Restaurant Opportunities Center

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
AbbreviationROC United
Formation2002
FounderSaru Jayaraman, Fekkak Mamdouh
TypeNot-for-profit
PurposeTo improve wages and working conditions for the nation's restaurant workforce
HeadquartersNew York, New York
Region
United States
Websiterocunited.org

The Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC) is a not-for-profit organization and worker center with affiliates in a number of cities across the United States. Its mission is to improve wages and working conditions for the nation's low wage restaurant workforce. Its tactics and strategy have drawn fire from business groups and restaurant industry lobbyists.[1][2]

History

The group was founded with funding from multiple foundations with a stated goal to “organize all unorganized restaurant workers in New York City.”[3] ROC-NY was founded by immigration attorney Saru Jayaraman and Windows on the World waiter Fekkak Mamdouh and other restaurant workers who survived the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001[3] to provide support for the displaced workers, including undocumented immigrants. These workers had worked in restaurants in the WTC, including in the Windows on the World restaurant located on its top floors.[4][5]

Jayaraman is the author of Behind the Kitchen Door (2013) and Forked (2016). The first book, Behind the Kitchen Door, follows the lives of restaurant workers in eight American cities, seeking to call attention to their low wages, along with unfair labor practices, exploitation, and unsanitary kitchen practices. The second book profiles restaurants that are doing right by their employees by providing fair compensation and benefits.[6][7]

Mamdouh is the co-author, with Rinku Sen, of The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Era of Global Immigration (2008), a book that argues for a free flow of international labor to match globalization's free flow of capital.[8]

The March 2013 announcement by Richard L. Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, that organized labor would work more closely with groups focusing on aid immigrant workers is one factor in the decision by business groups to target ROC.[2]

Activities

See also: Tipped wage

ROC conducts workplace campaigns to encourage restaurant owners to increase wages and improve working conditions for employees.[9] ROC provides free training in many areas of restaurant work for restaurant workers and workers seeking employment in most of its chapters.[10]

In early 2012, ROC launched its "Dignity at Darden" campaign, targeting what it alleged to be discrimination and wage theft by Darden Restaurants, which owns and operates such chains as Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Capital Grille.[11][12] ROC members and staff appeared at Darden's 2012 annual shareholder's meeting to advance their complaints.[13] ROC dropped the lawsuit in mid-2012.[14]

In 2013, ROC United launched its One Fair Wage campaign - a policy that would increase the tipped minimum wage to the minimum wage and allow tipping practices to remain in place. In 2019, the One Fair Wage campaign split off from ROC United and became its own non-profit with Jayaraman and Mamdouh leaving ROC United to lead the new non-profit.

Since the split in 2019, ROC has returned to its roots of workplace organizing, local policy work, and workforce development.

In 2020, ROC United raised around one million dollars to support unemployed & underemployed restaurant workers during the height of the pandemic. Some of those campaigns included the Caribou Coffee Workers United campaign, the paid sick days campaign in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Strategic Hospitality legal settlement in Nashville, Tennessee.[15][16][17]

In 2023, ROC United was recognized by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for its work to address dangers and hazards of heat exposure in the restaurant industry.[18]

Research

The organization also undertakes research on the state of the food industry with a special focus on issues that affect food workers. ROC's more than 30 published reports have been widely cited and covered by media.

Expansion

Since its founding, ROC has expanded to several cities across the country with thousands of members.[19] Restaurant Opportunities Centers United was founded in January 2008 following a national restaurant workers' convention that took place in Chicago in August 2007.[20] ROC has chapter offices in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, Oakland, and DC.

References

  1. ^ "Eatocracy - CNN". CNN. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  2. ^ a b Greenhouse, Steven (January 16, 2014). "Advocates for Workers Raise the Ire of Business". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  3. ^ a b La Botz, Dan (January–February 2004). "Immigrant Restaurant Workers Hope to Rock New York". Dollars & Sense. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
  4. ^ Dobnik, Verena (September 10, 2003). "Restaurant workers look through new Windows". Times Daily.
  5. ^ The Real News Network, 11 November 2011, "9/11 Survivors Create Worker Owned Restaurants 9/11: Restaurant worker survivors open fair wage businesses"
  6. ^ "What Goes on Behind the Kitchen Door : Bay Area Bites". Blogs.kqed.org. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  7. ^ McMillan, Tracie (2 February 2016). "'Forked' Rates Restaurants On How They Treat Their Workers". NPR. npr.org. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  8. ^ "Book Review: The Accidental American - IMAGINE 2050". 10 November 2009. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  9. ^ London, Paul A. (September 18, 2012). "Good News: Restaurants Are Hiring". Huffington Post. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  10. ^ Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, "What We Do" accessed November 11, 2011
  11. ^ "Restaurant Opportunities Centers United launch campaign to improve restaurant industry jobs". Time Out Chicago. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  12. ^ "Darden Restaurants: Corporate Rap Sheet - Corporate Research Project". www.corp-research.org. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  13. ^ "Workers grill Darden Restaurants CEO at shareholders meeting". Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  14. ^ "US: Restaurant workers group drops racial discrimination charges against Darden. :: Equality Law :: Promoting Equality, Preventing Discrimination". Archived from the original on 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2014-01-31.
  15. ^ "Caribou Coffee workers join in national campaign for better COVID-19 protections". MinnPost. June 19, 2020.
  16. ^ "Other Voices: For decades, I've struggled without paid leave". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  17. ^ Article submitted (March 14, 2021). "Nashville Restaurant Workers Win Over $1 Million in Wage Theft Settlements".
  18. ^ OSHA, "National Heat Contest" accessed June 9, 2023
  19. ^ "Activist at vanguard of restaurant workers' rights". 12 January 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  20. ^ "About Us: Our History". Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Archived from the original on May 10, 2012. Retrieved April 10, 2012.

Sources