Restaurant Workers Work Damn Hard: And They Are Human Beings Too
A summit to improve the wages and working conditions of Restaurant workers nationwide was held in L.A’s oldest French Restaurant (Taix in Echo Park opened in 1927) yesterday at 8:30 AM. Summits were also held in Miami and Washington DC. Attendees included industry individuals from all levels and state officials in support of the WAGES Act – H.R 631. Recently introduced by Rep. Donna Edwards, it would raise the minimum wage for tipped workers from $2.13 to $3.75 per hour if passed through legislation…the first time it is raised in twenty years.
The summits were organized by the Restaurant Opportunity Center United. In the L.A Chapter, speakers included Michael Taix, the 4th generation owner of the family restaurant. “Well, it takes a lot of commitment and work”, he admits when talking about the success of the restaurant through the ages and recent hard times. And its true, most of the servers who were refilling the bountiful breakfast buffet–that included carved fruit, bottomless coffee and Mexican style (bready= Cuernos) Croissants–were white haired and jolly.
The report was incidentally released yesterday. Valentines Day is the highest grossing day for Restaurants nationwide and it is not unusual for employees at both the front and back of the house to work well beyond regular business hours. “Behind The Kitchen Door: Inequality And Opportunity in Los Angeles, the Nation’s Largest Restaurant Industry” unravels the many imperfections of our highly regarded food industry including how Restaurant workers in L.A are forced to work while sick, undergo racial discrimination and experience unsafe working conditions on a daily basis.
Panelist on deck included the personal accounts of people like Nora Garcia, a single mom who has been a loyal waitress at 6740 Bar in City of Whittier for six years now. She tells of her stories when she would force herself to work through long, high-energy shifts while being ill. Back of the house experiences were touched upon as well, like that of Luis Hernandez. Hernandez revealed how promotion was simply not an option for him because of his skin color, making half as much as his front of the house–white co-workers. Why else would he not been promoted? After all, he has been working in the industry for over 20 years now, running the gamut of positions from dishwasher, bus boy, line cook, you name it.
Jamie Dolkas, an equal rights activist was there to shed light into the extra unfair circumstances for women in the industry as well. Revealing startling such statistics as “1 Million women being found to be paid less than their men co-workers.”
And then there was the inspirational account of Jason Michaud, the owner and chef of the successful LOCAL Restaurant in Silver Lake. He recounts a story of how he paid for the airplane ticket for one of his workers who’s father deceased in another state, continuing his pay even when he was out on leave. He admits to dedicating at least two shifts a month filling in for his workers duties in order to make paid sick days a reality. He also facilitates the process of his unlearned employees to understand and articulate themselves in English, paying for their classes. Although, he confusingly revealed that “only about two of ten employees” have actually took him up for it.
Here are some more statistics gathered in the report:
-89.8% of employers do not provide health insurance
-89.4% of employees do not get paid sick days
-58.3% of employees have worked when sick
-80.2% of employees do not receive regular raises
-75.4% of employees have never received a promotion
-44.1% of employees have experienced overtime wage violations (ex: worked more than 8 hours in a day without being paid time-and-a-half)
-29.3% of employees have done something that put their own safety at risk
-27.8% of employees have done something due to time pressure that might have harmed the health and safety of customers
-42.9% of employees were burned while on the job
-42.4% of employees were cut while on the job
As an almost daily consumer of this industry and food writer, I find something has to be done to improve this. Through out my years of doing this, I have met many cooks and servers who see their co-workers more than their significant others. Its hard to believe this kind of stuff has been going in our beloved places of food reverie and good times for so long, but it is…and something needs to be done to improve this.
For more information on how you can help this National movement, visit www.rocunited.com.
Check out L.A Weekly’s coverage of the extensive report here
8 Responses to “Behind The Kitchen Door: A Surprising Look At The Working Conditions Of Restaurant Workers (WAGES Act – H.R 631; ROC-LA AM Summit At Taix Restaurant)”
2-21-2011
as if!
2-22-2011
as if?
2-24-2011
[...] email two days ago in response of my recent coverage on the progress of the WAGES Act – H.R 631. I recently covered the ROC-LA AM Summit At Taix Restaurant which praised the noble efforts of restau…Michael Taix, the 4th generation owner of the family restaurant was one of those [...]
6-22-2011
[...] The Glutster Blog – http://theglutster.com/2011/02/restaurantequality/ [...]
7-24-2011
[...] The Glutster Blog — http://theglutster.com/2011/02/restaurantequality/ [...]
8-17-2011
[...] The Glutster Blog: http://theglutster.com/2011/02/restaurantequality/ [...]
8-17-2011
[...] The Glutster Blog: http://theglutster.com/2011/02/restaurantequality/ [...]
8-18-2011
[...] ? The Glutster Blog: http://theglutster.com/2011/02/restaurantequality/ [...]
Leave a Reply