The Prime Minister running it in london, and he didnt know when he went to the dinner meeting that he and the representative from italy would be called on to make speeches. He thought he was there as a guest. And so he had to make a speech which he did, and churchill, after wards, apparently having drunk a good deal too much, which is not unusual for churchill. Came up to roosevelt and apparently complained. He said nothing to churchill about it and forgot the whole business. When they became, so called friends later, churchill wanted to forget it automatic together, but some people remembered that he had done this. He had been quite rude in 1918 to fdr. Churchill was a person who could alter his memoirs very easily. Churchills memoirs are totally untrust worthy. He wrote a lot of them. [laughter] he wrote a lot of them and wrote a lot of them with assistance. Even when the assistance wrote down the facts, he would alter them. He altered his own letters, for example. We know the originals and he altered them in the memoirs. Among the thicks things he altered he melt franklin in london in 1918 and they had a very warm exchange. It was very warm [laughter] but not that way. Right. That being the last question. I want to thank stanley. [applause] thank you for coming. I hope you enjoyed well meet you outside in just a few minutes. Thank you. [inaudible conversations] hi, i was about to ask him a question. We would like to hear from you. Tweet us your feedbackaves twitter. Com booktv. Ht for thenin youre watching booktv. Next Saru Jayaraman talking about the experience of Food Industry workers in the u. S. N ts expercond largest private sector work force in the country. She says that these individuals even those who work in restaurants that yamp o work at that champion fair trade food options are paid the lowest wages and experienced the worst working conditions of any workers in the country. This is about an hour. In baltimore restaurant worker off and on, more on than off over the past 7 years and in that time i worked for three employers. All three employers have been a little bit dicey. There were things to object to in all of them. Two of the three engage in waitstaff, wages that belongs to the employees. Wage theft is at least potentially and sometimes actually a grave practice. It can have really serious, really grave human consequences. I will talk to you separately, described the baltimore restaurants theme but the consequences of this cant be serious. For this reason it gives me a lot of pleasure to introduce our speaker tonight for the recent the best practice is serious and other related practices are morally serious. Saru jayaramans intellectual work is unique in bringing these practices to public attention, putting them into the public consciousness. They could not exist if they were seen. Since the title of the book behind the kitchen door. The practices are hidden, screened from us, they are behind something, otherwise they couldnt exist. Her practical work is also very important and effective. Saru jayaraman is cofounder of Restaurant Opportunity Centers united. Rock has done important work in a number of practical areas. It has recovered more than 7 million in wages that have been stolen from employees and other important work changes in restaurants. In addition, rock publishes a diners guide which lists the small number of identified ethical restaurants and larger number of restaurants that have ethical problems. There is more work to do. If you have information get in touch with us. There is a flyer which has the email address of the baltimore rock affiliates on it. This practical work also, there is analysis, different categories of information with respect to which you get knowledge about their restaurants. This work also is important in bringing these matters into public consciousness. Rock also has cooperated with others and set up worker owned restaurants. Myself i think this is a promising model. These restaurants can be mass contributors to the community in ways some other restaurants are detriments to the community. In addition to all that, i think Saru Jayaramans work will resonate and have affect more widely than just in the restaurant work place. She has done work that has importance for other aspects of the food system and i believe that her work will make changes throughout the food system not only in restaurants but i think it will be more important than that. The work is going to reform the lowwage Service Economy. This is important world we live in today. We move from a manufacturing economy. In the older days there were hard won but achieved, hard won protections for workers in the manufacturing economy. If the work place was unethical they could make complaints about that, they would be protected against retaliation, had institutions for making those complaints and protecting them against retaliation. They had benefits that could give them a secure future, provide for them as inevitable life events occurred if age, got ill, died and left survivors would provide for the survivors and these jobs have largely been lost. We moved into a Service Economy and as we move into a Service Economy, these protections have also been lost. I believe the work Saru Jayaraman is doing