On Thursday, May 5, at 5:15 PM, teen organizers with the Hyde
Square Task Force will protest Emack & Bolios’ hiring
policies. Teens will picket the Jamaica Plain branch of Emack
& Bolios ice cream shop at 736 Centre St. and will also have a
press conference.
The teens believe that Emack & Bolios’ hiring policies
discriminate against minority youth. Last week, local teens were
told that in Jamaica Plain no one is hired at Emack & Bolios who is
under 18 years of age. According to the 2000 U.S. Census figures,
about 75% of the youth in Jamaica Plain are minorities. At the
Emack & Bolios in Brookline, a predominantly white community one
mile from Jamaica Plain, the hiring age is 16 years of age. The
manager of the Jamaica Plain Emack and Bolio’s informed Jesús
Gerena, the Director of Community Development and Organizing at the
Hyde Square Task Force, and Wandy Peguero, a 17-year old English High
student and youth community organizer, that the policies were different
for JP and Brookline.
Local teens have expressed frustration in finding jobs in local
JP businesses are very angry to hear of the double-standard policies of
Emack & Bolios; they also feel that it discriminates against
minority teens.
The same teens have been meeting with City Councilors and State
Reps in an effort to lobby for City and State government to provide
more summer jobs for youth and they are also advocating that the
private sector also needs to step up and be responsible for employing
local youth, particularly during the summer months.
At the press conference at least two youth organizers with the
Hyde Square Task Force will speak: Gian Gonzalez, 18, who is an
elected member of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, and Chair of
the Council’s Youth Affairs Committee will make a statement.
Wandy Peguero, a current candidate in the upcoming JP Neighborhood
Council elections, who recently applied to the JP branch of Emack &
Bolios and was turned down because of his age, will also speak at
the press conference.
