The Restaurant Industry

The Food Service Industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the U.S. economy and one of the largest employers of migrants. Restaurant workers who make our food, bring it to our tables, or wash the dishes it is cooked and served on, “live on some of the lowest wages in the United States and face segregation and exploitation at the workplace (Délano, p. 343). One in twelve Americans currently work in the restaurant industry. The industry’s poverty wages disproportionately affect immigrants and people of color. The industry is the largest employer of people of color and the second largest employer of immigrants (Jayaraman, p. 348). Fifty-eight percent of workers have incomes below the poverty line and more than fifty percent of tipper workers and restaurant workers with incomes below the poverty line are people of color. In addition to being confined to a substandard living wage, immigrants in the restaurant industry, about ninety percent, have reported not having sick days. This phenomenon is due to workers being told they will get fired if they take a day or, or they simply can not afford to lose a day of work (Jayaraman, p. 348). Immigrants and workers of color are concentrated in the industry’s lowest paying positions- bussers instead of waiters, due to their accents, dishwashers instead of cooks, and the lowest paying segments: “the fast food of fine dining” (Jayaraman, p. 349). Immigrants as a result of the oppressive forces within the restaurant industry, earn a median wage four dollars less than that of their white counterparts.

Combating the Injustices immigrants face within the Restaurant Industry

ROC NY, or the Restaurant Opportunities Center for New York, decided that it could not just engage in one activity or work with “one group of people to improve wages and working conditions for workers in the industry” since its conception (Jayaraman, p. 350).  ROC-NY was initially founded after September 11th, 2001 to provide support to restaurant workers displaced as a result of the World Trade Center tragedy, ROC-NY has grown to support restaurant workers all over New York City and advocate for improved working conditions. ROC NY engaged in multiple strategies with all three of the ‘industry’s stakeholders’: workers, employers, and consumers.

Their first method of organizing was to launch campaigns against the “large, high-profile restaurant companies, helping them to move from taking the ‘low road’ to profitability in taking the ‘high road’ (Jayaraman, 350). Success was gained through organizing mostly immigrant workers and consumers, into fourteen campaigns against high-profile restaurant companies, winning seven million in stolen tips and wages. There were raises, benefits and promotions, job security, grievance procedures, paid sick days, vacation pay, holiday pay, and much more for thousand of workers throughout the companies (Jayaraman, 350). Secondly, there was a promotion of the “high road” to profitability, where ROC NY partnered with responsible restaurant owners across the country, opening two of their own restaurants called COLORS, resulting in the creation of a job training program that assisted five thousand workers move up the ladder to livable wage jobs in the industry (Jayaraman, 350). Third, ROC-NY has published more than “two dozen reports on the industry and have won some local policy changes” as the leading coalition to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers in New York State Jayaraman, 350).

One of ROC NY’s notable achievements has been supporting “Fight for 15” the minimum wage campaign launched by the (SEIU) which was won in California, New York, Massachusetts, Flagstaff, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, the District of Columbia, Montgomery County, the Twin Cities, Seattle, and SeaTac over the past few years

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpNICgk0ZWY

Works Cited

Délano, Alexandra. “Introduction: The Food Business and the American Dream: Gateway or Obstacle?” Social Research, vol. 81, no. 2, Summer 2014, pp. 343–346.

Jayaraman, Saru. “Feeding America: Immigrants in the Restaurant Industry and Throughout the Food System Take Action for Change.” Social Research, vol. 81, no. 2, Summer 2014, pp. 347–358.

Sen, Rinku. “Back of the House, Front of the House: What a Campaign to Organize New York Restaurant Workers Tells Us about Immigrant Integration.” National Civic Review, vol. 98, no. 1, Mar. 2009, pp. 43–51.