Fat Salmon Strikers Statement

On 05.01.13, In Uncategorized, By Fabricio

We are workers at Fat Salmon Sushi, a fine dining restaurant recently deemed to have Philly’s “Best Sushi” by Philadelphia Magazine. While Fat Salmon excels in its food, it falls short in its treatment of the people who prepare and serve the food.

We, the workers of Fat Salmon, have suffered numerous legal violations and affronts to our dignity. The violations we have experienced and continue to experience include, but are not limited to:

Withholding a percentage of server tips based on performance on menu tests
Paying kitchen staff with server tips
Not allowing breaks during shifts
Not distributing legitimate pay stubs with paychecks
Using discriminatory policies in regards to hiring and promotions

All workers deserve to be treated with fairness and dignity.

As restaurant workers, we work hard to create an enjoyable dining experience for our customers and we want our industry to continue to prosper, but we believe that it is possible to make a profit without exploiting workers. We want Fat Salmon Sushi to be a workplace that complies with the law and treats its workers with respect.

It is for these reasons that several of us have gone on strike. It is for these reasons that several others of us are signing on in solidarity with our striking co-workers. And it is for these reasons we demand:

A workplace free of discrimination
A workplace free of sexual harassment
An end to all wage theft — this includes only using legal tip pool arrangements, an end to withholding server tips pursuant to “tests,” and allowing hostesses to keep 100% of their credit card tips.
No worker, in any circumstances, shall ever receive less than the minimum wage
All prep work to be compensated at the non-tipped minimum wage
Overtime pay for workers who work over 40 hours in a week
Short paid breaks during shifts
Removal of all health & safety hazards from the kitchen
A printed and legitimate pay stub with each paycheck
A policy of promoting from within
Transparent documentation of pooled tips and individual tips on a nightly basis
Compensation for travel during weather emergencies
Servers are cut when their sections are empty
Paid sick days for workers to recover from illness or care for sick family members

WORKERS AT “PHILADELPHIA’S BEST SUSHI RESTAURANT” ON STRIKE- Wage Theft

On 05.01.13, In AltLabor, New Labor, Philly ROC, Restaurant Opportunity Center, By Fabricio

Fat Salmon….STRIKE!

On May Day, International Workers’ Day, restaurant workers at Fat Salmon Sushi announced their campaign for justice at work, demanding an end to all violations of their legal rights and implementation of fair workplace policies.

Today three restaurant workers from Fat Salmon Sushi, rated best sushi in Philadelphia by Philadelphia Magazine, publicly announced their campaign for justice and dignity at work. Fat Salmon Owner, Jack Yoo, will be notified by some of his workers in a written statement documenting the legal violations at their workplace and their demands.

On April 15, three Fat Salmon servers informed their employer that they would be going on strike, due to ongoing wage theft at the restaurant and other legal violations.

Diana A., Jeff S. and Claire T. have been on strike since that time (their names have been concealed for fear of future employment discrimination at the request of the workers).

Since then, four of their co-workers have joined them in demanding fair workplace conditions. Their demands include ending all illegal practices, such as discriminatory hiring & firing policies and wage theft.

The worker committee statement also includes proactive policies such as promoting from with-in the workforce, compensation for travel to and from work during weather emergencies, and paid sick days.

One of the primary issues the workers are fighting to resolve is an end to wage theft through the withholding of earned tips pursuant to the passage of a series of tests.

“I have been working as a server at Fat Salmon for two years and I have never received the entire amount of my tips.” said Jeff S., a Fat Salmon server.

“All servers are subject to tests on a monthly basis and in order to receive 100% of our tips, we must pass four tests. I passed all four tests and still didn’t receive my full wage. I was then subject to verbal quizzes at my boss’ whim” said Jeff S.

The workers chose not to simply quit because they wanted to make Fat Salmon a better place to work. “We don’t want to ruin the business. We just want it to be a fair business.” Stated Claire T., Fat Salmon server for 1 year.

“We work hard and deserve to be paid what we are owed and treated with respect. I’m confident we can reach a resolution that is recognizes the dignity of workers and is good for business” further stated Diana A., Fat Salmon server of 1 year.