has a lot of potential to reform the structure of the economy we have today and reforming structure of the economy we have today means reshaping the society we live in. The issues are that fundamental. For all of these reasons, what i take to be uniquely important theoretical work, intellectual work, because of very important practical work, because of the gravity of the issues we are going to be discussing today, and because i believe this work will resonate and have affects widely, will restructure parts of the economy, reshaped the society we live in, for all these reasons it is my great pleasure to introduce our speaker today, Saru Jayaraman. [applause] good evening. Can you hear me . Great to be here. Thank you for having us and to paul for introducing me and getting engage with restaurant workers in baltimore. A pleasure to be here with you. That film, wasnt that film amazing . It was created by restaurant worker who is an amazing videographer and actually told the stories of my book as he saw them, he created that hold production and he saw them every day in a restaurant. I have to confess that actually mean myself, i did not know the things that were portrayed in this video 12 years ago. 12 years ago i was living in new york city, i had just graduated from law school, i was working at a small Workers Center in long island, new york and was actually organizing factory workers and custodial workers and restaurant workers and every evening i would come to manhattan or brooklyn where i lived and i would enjoy the most amazing cuisine new york city has to offer. I would eat great asian fusion food, vegetarian, vegan, raw food, try anything and everything. As a new yorker sometimes you eat out three times the day and i would do that. I have to admit that in all those years of eating out prior to 12 years ago i cannot actually describe to you one person who touched my food, one person who cooked it, one person who brought it to the table. Those people were invisible to me and i would argue that is true for most americans and americans eat out as americans more frequently than anybody else on earth and it isnt just the frequency with which we eat out, it is those moments we actually eat out in. We tend to celebrate our most amazing life moments in restaurants, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, special meetings we are having. I was proposed to in a restaurant. I bet most people in this room can recall some very special wonderful intimate moment in a restaurant. Most of us cannot recall in those special wonderful intimate moments the people who touched our food. They have been invisible to us and i would argue that is very purposeful. That was me. I knew nothing. I saw nothing 12 years ago and 12 years ago, 9 11 happened and on september 11th, 2001, in new york city there was actually a restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center tower 1, on the 107st floor, above the clouds and certainly above where the plane had that morning. 73 workers died that morning in a restaurant either jumping to their deaths or were incinerated inside the restaurant and 13,000 restaurant workers lost their jobs. That restaurant was unique, very unique because it had a union inside of it. Less than 0. 001 of workers in america unionized. This very unique restaurants with a very small union inside of it, the union called me and called one of the head waiters on windows on the world and asked us to start a Relief Center in the aftermath of the tragedy. We call that rock, the restaurant opportunity center. What started as a little Relief Center pose 9 11 has grown into a National RestaurantWorkers Organization with 10,000 restaurant worker members in 32 cities across the country. Lawyers providing good restaurant conditions range from a celebrity chef, great employer, all the way to small momandpop restaurants who are trying to do the right thing by their workers and also organize several thousand consumer members. We have won some things over the last 12 years. We have won 15 campaigns against very large highprofile Restaurant Companies where we have won eat Million Dollars in stolen tips and wages and much more important to was the money has been the policy changes we have won. We won raises and benefits and promotions, paid sick days, job security and grievance procedures, we have won Better Things for workers, better policies for workers in large Restaurant Companies that are setting the standard in their local region. We have opened our own worker owned restaurant. The restaurant that was in that video is our restaurants, a worker owned restaurant. That is not how we treat our workers. That was staged. We opened descendant such restaurant in detroit, michigan and inside those restaurants we created a Training Program that now trains a thousand workers a year to move up the ladder to livable wage jobs. We have done a ton of research on the industry and we have won some policy victories. We made it illegal in the city of philadelphia to deduct Credit Card Processing Fees from workers tips which unfortunately is legal everywhere else which is why we encourage you to leave your tips in cash rather than on a credit card. We raise the wage in new york state from tipped workers, the most incredible part of the last 12 years has been getting ready to know the stories of thousands and thousands of restaurant workers, some of whose stories i tell in the book and to learn all of the things i never knew that were happening behind the kitchen door. When i came to new york i was told you should tip about 20 . That is what most good new yorkers do, to 20 so i did. That represents the interests of the fortune 500 Restaurant Companies in america. As the head of the nra herman cain struck a deal with congress saying that the nra would not be opposed an increase in overall minimum wage as long as the minimum wage for tipped workers stayed frozen forever. So it has been stuck at the federal level at 2. 