Lets Build Power for Restaurant Workers

ROC United maintains an intense commitment to advancing ROC’s mission of building worker power — a mission we adopted in 2020. This signifies a transformative shift from advocacy to direct worker mobilization.  In the wake of the election, to sustain our organizing efforts and fight for workers’ rights across the country, every bit of support helps ensure that our efforts for workers' rights continue to grow stronger.

Donations can help us maintain critical momentum in the balance of power between workers and employers, including the National Restaurant Association. 

A few key initiatives we’ve undertaken to advance workers’ rights include partnering with the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University to train our organizers around the country using the Build the Base snowflake model, empowering worker leaders to expand the movement.  

ROC United is in immediate need of three organizers for Michigan to mobilize workers to defend recent wage and paid sick day increases we have won as restaurants scare workers into thinking they will lose their tips and their jobs. We know in every state and city without a subminimum wage, including heavily unionized Las Vegas, workers get tips on top of their full wage, but this lie is powerful and we need organizers to fight back. 

We also need organizers for New York, where hundreds of workers walk through our door ready to take more aggressive action, including exercising their freedom of association. We need additional organizers for New Orleans, where the $2.13 subminimum wage means servers are paid by customers rather than their employer, and where we are fighting to end the sexual harassment they have to put up with on a daily basis. We need organizers for cities like Boulder, Colorado, where we’ve supported workers at Casa Bonita who have now decided to form a union. We are creating a national organizing team that will be able to support different campaigns around the country, and would be thrilled to discuss opportunities where you are located.

Worker mobilization cannot wait. We witnessed the energy of hot-shop organizing efforts at restaurants around the country run head first into the class warfare of employers closing shops or refusing to negotiate. In response, we have developed an intensive educational effort around freedom of association that we honed in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.; this effort has seen real victories as workers have won voluntary recognition of their unions. We know these efforts will continue to spread nationwide with support from unions like yours. Together, we can empower thousands of restaurant workers to fight for their rights, win a voice on the job, and build a more just industry.

Restaurant workers came under severe attack in 2017, and we expect similar or worse this time around. Your support can help us ensure that the voices of thousands of restaurant workers are heard, their rights protected, and their futures brighter.