Posts tagged Restaurant Workers
AFL-CIO rallies Atlanta workers to unionize ahead of Labor Day
July 24, 2025 // AFL-CIO, brought its “It’s Better in a Union” national bus tour to Atlanta, rallying workers across industries to organize and demand better pay, benefits, and working conditions. The event, held in partnership with the Atlanta chapter of the AFL-CIO, drew workers from restaurants, healthcare, sanitation, and logistics, many of whom say they’re fed up with corporations profiting while employees struggle to make ends meet. “We’re doing everything, but we’re not rewarded for what we’re doing,” said Teresa Kennard, a Waffle House employee who spoke during the rally. “We all know there is power in numbers.”
Restaurant owners, workers hold competing rallies over potential repeal of Initiative 82
June 5, 2025 // Wednesday, business owners and workers held competing rallies outside the Wilson Building, as the D.C. Council considers the fate of Initiative 82. Initiative 82 was passed in November of 2022 and implemented the following Spring. The voter-backed law eliminates the tipped minimum wage by gradually raising wages over the next several years. But that law is now in question, as Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed repealing I-82 under her 2026 budget.
Businesses seek to overturn hotel and airport wage hikes by forcing a citywide election
May 30, 2025 // Under the city's laws, hotel and airport workers have minimum wages that are higher than those who are employed by other industries. The hotel minimum wage, approved by the council in 2014, is currently $20.32 per hour. The minimum wage for private-sector employees at LAX is $25.23 per hour, which includes a $5.95 hourly healthcare payment. For nearly everyone else in L.A., the hourly minimum wage is $17.28, 78 cents higher than the state’s. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
Gov. Jared Polis’ coming labor bill veto will strain Democrat’s labor ties — and set stage for ballot fight
May 15, 2025 // Polis has said that Colorado’s 81-year-old labor law has worked well and that he wants maximum employee input in negotiating union dues. He added Thursday that he wanted a deal that would bring stability to business-labor relations in the state, referring to fears that a change to the status quo would usher in a tug-of-war over competing ballot measures and legislation. Asked about Polis’ skeptical views of SB-5, Dougherty said those were concerns “that were not relayed to us when he was running for governor.”
Union says restaurant group is blocking service staff from unionizing in DC
May 4, 2025 // Standing alone outside The Occidental, while holding a whiteboard alleging “paid actors” were among protestors, Anne Marie Henderson told passersby that those on the picket line did not work at the restaurant. “We’re fine the way we are … we don’t want a union. We are not mistreated here, it’s not terrible work conditions. There’s not a late paycheck,” Henderson, who identified herself as a receptionist working with the restaurants, said. Henderson expressed confusion about the protest outside the restaurant, as she claims, no one among the restaurant staff has expressed interest in unionizing.
Culinary Union strike at Virgin Las Vegas leads to 57 arrests in peaceful protest
November 26, 2024 // In a significant escalation of the Culinary Union's first open-ended strike in 22 years, 57 union members and striking workers from Virgin Las Vegas were arrested yesterday during a peaceful act of civil disobedience. The demonstration, which drew hundreds of participants, has maintained continuous picket lines at every entrance and exit along Harmon Avenue and Paradise Road since the strike began on November 15, 2024.
The New York Times Claimed D.C.’s Minimum Wage Hike Created Jobs. We Exposed Their Error.
November 24, 2024 // These numbers are false. It turns out that Krishna misunderstood the data she was looking at. The chart she linked to in the article presented numbers "in the thousands," meaning that the actual data were not 14,168 but 14,168,000, which also makes sense because Krishna didn't realize she was reading national BLS data—not local figures.
VIDEO: Eliminating the tipped wage in D.C. has led to higher prices and fewer restaurant jobs.
November 22, 2024 // Voters, Dixon argues, are "on a savior complex trying to save people that didn't need saving in the first place. The tips is the main reason why we got into this industry." Formerly thriving businesses are now grappling with closures, vacant storefronts, staff shortages, and escalating prices.
Restaurant workers wanted to unionize at this L.A. hotel. Now the restaurants are closing
February 5, 2024 // The case is playing out at the Hotel Figueroa in downtown, home of Sparrow Italia, Cafe Fig, Bar Magnolia, the Cafeteria and La Casita at Driftwood. The historic building has for the last two decades built a following for its Mediterranean-inspired space and stylish dining rooms, but behind closed doors, tension has loomed between the third-party management company behind the restaurants, called Noble 33, and the estimated 100 food and beverage workers who run them. Discontent between Noble 33 and its employees at Hotel Figueroa started soon after the hospitality group took over food and beverage operations for the hotel in 2021, according to workers and union organizers who spoke with The Times.
Hotel Wage Petition Fails to Meet Signature Deadline
January 29, 2024 // Unite Here Local 11, the union representing thousands of housekeepers, restaurant workers and front desk staff in Southern California and Arizona, filed a petition to raise the minimum wage of hotel workers in Beverly Hills to $30 per hour on July 25. They had 180 days from then to gather signatures from at least 10% of the city’s registered voters, roughly 2,200 residents. The petition was submitted as walkouts and picket lines formed at about 60 hotels throughout Southern California, including the three unionized hotels in Beverly Hills: the Beverly Hilton, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills and Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel. The demonstrations drew widespread media coverage that helped build support for striking workers, and tentative agreements between the management of those three properties and Unite Here were reached in December. Union members must vote to ratify the deals before they are confirmed. Details regarding pay and benefits in the deal brokered by Unite Here and the hotels had not been publicly released as of press time.