13 an hour for the last 22 years. Its a little bit better here in maryland at 3. 63 but it is nothing to live on anywhere and it is because of the power of this industry that is essentially striking a deal that says we should not have to pay our workers wages. You, customers you should pay our workers wages for us. Something i didnt know. I was talking about health and safety in restaurants. I grew up in l. A. And in l. A. They put letter grades in restaurant windows to tell you about the sanitation of the restaurant. I thought i knew something about sanitation. I had no idea that 90 of restaurant workers in america dont have paid sick days which means twothirds report cooking, preparing and serving our meals when they are sick with true stories from my book h1n1 better known as swine flu or pink eye or hepatitis a. Or typhoid fever all true stories of real people i can introduce you to. In fact the center for Disease Control reports that 50 to 90 of all norovirus outbreaks, nero viruses the winter stomach flu, 50 to 90 of our norovirus flu can be traced back to sit restaurant workers. I thought i knew something about competition in restaurants. We have all seen the shows top, iron chef. Its gotten kind of out of control on the food network and bravo. A lot of us watch the shows. I had no idea for the vast majority of workers in this industry getting to a livable wage job is a matter of skin color or their gender. There are right now over 10 billion restaurant workers in america. Actually one in 12 americans right now works in the Restaurant Industry. Its one of the only industries to grow over the last couple of years in the economic crisis rather than decline. Unfortunately it holds another accolade. Its the absolute lowest paying employer in the United States. Seven of the 11 lowest paying jobs in the United States and the two lowest paying jobs in the u. S. Lower than farmworker jobs lower than day labor jobs lower than any job you might think of as a lowpaying job that two lowest paying jobs in america are the people who serve in touch our food. It is entirely due to the power of an industry lobby called the National Restaurant association that decade after decade has said we should not have to pay our workers wages. In fact we suffer from unique lee thin Profit Margins so we should be able to pay the lowest wages in america. In fact this industry enjoys a 45 profit margin nationally which may sound small until you know that walmart which is generally considered one of the most Profitable Companies in the world has a 1 profit margin which means the Restaurant Industry to lowest point paying employer in the u. S. Enjoys four to five times the profit margin of the Largest Corporation in the world. They are doing quite well but as they have continued to grow wages have detonated in this industry. Workers are struggling with no paid sick days and who are we talking about exactly . When i say workers in this industry are in a tipped minimum wage of 2. 13 or 3. 63 anywhere between 2. 4 around the country 70 of workers who earn that minimum wage are women. Women who work at the ihop in the applebees and the olive garden and a red lobster in dennys. I say this because the industry likes to say nobody is earning 2. 13. These are steakhouse servers rolling in tips and they paint a picture of a tall white man whos doing great in rolling in tips who shouldnt be paid anymore because shes getting a lot of money when in fact 70 of these workers are women. They work at these restaurants and they suffer from three times the poverty rate of the rest of the u. S. Workforce and they use food stamps to double the rate of the rest of the workforce which means the women who put food on her tables cannot afford to be back themselves. One of the stories in my book is a woman named Claudia Munoz an immigrant from mexico who ended up becoming a real leader in my organization. When she was in graduate school in Houston Texas she worked at the ihop earning 2. 13 an hour. Now, the law says that restaurants are supposed to make sure that tips make up the difference between that tipped minimum wage of 2. 13 in the regular minimum wage of 7. 25. The u. S. Department of labor report and 84 violation rates with regard to employers actually making up that difference and in fact in claudias case the ihop megacorporation even though it is legal said we dont want to be held liable for making sure that tips make up that difference so we are going to report that you are earning 7. 25 regardless of what you actually earn. Which means claudia was taxed at 7. 