Editor’s Note: UAW members include blackjack dealers in Atlantic City. “Longshoremen” sell the books you buy from Powell’s. At some American dairies, those are Teamsters churning out cheese and yogurt. And fellow CWAers go far beyond the scope of communications – nurses, police officers, airline ticket agents and social workers, just to name a few. The Newspaper Guild-CWA is no exception when it comes to innovative organizing. Let us know how your local is “Thinking Outside the Box.”
In Philadelphia and a half-dozen other big cities, low-wage dishwashers, cooks and other “back of the house” restaurant staff are learning the skills they need to move up front as higher-paid servers, hosts and bartenders.
They’re also learning how to fight exploitation in an industry with below-minimum wages, few if any benefits and only a tiny sliver of workers with a union voice.
Until recently, the people training them didn’t have a union, either. Now, 22 “ROC” coordinators in cities as far-flung as Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami are members of the Philadelphia Newspaper Guild.
“We’re very excited about being part of the Guild,” said Fabricio Rodriguez (pictured below), who runs Philadelphia’s office of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. “We think having a union voice is going to give us credibility with workers when we talk to them about winning their rights, because we are workers who won those rights ourselves.”
Unlike most workers, however, ROC coordinators are fortunate to have a union-friendly employer. Their National Labor Relations Board election was a quick-and-easy vote by mail, with ballots counted in January at the Philly Guild’s office.
Soon after launching its Philadelphia program, ROC became the Guild’s neighbor and tenant in the historic brownstone the Guild owns. Longtime friends in the city’s labor community, Rodriguez and Guild Executive Director Bill Ross began talking about organizing ROC.
ROC coordinators in other cities had been floating the idea of a union for a while, Rodriguez said. With ROC growing steadily, the timing seemed right and the Guild felt like a good fit.
For the local, the organizing win was an early high point in what is promising to be an especially challenging year. (See story page 3.) Amid the perpetual battle to save media jobs and quality journalism, Ross is working to bring other non-traditional members into the Guild. Currently, he’s got his eye on a dialysis clinic.
“In the labor movement, we’ve all heard it, ‘organize or die,’” Ross said. “As much as we love our newspapers, the sad fact is that companies aren’t opening up new newspapers every day.”
ROC emerged in the aftermath of 9/11 as an effort to find new jobs for 350 surviving Windows on the World employees. The famous restaurant had topped the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Not even a year later, Windows’ owner opened a large Times Square eatery and refused to hire all but a handful of his former employees. Union activists suspected he didn’t want workers with union experience; Windows had been one of the city’s few unionized restaurants.
ROC organized worker protests that got national media attention, and the program began to grow. Now in eight cities — six of them Guild-represented — the goal is to partner with restaurants that are willing to take a high-road approach to wages, benefits and rights. Workers get good jobs and a chance to advance; restaurants get highly trained employees and good publicity, including mention in the annual dining guide ROC publishes.
ROC training in Philadelphia is still new, but in New York and other cities with long-established programs, Rodriquez said the feedback is tremendous. “We hear great things about our training academy and the quality of our students,” he said.
Beyond training, ROC pushes for changes in public policy. Last year, over the shameless objections of some of the city’s wealthiest restaurant owners, the Philadelphia City Council overwhelmingly sided with ROC on an issue regarding tips.
Even though tipped workers in Pennsylvania make just $2.83 an hour, restaurants routinely were taking a percentage of the gratuities when customers paid by credit card. The City Council banned the practice.
“These restaurateurs went to the city council with an attitude like they’re celebrities, trying to justify stealing the tips of someone making $16,000 a year,” Rodriguez said.
Learn more about ROC and download their nationwide dining guide at www.rocunited.org.