Some of the workers will finish up the day by attending the May Day picnic at Elmwood Park in South West Philadelphia.

Tagged with: Worker Centers

Fat Salmon Workers Call STRIKE Over Stolen Wages

On 04.30.13, In Uncategorized, By Fabricio

Come and hear the Fat Salmon Strikers tomorrow at this historic event!

Watch the video of the workers calling the strike here -

MEDIA EVENT: Workers to read and deliver the public statement to Fat Salmon.

WHERE: N.W. Corner of Washington Square

WHEN: May 1, 2013, 2:15 (SHARP!)-2:40

THEN- Let’s go celebrate at the May Day picnic at Elmwood Park

Here is a link to a map to a the park- http://goo.gl/maps/q4YfE

UPenn Kosher Dining Workers Join The Teamsters

On 04.29.13, In AltLabor, New Labor, Unions, By Fabricio

I have been following this inspirational and kinda weird worker justice campaign at UPenn.

The Kosher Foods Organizing Committee is an independent worker committee that went public three weeks ago with a huge protest. They organized partly in reaction to a decree by their employer, Bon Apetit, that the company was going to “make some changes.”

The workers were afraid of being laid off and they had also discovered that some other Bon Apetit employees on campus were members of ASFCME. They learned that these unionized employees were treated much better than they were.

Get that? Workers employed by the same company at the same location and doing essentially the same job are paid 40% less than their union counterparts.

If you have ever wonder why unions are important, there you go.

Anyway, Kareem, Rabia and Troy, the leaders of the Kosher Foods Organizing Committee organized a protest as a result. They had the help of the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP). This chapter of SLAP is also sort of strange.

Most of the time SLAP is directly affiliated and and organized by Jobs with Justice. This chapter has not historically been connected with JWJ though. I think that it was actually formed by UNITE HERE a few years ago without the involvement of JWJ. I think that UNITE HERE wanted their own student group but didn’t want to share it with JwJ but thought that the “branding” of SLAP was better for their effort to help a anti-union hotel chain from building on campus (a successful effort until now, but I hear that HEI hotel is trying to come back?)

So, anyway, the rogue SLAP helped form the independent Kosher Foods Organizing Committee.

After the Kosher Foods Organizing Committee went public, they talked with a couple of unions and decided to affiliate with the Teamsters instead of AFSCME.

Like I said, it is all very interesting.

Bon Apetit decided to not fight this arrangement and granted a card check election on Friday and the Kosher Foods Organizing Committee won the right to representation by the Teamsters.

They celebrated with a picnic yesterday. It was a moving event. Everyone there was in disbelief of what they had accomplished.

They are an example to any group of workers that want to organize.

Cafeteria workers and SLAP celebrate union victory at picnic 04282013

Letter from a Restaurant Worker to Councilman Kenney

On 04.04.13, In New Labor, Paid Sick Leave, Philly ROC, Restaurant Opportunity Center, By Fabricio

restaurnt workers

Dear Councilman James Kenney,

I am a server at a busy restaurant in Center City Philadelphia,

and I am a volunteer with the Restaurant Opportunities Center. I want to thank you for supporting Philadelphia’s restaurant workers by sponsoring the Gratuity Protection Bill in 2011. I attended the “Behind the Kitchen Door” summit meeting at Tequila’s last October, and I was very inspired by your speech about protecting wages and the need for immigration reform in Pennsylvania. I know that you have worked in the restaurant industry in the past and witnessed the many injustices these workers face on a daily basis. This is why I was shocked that you voted against paid sick days at the city council meeting last month. I attended both the city council meeting on March 14 and the March 5 regarding the bill, and I was disheartened by your response to the testimony presented by Rosemary Devine, a restaurant worker. You argued against the bill claiming that if servers only make $2.83 an hour, it would not be worth it for them to take a paid sick day. I want to make it clear that in this bill it requires that employers pay tipped workers $7.25 per hour for an earned sick day. For instance, if a worker is scheduled for an eight hour shift he or she would earn roughly $58 for that sick day. This will most likely be less than he or she would have made if he or she were able to attend work and earn tips, but it can make a huge difference for low-income workers who struggle to afford rent and groceries each month.