25 and received a paste of every week is said this is not a paycheck. When you earn 2. 13 or 3. 63 your wages are so low they go entirely to taxes and you live off of your tips. Claudia lived off of her tips which were sometimes 5 an hour, sometimes 4 an hour and sometimes 0 an hour when she was doing side work for the restaurant was slow. Claudia was hungry. She said im ashamed to admit it but i would wait to get to the restaurant to be my pancakes because i couldnt afford to e might other women who are serving alongside me we would wait and flirt with the cooks to get extra food to be a cause we were so hungry. One i claudia worked at for my shift at the ihop in texas and at the end of the meal a couple walked out at the end of the night a couple walked out without paying their bill. Now the ihop megacorporation that it isnt even though its illegal said to claudia we dont want to be you have to be held liable for that bill which was 20 more than all the tips claudia earned that entire night which meant claudia ended up paying 20 for the luxury of having worked a full night shift at the ihop in Houston Texas. I cannot tell you how many times i have heard that same story. I would bet there are people in this audience who can tell that same story. In fact i have spoken in large audiences where state legislators get up and say that used to happen to me. Growing up the bar would make me pay for restaurants for customers walking out without paying the bill. I can cant tell you how many people have told me that experience because the Restaurant Industry is 10 million people. It is so many of us. It is many of us in this room. Its her friends, its our family members, our sisters, our brothers, our mothers, people that work for legislators were making the deals with the nra to ensure that these workers are the lowest paid workers in america. The industry says its okay because these are young people moving on to something better, which i find hilarious because essentially the industry is saying Everything Else out there is that are than us. That is essentially what they are saying. The truth is that 60 of restaurant workers are over the age of in their late 30s. One in four restaurant workers are parents and one in 10 are single mothers. These are mostly adults with families, with children trying to survive off of tips for the measly minimum wage or get. These men and women are trying to put food on the table in the majority are not trying to move on to something. The majority are actually professionals who take great pride in food service and hospitality, who want to be treated as the professionals that they are. Another story in my book. An immigrant from korea actually was a very highly intelligent person, went to the university of california at berkeley. They grew up in californcaliforn iowa and went to uc berkeley which is a hard school to get into. Got an engineering degree and graduated with honors with an engineering degree. Un knew his passion was in food and food service and hospitality and so un decided to become a bartender in a fine dining restaurant in california. In california there is no difference between the wage for tipped workers and nontipped workers. Everybody gets the same wage of 8 an hour. Actually we are part of a coalition that just raised it to 10 an hour. California is the largest in vast is growing Restaurant Industry in this United States. And that could have the city with the largest Restaurant Industry in the u. S. , los angeles which has a larger Restaurant Industry to new york city. It is thriving. In fact there are seven states in the United States that have the same wage for tipped the nontipped workers. Five of those seven states have faster Restaurant Industry growth rates in the Restaurant Industry growth rate nationally so the argument that raising this wage from 2. 13 to the regular minimum wage paying tipped workers a stable base wage would kill the industry, just doesnt pan out. If you were to come back with m. Come back with me to californians see the most vibrant Restaurant Industry youll ever see her come to San Francisco where you have the highest minimum wage and United States of 10. 55 and you cannot trip without running into a restaurant. The City Industry is thriving. So the argument that raising these wages would kill the industry just isnt true and in fact in uns casey was doing while earning a days wage earning tips as a bartender in a fine dining restaurant decided he wanted to be in the center of it all, actually work in her Nations Capital serve this country serve Congress Members and senators decided to move to washington d. C. Got a job at a restaurant serving Congress Members senators people from the white house and earning the District Of Columbia tip minimum wage of 2. 77. Now when you earn 2. 77 an hour you live off of your tips and if you get sick guess what . You still have to go to work to get those tips. There is no way to get tips if you are living off of tips by staying at home sick so you will go to work and you are sick especially because in washington d. C. In 2008 paid sick days legislation was passed but in yet another one of those backdoor deals to National Restaurant association and the local Restaurant Association managed to sneak into the bill at the very last minute an exemption for tipped workers which means in our Nations Capital everybody has paid sick days except the people who touch your food. So un was one of these tipped workers earning 2. 