Philly ROC had just opened our office this May, when an Advisory Board Member (Nadia Hewka?) alerted me to some comments that Councilman Kenney had mad about tip theft on KYW.

http://goo.gl/sN6zk

I have done a lot of work in City Hall but I had never had the chance to work with Councilman Kenney. I asked around in my network and didn’t turn up any leads. So, I “cold called” his office and spoke to one of his secretary’s.

Here is a tip for folks that want to try to move legislation in City Hall: most of the people that work for your City Council representatives know little about policy.

You see most of the people that work for your elected leaders are there to provide constituent services. They help people navigate bureaucracies. They fill pot holes. They are not political people and don’t know where to send you when you want to get legislation passed.

It took a couple of calls, but eventually we were connected with Sarah Sachdev.

Sarah is a very enjoyable person to work with. She has a great I for detail.

We had one or two conversations on the phone that help us understand each others interest and then Sarah sent us a draft of the bill.

We had one in person meeting to go over the details. It was voted on in the same form that the Councilman drafted it.

We also advocated in favor of the Paid Sick Leave bill during that meeting.

I don’t know if we can take credit for it, but the Councilman did change his vote from “no” to “yes” for final passage. Nice!

After a meeting with Councilman Kenney, we were ready to start building support to get this bill out of the Rules Committee.

Inquirer- http://goo.gl/xV6SL
Newsworks- http://goo.gl/yTtBZ
CBS- http://goo.gl/rkcSL
Gather.com- http://goo.gl/n7Eix
Weekly Press- http://goo.gl/VbTr3
Inquirer- http://goo.gl/IaDYI

After it got out of the Rules Committee, it was on to the vote. These articles and columns were all published within days of the vote.

Daily News- http://goo.gl/wQcjV
GrubHub- http://goo.gl/UeNr9
Philly.com- http://goo.gl/nyv27

(One bit of side commentary- Ronnie Polaneczky hints that #OccupyPhilly is responsible for some feces that was smeared on the wall of the City Hall concourse. I saw the photo of this floating around on twitter the day before her column. It is ridiculous to assume that the defacing of the transit terminal was caused by Occupy Philly. I saw a guy masturbating at the Juniper Trolley stop, I can’t blame that on the Mayor, right?)

One thing that I noticed in the press reports is that it looks like the National Restaurant Association (NRA) was there fighting the legislation early, dropped off toward the end and the slack was picked up by Stephen Starr.

The NRA’s stalking horse?

Though he never spoke publicly about it.

The Inquirer stated that the Mayor supported the legislation. That is my understanding too. Meanwhile, Grub Hub (nice stock photo of a gavel, guys), states that Starr claims that the Mayor “and all of city council” oppose the legislation.

I wonder where he gets his information from?

Councilman Brian O’Neill voted “no” and Coucilman Green voted “no.”

I have a lot of respect for Councilman Green. He did let me know that he planned on voting against the bill before the vote took place. I couldn’t understand his reasoning.

Later, when he spoke against the bill (I was gone, putting the finishing touches on the press release announcing the victory) I heard that he still didn’t make much sense.

Anyway, I have seen him go to the mat before for stuff he believes in. I don’t think his heart was in it. I think that he was throwing a bone to a constituent who opposed the bill, still knowing that it was going to pass.

Councilman Kenney rebutted him with saying, “It’s wage theft, plain and simple.”

We won a nice won for the little guys.

Restaurant workers rejoice at victory party after winning added protection against wage theft.

Members of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Philadelphia (Philly ROC) and their supporters gather at a party being billed as “OccupyFergie’s” at Fergie’s Pub following the passage of legislation that will protect their gratuities from being stolen by their employers.

Councilman James Kenney, a former restaurant worker, who was elected to city official in 1991, sponsored the Gratuity Protection Bill that makes the deduction of credit card fees from tips left by diners illegal. The majority of restaurant workers are low-waged workers with an average wage of only $14,000 per year and a minimum tipped wage of only $2.83 per hour for servers in Pennsylvania.

“Not having to worry about whether credit card fees are being taken out of my tips is going to make a big difference in my life. I know it might not sound like a lot of money, but it’s money that I earn from being a server. And every bit helps me take care of my family,” says one veteran restaurant worker who requested anonymity for fear of losing her job.

“I loose at least $5 per shift, that is at least $1300 a year. That’s a huge amount for me.” she states.

Philly ROC Coordinator, Fabricio Rodriguez expressed, “This is a great step in the right direction for Philadelphia restaurant workers. Servers, bartenders, and other front of the house restaurant workers, deserve, just like everyone else, the wages they have earned. No one should have their tips stolen from them.”

At the OccupyFergie’s party Phily ROC announced that their new worker center would plan to continue trying to prove the restaurant industry. Andrea Lemoins, ROC Philly Coordinator, toasted the victory and spoke of envisioning a restaurant industry with shared prosperity, “his business can be profitable and sustainable.”