News)
A group of former Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen and Market employees rallied Friday in Pilsen to demand parent company Outfox Hospitality provide back pay following the abrupt closures of all Foxtrot and Dom’s stores earlier this week.
The upscale grocery retailers announced Tuesday they would cease operations, shuttering 33 Foxtrots and 2 Dom’s locations across Chicago, Austin, Dallas and the D.C. area.
“I just cannot believe that our former employer would rob us for the time that would be needed to find a new job,” former worker Adela Maravilla said in Spanish through a translator during a news conference Friday. “What happened here wasn’t right.”
Friday’s rally took place outside the Foxtrot Commissary, where food that later got sold at Foxtrot and Dom’s locations was prepared. Former Foxtrot Commissary employees said they were told the company would cease operations in the middle of the workday Tuesday.
The store closures came as a surprise, workers said. The closures come nearly five months after the two companies announced a merger under the parent company Outfox Hospitality.
“We merged; we heard we were gonna be having (an) expected increase in our orders,” said former supervisor Oscar Correa, who worked at the company for five years. “They were hiring more people, too.”
A group of former employees at Foxtrot Commissary approached the workers’ rights organization Arise Chicago for help following the layoffs, organizer Jose Uribe said. The workers filed charges with the Illinois Department of Labor on Tuesday, the organization said.
“We are here today to give voice to these workers,” Uribe said at Friday’s news conference. “Workers are learning about their rights, they will not be outfoxed, they are not giving up and they are here to ask what is owed to them.”
The former employees plan to meet Monday to figure out next steps, organizers said.
Outfox Hospitality is facing a class action lawsuit filed Wednesday by a former Foxtrot retail store employee, alleging the company violated federal and Illinois employment laws by laying off workers without prior notice.
The lawsuit claims the company should pay former employees unpaid wages and benefits, which the suit claims should have been paid during the 60 days after notice of the layoffs.
Both the federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification acts require large employers of a certain size to provide 60 days advance notice of mass layoffs; however, it remains unclear whether the company would fall under the WARN acts.
Outfox Hospitality did not respond to a request for comment.
Note: This article was updated on April 29, 2024, to correct the wording of a quote.
Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected] | 773-509-5362 | @eunicealpasan
