Chicago Restaurant Workers Score a Victory

By Kevin Robinson in Food on Dec 30, 2009 4:40PM

The Chicago chapter of the Restaurant Opportunity Center scored a small victory last week in Andersonville, after the owner of Ole Ole agreed to meet with organizers over what workers say are nearly $200,000 in owed back wages. Jose Oliva of ROC told the Community Media Workshop that "it's an extreme case of what we call customer-subsidized wages," with front of the house staff working almost entirely for tips, and back of the house staff going weeks, if not months, without being paid. "I actually think they count on that," Oliva said of workers that get frustrated and quit.

ROC was preparing to picket in front of the restaurant when management agreed to meet with them. Oliva says that "we're cautiously optimistic" that Ole Ole's management will negotiate an agreement to pay back wages and improve working conditions. "It blew us away," Oliva told In These Times of the allegations against Ole Ole. "We hear all kinds of crazy stories about servers tipping management, tipping the house. But not being paid at all, literally working for tips, is an extreme case of consumer-subsidized wages. And that’s just the front of the house. In the back of house there are cuts and burns, other health and safety violations, all kinds of abuse, not necessarily illegal, but being called names, being treated like animals,"

The Restaurant Opportunity Center was founded after the 9/11 attacks by the surviving workers at Windows on the World to support restaurant workers displaced by the attacks. Since then the organization has established chapters around the nation, in Chicago, Los Angeles, Maine, Miami, Michigan, New Orleans, New York and Washington, DC to fight for workplace justice, assist with job training and placement, and conduct research and policy work.