I did not email you just to correct you about this misunderstanding. I am contacting you today to speak on behalf of tens of thousands of workers in Philadelphia who have no voice and fear to speak out because of retaliation. Many of these workers are people of color who work in the back of the house for extremely long hours under harsh conditions. I would like to tell you a little about some of the people I work with at a very successful, fine-dining restaurant:

Rita is a server. She is 27 years old and has worked at this restaurant for almost seven years. She works six days a week and roughly 57 hours per week. I have seen her work with the flu, cold, and stomach viruses many times. During my year and a half working with her I have only seen her take one day off. She works day after day to support herself, her aunt, and her younger sister who attends community college.

Bob is a cook. He works 7 days a week and roughly 70 hours per week. I’ve seen him work with severe cuts and burns. Most of the money he earns is sent to his family in Indonesia.

Salvador is a dishwasher. He works 7 days a week and roughly 70 hours per week. He used to work as a kindergarten teacher in Mexico, but he moved to Philadelphia so he could earn more money to support his family. One day he came to work very sick. He was pale and shaking, but he continued to wash dishes throughout the day and refused to go home. He only stopped occasionally to vomit.

Billy has worked every day for the past three years. He is a prep cook, and he is 25 years old. In the mornings he reports to his first job at 6:30 am where he preps for lunch. In the evenings he reports at 6:30 pm to the restaurant where I work, and he continues to work until 10:30 pm – 12:00 am depending on when we close. Most of the money he earns is sent to his family in Mexico.

Paid sick days are essential for people like Rita, Bob, Salvador, and Billy, and for the thousands of hard workers in this city who cannot afford to take a day off. When they are ill they cannot simply swap shifts with someone, because there is no one to swap with when all of your back of the house coworkers are there nearly every day. These workers deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion. I am asking you, on behalf of these workers, to change your mind about sick days. I am asking you to do the right thing and stand up to Mayor Nutter and big business.

Tagged with: Paid Sick Leave • Philly ROC • Worker Centers

The Penn Dining Hall Workers Are Organizing Without A Union.

On 03.28.13, In Uncategorized, By Fabricio

From the Daily Pennsylvanian…

“This is it. This is history,” said Kareem Wallace, a cook at Penn Hillel’s Falk Dining Commons, as he clutched a document that marked the debut of a campaign for “a better future” for him and his colleagues….

On Monday morning, he and seven Student Labor Action Project members delivered a concerted activity letter to the Penn Business Services office to notify Penn of the employees’ organizing efforts. Eleven dining hall workers signed the document….

Another copy of the letter was delivered to the National Labor Relations Board. Nancy Cleland, NLRB Director of Public Affairs, said though the agency will not get involved unless there is a retaliation against the workers, “we are going to defend [the workers’] right to ask for more money.”…

But 109 full-time employees in Hillel’s dining hall, the school cafes and Houston Market work for Bon Appétit…

they do not participate in the collective bargaining agreement — an agreement between Penn and AFSCME…”

Penn Cafeteria Workers Have A Rally Tomorrow

On 03.27.13, In New Labor, Uncategorized, By Fabricio

Penn has been a hot bed of organizing ever since the POWR campaign won paid sick leave in 2005. It looks like another uprising is in the works!

There are a some workers UPenn who are having a rally tomorrow against their employer. UPenn students are leading the charge for justice. Please come out and support these workers if you can. It will be at 11:45 at 36th and Locust!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hXdncHtJVEw#!

How Green, Nutter and Oh Got The Econ Wrong On Earned Sick Time

On 03.15.13, In Earned Sick Leave, Paid Sick Leave, Philly ROC, By Fabricio

.

Green-Nut-Oh Man bad at econ….raaaaaaa!

Here is a quick econ 101 lesson for our city’s elected officials who keep wrongly claiming that Earned Sick Leave is going to drive businesses out of town.

Yesterday, Councilman David Oh claimed ”The issue is not that businesses will close over the sick-leave bill,” Oh said. “The issue is . . . that we are going to, over time, lose a certain number of businesses that are going to fail or move out.”

Councilman Oh is trying to trick us with his double reverse reasoning here. You get what he is trying to say right?

