Famed Bronx Bakery Shut Down. 13-year-old Brings Gun to Tremont School.

A couple of troubling west Bronx news stories happened yesterday.

State labor officials are trying to shut down Arthur Avenue Bakery, a famed establishment in the Bronx's Little Italy, for grossly unfair labor practices.

Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith said she couldn't remember ever having to shut down a place for labor: “The employer was so abusive that we actually made the determination that it would be better for workers to lose their jobs than to continue working there.”

Smith said many of the bakery's 15 employees worked 12-hour shifts for $50, or about $4.15 an hour. Some employees were forced to work their first week without pay and some went 5-10 weeks without receiving a check, Smith said.

Smith thought the bakery had been closed, but on Tuesday a manager there said they were still operating.

Police arrested a 13-year-old student at IS 318 in the Tremont/Mt. Hope area yesterday after it was discovered that he was carrying around an unloaded semi-automatic pistol.