Restaurant Industry

Arab Street Corner Bakery Challenges Inequality with Cooperation

January 12, 2025 Mari Nishitani, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Arab Americans, California, Cooperatives, Restaurant Industry, Restaurants, San Francisco, Solidarity, Worker Rights and Jobs

Reem’s California is an Arab bakery shop in San Francisco. Proudly embracing the slogan “Arab Street Food made with California Love,” this restaurant serves traditional Arab bread infused with fresh, locally sourced ingredients from California. As soon as you step in, you will be welcomed by a vibrant mural titled “Seeds of Love” which includes a quote by Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan: “If it were in my hands, if I were able to flip this world, if I possessed the ability to fill this world with seeds of love.” This space is filled with the inviting aroma of freshly baked bread, a scent infused with the love, care, and mutual support of Palestinian Americans and local community organizers.

US Restaurant Chains See Profits Collapse As Israel Boycott Bites

November 2, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. Resist! BDS Movement, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Restaurant Industry

Americana Restaurants, West Asia's largest fast-food operator, reported a 48.2 percent decline in profits on 31 October, as consumers boycott US and Israel-linked brands in response to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The Kuwaiti firm announced its profits had fallen to $117.4 million over a nine-month period, while revenues had fallen 15.3 percent to $1.61 billion. "Topline growth continued to be impacted by lower like-for-like sales due to the evolving regional geopolitical situation and slowness in consumer demand observed in some markets, despite support from new store openings," the company said in a statement.

Peasant Wages For Lordly Feats

March 3, 2023 Emily Janakiram, In These Times. Resist! Restaurant Industry, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights

Outside the Medieval Times castle in Buena Park, Calif., a sudden Monty Python-like spectacle emerges — two score knights, queens, squires and trumpeters, all marching on the boss to demand a fair contract. The protest is part of an indefinite unfair labor practice strike that comes after three months of stalled negotiations between newly unionized workers and Medieval Times management. In 2022, workers at two of Medieval Times’ ten castles unionized, claiming that the medieval-themed dinner theater was paying them peasant wages to enact lordly feats of strength — jousting on horseback, with real weapons.

Restaurant Workers Say They Won’t Return to Work Without a Living Wage

May 27, 2021 Saru Jayaraman, Truthout. Resist! Restaurant Industry, Wages, Worker Rights and Jobs

On May 20, 2021, about 50 service worker leaders at One Fair Wage, an organization I lead that brings together service workers to demand a living wage, gathered to take an official vote on whether to go on a “wage strike.” Some workers had already left the restaurant industry and were considering not returning, and some had stayed, doing the work of two or even three workers in understaffed environments. All were united in their determination not to continue to work for anything less than a full, living wage — plus tips.

No-Tipping Policies At US Restaurants Prompt Delight – And Disaster

August 15, 2016 Melanie Sevcenko, www.amp.theguardian.com Create! Restaurant Industry, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Melanie Sevcenko for The Guardian - When customers of Portland’s upscale Le Pigeon receive their credit card slips, the line has been removed where the tip would normally be scribbled in. Co-owned by Gabe Rucker, a chef and recipient of two James Beard awards, the French-inspired bistro threw out tipping in June, while prices have increased by about 20%. Servers are now paid an hourly wage as well as a share of revenues, similar to a commission, and wages for cooks have gone up.

Fight For $15 Is Inevitable, Will Not Kill Restaurants

February 27, 2016 Jim Sullivan, www.m.nrn.com Resist! Fight for 15, Restaurant Industry

By Jim Sullivan for Restaurant News - However you view the $15-an-hour minimum wage issue — it’s the death of the industry or yet another progress barrier that government has thrown in our way that we’ll overcome — it’s real, it’s big and it’s not going away. But will it kill the foodservice industry, as some say? Here are the relevant facts: Last year, minimum wage increases occurred in 20 states. Cities like Washington, D.C., Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco raised the stakes even higher, mandating a $15-an-hour minimum wage by 2018, with their states likely to follow.

‘Not On The Menu’ Rally – Sexual Harassment & Low Wages

October 16, 2014 Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, www.rocunited.org Resist! Human Rights, Labor Rights, Minimum Wage, Restaurant Industry, Women's Rights

New York, NY — Yesterday, dozens of restaurant workers, women’s rights activists, and supporters gathered for a rally calling for the elimination of the subminimum wage and requiring the restaurant industry to pay one, fair wage directly to their employees. Last week, a report released by ROC United and Forward Together, The Glass Floor, revealed that nearly all female restaurant workers — up to 90% — report experiencing some form of sexual harassment, with tipped workers being the most vulnerable. “I was a restaurant worker over 30 years ago, and here’s the tragic story: absolutely nothing has changed,” said Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising. “The wage hasn’t changed, the sexual harassment hasn’t changed, the outfits I was forced to wear hasn’t changed, the abuse hasn’t changed. . .

Restauranteurs Ban Tipping, Pay Living Wage

October 4, 2014 Bryce Covert, www.nationofchange.org Create! Labor Rights, Living Wage, Restaurant Industry

A new restaurant in Philadelphia won’t allow customers to tip its waitstaff. Instead, it plans to pay employees a living wage with generous benefits. Chef Brian Oliveira and co-owner Cristian Mora of Girard Brasserie and Bruncherie, set to open at the end of the month, told ThinkProgress that while wages will vary depending on workers’ experience, they will average about $13 an hour. “On all our other interviews we had said $11,” Mora said, “but we are going to do better than that.” On top of that, all employees — whether full time or part time — will get four paid vacation days for every six months they work as well as some paid sick days that haven’t been determined yet. The restaurant will also pay 100 percent of the cost of health care benefits.

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