Councilman Green had this to say “We need to create a regulatory environment that is good for business.” Let me translate what that means, if you let businesses treat people badly then they will chose to do business in your city. I don’t know if that is true, but I think that it is a tough slogan to attract businesses. ”Come to Philly, you can really treat our workers badly!” The thinking here is that if it is cheaper to do business in another town, then business will go there instead.

The City Paper described Mayor Nutter’s disposition like this- Mayor Michael Nutter, citing what he described as the adverse affect of such legislation on the city’s business competitiveness.

Sorry guys, you are all wrong. Here is a little Econ 101 for you.

First of all, the workers least likely to have and paid time off currently are service workers. These workers prepare food, watch kids and cut hair for an example. If you look at this group closer, you realize that a huge majority of them are restaurant workers.

Check out the math. 180,000 people in Philly lack paid sick leave. After the bill compromised on whether unions would be helped buy this (not any more), and how “small” is “small” (it grew from 6-10 employees to 6-20) and took out sub-contractors like security guards (the first group of organized workers in our city to focus exclusively on paid sick days and win), you are left with a pool of 125,000 workers effected by the new law.

Of that 125,000 workers, you have to figure that several thousand restaurant workers are “under the table.” let’s take them out of the law and subtract -5,000. Then let’s remove super small mom-and-pop-sweatshops, like Chinese take-outs and bodegas. minus 3,000. Then, take out restaurant managers, (12,000 restaurants x 2 = 24,000). You end up with 93,000 out of the 125,000 being restaurant workers. That is about 75% of the workers without paid sick leave who will now benefit from this bill are restaurant workers.

Does it make sense that a restaurant owner would close up their business and move it out of town as Green-Nut-Oh believe?

Let’s look at the data.

Right now, it is already cheaper to operate a restaurant outside of Philadelphia. Rents are cheaper and the taxes are lower. You would have to assume that their are way more restaurants outside of the city and this legislation will drive out the rest. Soon we will all have to go to Buck County to get a burger!

WRONG.

Business, especially service business is driven by local demand. There has to be a density of customers who want your product in a defined geographic area at the price that you are selling it in order to succeed.

If it is true as Green-Nut-Oh claim that business leaders will refuse to “create jobs” if they are not coddled and give the right conditions to grow, like mold on a loaf of bread, then that is the root of the problem. The business leaders should be asking, “where are the customers at, what do they want and how much will they be wiling to spend on it.” If they aren’t asking that, then they are not smart enough to be in business.

Case in point, since it is already cheaper to operate a food establishment outside of Philly you think that our city would be ringed with Starbucks and it would be a Starbucks desert in the City of Brotherly Love.

Check out this map of Starbucks in PA… http://goo.gl/maps/JdCce

Notice how Starbucks are clustered around urban areas, and especially in Philadelphia where we have at least 50 coffee shops, while Ben Salem has 3 or 4?

Green-Nut-O need to quit with their “sky-is-falling,” recycled, Chamber of Commerce talking points and start feeling accountable to the working people of Philadelphia.

If nothing else, please stop pretending to have any economic argument against Earned Sick Leave. You are embarrassing yourselves.

Tagged with: Fabricio Rodriguez • Paid Sick Leave • Philly ROC

Philadelphia Wins Earned Sick Leave

On 03.14.13, In Earned Sick Leave, Paid Sick Leave, Philly ROC, Restaurant Opportunity Center, By Fabricio

Philadelphia, sometimes we get it right…if even for a short while.

11 out of 17 City Councilors voted to support the Earned Sick Leave bill!

This was not easy for some of them. They were facing enormous pressure from the business lobby. In the end, though, they sided with the hundreds of Philadelphians (and more than 60,000 Comcast haters/Sick Leave Supporters from around the country) that called, emailed and tweeted them encouraging them to vote “yes.”

Over the course of the last few months we have heard many people speak in favor of the Earned Sick Leave law and many speak out against it.

Here are some highlights-

Michael Cockrell, a 13 year restaurant veteran, tells how he had to work and bleed for 3 hours…

Chloe Bruton told us today how her mother raised her and for 21 years, never had any paid sick leave.