77 an hour with no stick dates. One day he was working at a posh fine dining restaurant and starts to feel a little woozy. The next day hes getting dizzy. He can barely stand. He finds himself not amiable to see things very well. The third day he is barely able to stand on his feet but hes got to keep coming to work. A few more days like that before one day he cant even get out of bed. He spends a month coming in and out of a coma before he says to himself i dont have health care. I have course dont have paid sick days but i think i need to find out what this is before it kills me. So he decides to go find a doctor who will take mercy on him and see him for free and he decides maybe there is a doctor in washington d. C. Who will see me for free and he is right. He finds it doctor and he sees him for free and tells him he has h1n1 better known as swine flu. Un suffers another month like this in bed, goes into 10,000 of Credit Card Debt before he finally feels better and calls the posh restaurant and says hes ready to come back and they say sorry, we have replaced you. Un says you know i was young, i had an education, i was able to find another restaurant job very quickly. I worked my way over many years out of 10,000 in Credit Card Debt that but i always think about the workers that i infected at that restaurant, people with families, people with children some immigrants for whom 10,000 in debt completely wiped them out. What about the customers . How many customers would i have infected with the swine flu lacks i will never know. I will never know because it was not important enough to that restaurant or frankly to this industry to ensure that the people who are serving us are not sick themselves. In fact the Worlds Largest restaurant corp. , a company which is the Worlds Largest fullservice Restaurant Company that many people have never heard of. Darden is the brand that owns olive garden seasons 52 bahamas breeze the arthouse and so many other brands i cant even list them. And back in 2011 darden announced a partnership with Michelle Obama and are lets move campaign saying they verdana provide healthy food for kids at the olive garden. The same moment they made that announcement with Michelle Obama a server in a fayetteville North Carolina olive garden was forced to work with hepatitis a because she didnt have paid sick days. 3000 people had to get tested for have a force by the local health department. Filed a consumer classaction against the restaurant and one. That same year there were two norovirus out rakes. Norovirus is the winter stomach flu. They were to norovirus out rakes in olive garden in Olive Gardens one in indiana and one in illinois. I ask you how healthy can the food he for your kids if you are going to expose them to hepatitis a and stomach flu . It cant be that healthy. Not just for you and your family but for the workers, for their coworkers and even for the employers. This is a Public Health disaster and it is certainly a moral disaster. That people are living off their tips to the point where they cannot afford to do anything and work all the time. Fortunately there is good news on the way after many years of fighting together with coalition partners. There is finally a bill in congress that would raise that it is morally low minimum wage of 2. 13 an hour. It is called the fair minimum wage act of 2013 and it would raise the regular minimum wage for all workers to 10 and it would raise the tipped wage for the first time in two decades to 70 of that or 7 will continue to rise with the cost of living. It is a great big deal for us because it was the first time that leadership in the house in the Senate Introduced a bill that would overcome the legacy of herman cain and get when it was introduced Congress Members said to us to overcome the power of the other nra we are going to need to see a groundswell of public support which is ridiculous to cause this issue polls 71 in favor of mung republicans and democrats alike. Who exactly is congress listening to if not all of their constituents . They have been listening to the National Restaurant association. This bill has a chance if we can demonstrate a groundswell of public support and we have thought about that. Where have we seen a groundswell in this industry and in fact we hadnt seen one. About five years ago or so eric schlossers book fast food nation came out and we saw a sea change in our industry. Consumer demand leading to people asking is this local and organic and restaurants jumping over themselves to say i provide locally sourced organic cuisine whether or not they did. We believe that same kind of consumer demand can change this industry. We are asking for three things from everybody to be smacked out and has a conscience who eats at all. The first thing is to read the book. The book is our omnivores dilemma our fast food nation. Its our way to educate consumers and let them know what is happening behind the kitchen door. We are asking that you spread the word and tell people to buy the book and read it. Danny Glovers Company has provided short films based on employers that you can watch. Theres a lot that we can do and actually can find the book on our web site at our asean nida. Org or donate to support the organization that is lifting up workers and employers and consumers. That is number one. Why the book and support the organization. Number two is to actually go to the new consumer web site that we have created to collectivize the voices of people who eat out who also want to say enough is enough. Its called the welcome table. Net and already over 100,000 consumers have signed the petition asking congress to raise that abysmally low minimum wage of 2. 