Restaurant Opportunities Center

History

The group was founded with funding from multiple foundations with a stated goal to “organize all unorganized restaurant workers in New York City.” 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 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.

Jayaraman is author of Behind the Kitchen Door (2013), a book that 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.

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.

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

ROC supports the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013.

ROC is a target of the National Restaurant Association and allied lobbyists like Richard Berman.

Activities

ROC conducts labor campaigns to encourage restaurant owners to increase wages and change working conditions for employees. Also, ROC provides free training in all areas of restaurant work for restaurant workers and workers seeking employment.

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 Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Capital Grille. In the Darden campaign, ROC charged that in addition to paying the lowest wages possible to Darden employees (as low as $2.13 per hour), not providing health insurance or paid sick days for a workforce of 200,000 people, the company was also an opponent of paid sick day legislation providing for a low-wage worker to stay at home and recover instead of going to work sick, which led to public exposure to hepatitis A and other medical threats.

ROC organizers appeared at Darden's 2012 annual shareholder's meeting to advance their complaints.

ROC dropped the lawsuit in mid-2012.

In January 2014, in an unrelated lawsuit, 20,000 former and current Darden workers joined a federal lawsuit alleging that the company underpaid them.

The Minimum Wage

The tipped base wage, which used to rise along with the minimum wage, has been frozen in place at $2.13 since 1991, as a result of lobbying efforts by the National Restaurant Association.

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 15 published reports have been widely cited and covered by media. ROC says that in its “Diners’ Guide” it promotes workplace "best practices" that serve as models for employers to facilitate business profitability while treating employees fairly. The methodology of the report states that when rating national chains that did not respond at the corporate level or were franchised, ROC only called individual locations in four Southern states. The report did not list the survey questions asked of the restaurants in the study or the individuals that researchers spoke with to obtain the survey answers.

In a 2010 report, ROC related that 90% of 4,000 restaurant workers surveyed between 2003 and 2010 reported not receiving health insurance through their employer, while 61.5% reported that they had no insurance at all.

Expansion

Since its founding, ROC has expanded to 32 cities across the country with more than 13,000 restaurant workers, 100 employers and 2,000 consumers claimed as members. Restaurant Opportunities Centers United was founded in January 2008 following a national restaurant workers' convention that took place in Chicago in August 2007. ROC has affiliate offices in New York, D.C, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago, Oakland, and Pittsburgh.

ROC-LA:

Micro-Ethnography: UCLA students interviewed two members of ROC-LA with two central questions: How was your work like before and after ROC-LA?; and, If you had the opportunity to join an organization that could potentially help you to better your work life, what would you look in it? Due to privacy, the interviewees wish to remain anonymous.

Asset Mapping: The physical boundaries of ROC-LA are Westlake To the North, Pico-Union to the South, Korea Town to the West, and Central LA to the East. In these boundaries, there are three major assets of the community: The KIWA building, MacArthur Park, and the UCLA Labor Center. The KIWA building provides a myriad of goods and services to the community. Some examples include legal representation, canned goods, shelter, ZUMBA fitness classes, various workshops, and etc. MacArthur park is another asset that provides a place of relaxation and organization for the community. Finally, the UCLA Labor Center is an asset to the community for it provides free legal representation to community members.

Demographics: The total population of KoreaTown in Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Census (2000), is 124,281. ROC-LA is located in a racially diverse area. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Latinx comprise of 53.5% of the population, Asians with 32.2%, Whites with 7.4%, African-Americans with 4.8%, and others are 2%. The median age for members in the community are 30 years. Also, the average household annual income and size is $30,558 and three people. An important demographic variable to consider is that 93% of the residents are renters, with 7% as homeowners.

COLORS restaurants

ROC-NY also helped create a worker-owned restaurant called COLORS in New York City, in an effort to demonstrate that a restaurant that treats employees fairly can still be profitable. The restaurant, according to critics, has been a consistent money loser, is closed to the public for long stretches, and has received multiple citations from the New York City Health Department for "critical violations."

The restaurant also serves as a training facility for students in ROC's training sessions for skills. ROC-Michigan opened a COLORS restaurant in downtown Detroit in September 2011.

Attacks

Washington lobbyist Richard Berman, of Berman and Company and the Center for Consumer Freedom has taken out full-page ads attacking ROC and set up a website attacking its work. Berman's Employment Policies Institute produces reports used by restaurant industry groups in their lobbying campaign against the increase in the minimum wage, although the quality and reliability of such reports has been contested by academics.

Controversy

In 2007, ROC was sued by its worker-owners for matters related to the profit that will come from the restaurant Colors, and requiring them to pay monthly dues, attend protests, and lobby for ROC causes and other unrelated causes, including against the war in Iraq. The workers that objected were fired by Saru Jayaraman,although all claims in the lawsuit were dismissed by the court. In 2010 it was reported that COLORS New York was “struggling to pay its bills, and it's sorting out management problems dating back to its inception.” U.S. Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote in a letter to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis that Colors in New York City had a "troubling history of poor sanitation." In addition, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce is investigating whether ROC should be subject to federal labor laws.

IRS complaint

On April 30, 2013, an IRS complaint was filed against ROC by a group called Restaurant Opportunities Center Exposed, tied to Richard Berman and Berman and Company. The complaint details ROC's alleged "noncompliance with IRS requirements" and requests the IRS to investigate ROC and its status as a 501(c)(3) organization. Specifically, the IRS complaint states that ROC engages in lobbying activities without reporting it to the IRS, as required.