A lawsuit in California apparently claims that frozen pizza could be causing cancer.
The $5 million class action lawsuit claims there is a toxic carcinogen in the cheese for brands like DiGiorno, Stouffers and California Pizza Kitchen.
Nestle produces all three of those brands.
David Hudnall, I work for Palermo's Pizza and it is obvious when you wrote this article you did fully research our pizzas. Here are some facts you left out. Palermo's offer: 30 different sauce combinations in our product line; 100 % cheese; No meat fillers; Six different pizza options( Thin, Hand Toss, Organic, Flat Bread, Natural Rising and Breakfast) Palmermo's Primo Thin Margherita pizza was the recommended as the best frozen pizza in "Eat This, Not That!:The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution" and our Primo Thin Garden pizza was "Heath Magazine" voted America's Healthiest Buys. So, when you say that we need to either up our game or kick those prices down. Maybe you should do the the same on your reporting.
Re: “The definitive guide to frozen pizza”
Spanish Journal-The largest bilingual newspaper in Wisconsin–Attack Against Palermo’s Losing Credibility - After months of being on the offensive, it appears that questions regarding Voces de la Frontera’s led assault against an immigrant founded and owned local company is starting to lose credibility.
Since several Palermo’s workers walked from the company to engage in a strike to raise awareness about the bad working conditions, low wage and disrespect they have had to endure working at the company, questions regarding documented proof of such allegations are starting to reveal that all may not seem as what is being portrayed.
At center of the issues is the allegation that Palermo’s is using immigration as a means to union bust.
The allegation, raised by Christine Neumann – Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, has drawn a sharp response by representatives at Palermo’s who categorically deny her accusation.
According to other news reports, ICE notified Palermo’s that they were going to audit workers at the company early in 2011– a year ago.
After the audit was completed, ICE found 117 workers with issues this year. After further review, ICE found that 89 undocumented workers were employed at Palermo’s.
Palermo’s said these workers were hired under the social security number matching system the government approved for verifying worker status.
ICE threatened Palermo’s with fines, penalties and even arrest if the workers continue working at the company.
Palermo’s, acting on the orders of ICE, immediately decided to terminate those workers for not being able to prove their working status in the United States.
Palermo’s says they contacted Voces de la Frontera to assist with helping find assistance for the 89 undocumented workers. According to a spokesperson at Palermo’s, the company “did not want to just through them under a bus.”
Shortly after talks with Voces de la Frontera, union organizing began at the company. The actions of the workers took Palermo’s by surprise.
Voces de la Frontera soon started charging Palermo’s with accusations that the company is using the ICE audit as a means to stop the workers from unionizing at the company. Company officials have also denied that.
“Voces de la Frontera has no documented evidence that proves their allegations that Palermo’s used the ICE audit to terminated undocumented workers who were organizing a union,” said labor advocate John Cook. “Voces de la Frontera is not trained as a labor negotiator and for them to be representing Palermo’s workers during this campaign is an injustice to those workers and a slap to the labor movement”, continued Cook
In addition, safety at the company has been brought up as a concern as well.
While it is safe to say that an accident at a factory is nothing unusual in itself, Voces de la Frontera argues that the way the company deals with the accidents is the reason why they decided to help the workers go on strike.
According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration records, the company has been fined twice for safety violations that resulted in worker injury. The circumstances surrounding those two accidents appear to be all that Voces de la Frontera needs to charge unsafe working conditions.
The terminated Palermo’s workers are now in their third month of union organizing, after two attempts to vote were blocked by Voces de la Frontera and another union.
Palermo’s Pizza recently called for the vote to proceed. The last scheduled union vote was blocked by Voces de la Frontera indefinitely.
Neumann-Ortiz said “there can be no election until the charges made to the NLRB are resolved.” However, other close to the Palermo’s issue say that if Voces de la Frontera can move the vote forward if they simply petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to allow the vote to proceed.
“If Voces de la Frontera would simply file a petition to consent to a vote to unionize with the NLRB, Palermo’s workers would be able to vote on being union or not within weeks”, said Cook.
In addition, Voces de la Frontera demands that the undocumented workers striking must be reinstated back to work. The workers asking to be reinstated were terminated from employment at Palermo’s after ICE found they did not meet work status requirements for the United States.
Cook said that “it is impossible for Palermo’s to rehire undocumented workers they terminated under the orders of ICE. Palermo’s would be charged for breaking federal immigration law by ICE if they did. The undocumented workers are being told that if they unionize they’ll become reinstated to work and can become citizens. This is a lie”.
Voces de la Frontera did not return a call from the Spanish Journal for an interview.