Here is Chloe and her mom, Victoria Bruton (recently of “Who Wants To Be A Mllionaire” fame)-

It was chaos in City Hall today. There were a lot of really pissed off city workers there and the shouted Mayor Nutter out of the room.

Due to the security insanity, though, I only heard one other person testify, a member of SEIU. He talked about ho EVEN THOUGH, he had paid sick leave, he was there to support it out of basic decency. Good stuff.

We heard from Councilman David Oh and Bill Green on the opposing side.

They business people. They kept saying that this legislation was going to prevent rich people from creating jobs.

They want rich people to like them, good enough, but really, they should stop with the sandbox economics stuff. It is embarrassing.

That is not how it work Councilmen.

Business people to don’t open shop in Philadelphia to “create jobs.”

They open businesses in Philadelphia because their are people whop want to purchase their products here.

The vast majority of workers in our city who do not have paid sick leave are service workers. People who cut hair, retail workers and people who prepare and serve food.

You could open your haircuttery in Bucks County and your burger joint in West Chester, but guess what you leave behind when you do: all of those Philadelphia customers. No one is going to take their kids out of town for day care, or travel for 45 minutes for every meal. That is why their shame-econ doesn’t hold up. Pretty simple.

Councilman Oh made the exact same case about why we opposed the Living Wage at the airport. Really, Councilman, you are afraid that employers who will not pay more than $7.25 per hour are going to move their Chickie and Pete’s Communal Tip Theft Jar out of the airport? Or is it that they will actually relocate the airport out of Philadelphia?

We are all now wondering if Mayor Nutter will veto this legislation again as he did in 2011.

It is also kinda scary to note that two people who want to run for Mayor are also two of the “No” voters, Councilman Green and Councilman Kenney. Oh no! #NotAnotherNutter !

Both of these City Councilmen have a reputation of being pro-worker. Councilman Kenney was our champion for the Tip-Protection bill in 2011. Councilman Green opposed that bill to. I don’t know why he is said to be “a labor guy.”

Councilman Mark Squilla on consumers eating food infected by workers- Let Them Eat Cake

On 01.30.13, In Earned Sick Leave, Paid Sick Leave, Philly ROC, Restaurant Opportunity Center, By Fabricio

Jasmine Rivera and I got a chance to speak with Councilman Mark Squilla at a school rally in South Philly yesterday about the Earned Sick Leave bill.

At this point it is clear to me that he is planning to vote “no.”

His justification for not supporting something that will clearly benefit a majority of his constituents however didn’t make any sense.

One of the things that stands out is he said that he just got over the flu and that he went to work and got his whole office sick.

First of all, Councilman, EEEWWWWW!

That is really gross and inconsiderate.

He talked specifically about restaurants and how he thought that not having sick leave was “just how the industry is.”

Too bad the Chamber of Commerce didn’t have Squilla on it’s side when they were trying to keep kids in coal mines.

SUMMARY- When people go in and get others sick it is NOT A PROBLEM. I do it all the time.

He said that he remembered that when he was a bartender, that you would just swap shifts with other people when you were sick.

I pointed out that the Earned Sick Leave bill will not prevent people from swapping shifts. Earned Sick Leave will just guarantee them the right to stay home even if they can’t find anyone to cover their shift.

The Councilman just nodded.

My voice was reaching his head. Confirmed.

SUMMARY- It is not a problem, but if it was a problem, people could deal with it by switching shifts…unless they can’t.

Then the Councilman said that “people will go in sick anyway.” And that he favored giving restaurant owners incentives to voluntarily give paid sick leave.

SUMMARY- Earned Sick Leave will not 100% eradicate people going to work while sick so we should do nothing, unless the owners decide it is a problem..which (see above) it isn’t.

He also said that he went and ate at El Fuego and met the workers there and they were happier because of sick leave, but, no matter.

I can’t make sense of that.

It does sound to me like the Councilman has been coached by a restaurant owner (vs the restaurant association). Many owners see no problem with serving potentially tainted food since everyone else is doing it too.

At some point, Councilman Squilla will have to listen to his constituents, though.

Please add you name to this petition to him…

https://www.change.org/petitions/councilman-mark-squilla-vote-yes-on-earned-sick-days?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_after_sign