The city’s most vocal advocate for restaurant workers—Restaurant
Opportunities Center of New York—will issue its third major report on the
restaurant industry in New York City.
On Tuesday, March 31, the group will unveil the findings of a study titled
“Discrimination in Manhattan’s Top Restaurants Deny People of Color and Women
Equal Access to Employment Opportunities.”
Among the prominent New Yorkers set to attend the event are New York City
Council Members Rosie Mendez and John Liu, as well as Ed Ott, executive director
of the New York City Central Labor Council.
The announcement will be made at celebrity chef Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak
restaurant.
“Craft is one of the restaurants we really support,” said Rekha Eanni,
co-director of ROC NY.
Unlike its two previous studies, which looked at wage and discrimination
issues in all types of restaurants, the upcoming report focuses on fine dining
restaurants exclusively. ROC NY is basing its findings on interviews with
employees at 181 top eateries in Manhattan.
The 2,200-member organization was born in the aftermath of the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks, launched by a group of workers from Windows on the
World who wanted to help colleagues find jobs. It has since evolved into an
advocacy group for all restaurant workers in the city.
During the past seven years, ROC NY has played a central role in legal
complaints against such restaurateurs as Daniel Boulud, Shelley Fireman and Alan
Stillman, alleging labor law violations involving discrimination and wages. In
total, ROC NY has won $4.5 million in settlements from these restaurateurs.
In the past year, the nonprofit’s co-founder, Saru Jayaraman, formed ROC
United and has quietly opened satellite offices in five cities, including
Chicago and New Orleans.
Like the original ROC NY, these branches provide employment training, promote
improved working conditions for restaurant workers and conduct research on the
industry.
The Detroit office, for example, opened in June and has 260 members.
In total, the outposts have more than 1,000 members and a pair of full-time
staffers at each location. They are funded by private donors.
“The coming-out for these other offices will be later this year and next,
when they issue reports and research,” Jayaraman says.
Filed by Arleen Jacobius of Pensions
& Investments, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment,
e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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