13 an hour. Also on the web site you can find a guide and the Smartphone App that you can download for free under smartphone called the r all maxie National Diners guide which tells you how restaurants are faring. The third and most important thing you can do and often sometimes when i make these talks i spoke in washington d. C. And i heard someone say i should just get better. I always say that is great, please do tip well when you be al but that cannot be all that you do. If that is all that we all do we continue to subsidize an industry that expects us to pay his workers wages for it. Besides tipping well we are asking that at the end of your meal you go up to your manager or the owner and say i love the food, i love the service and i would love to see you provide a wage or sick days. I would love to see you promote from within. I would love to see you create a diverse working environment. I would love to see these things and im a paid customer and i want to keep supporting you but i want to see this change. If it feels uncomfortable to Say Something we have simple tweets on the app and you can tweet the management or you can leave a note on your bill but its important that we communicate because just as asking for locally sourced organic potatoes or organic strawberries or wanting to know how art chicken or pork was treated me to change in our industry, so too can these words and i will give you a quick story of how i have done it. When my first daughter who is now three was born, we took her for one of those special wonderful intimate moments a little vacation to a little each time in california three locally sourcing organic vegetarian restaurant and we are having one of those special wonderful moments in the restaurant taking pictures of a newborn baby, having a great time but i happen to notice that all the servers were white and all the lessers were latino. Segregation by race and gender in our industry is actually pretty severe. We have done a number of studies where we have sent hundreds of pairs of white and people of color color applicants into fine dining restaurants to see who gets hired his fine dining staff and bartending positions. We have reported this and sometimes the responses is not just that all these folks cant speak english or there is a legal and that is why they are not. We tested that as well. We gave the white applicants an unintelligible european accent and we gave the people of color a slight nonamerican accent and we found for white workers any kind of accent any even unintelligible was a bonus and for the people of color in a kind of accent was a detractor so we knew it wasnt accent or language. We knew it was race and that is what i saw ms. Restaurant. In fact i encourage you to go to any fine dining restaurant in baltimore or d. C. Or in the region and look at to where the servers, who are the bussers and whos in the kitchen . I saw this and at the end of my meal we paid in my husband took the baby out. I went to the manager and i said i love the food and i love the service but i happened to notice all the servers are white and the bussers are latino. What promotional opportunities have you offered these women . I think it would be great servers and he said well, i dont think any of them want to be servers. None of them have ever asked me to be a server. Which you know i thought about. That might be true. If you have never seen anybody who looks like you and a server position why would you ask for a promotion . So i said i appreciate that but ive got to say its important to me as a paying customer to see that people have the opportunity to advance. I think these women would be great servers. Gosh is it important to me as a new mother that my little daughter who is brown grows up seeing people of every skin color and every position in the restaurant so she know she can do whatever she wants when she grows up. It isnt that i thought my one comment was going to change that restaurant forever but i do think in the same way that restaurant had to become a local resource or gimmick restaurant because of consumer demand that up of another half a dozen people it said something over the next couple of months you had Better Believe that restaurant would have done something about it. That is why we are asking for this change, for this intervention which we need now so desperately. This industry impacts millions of workers ,com,com ma hundreds of millions of family members of those workers and frankly our entire economy and their health. It impacts workers and it even impacts these employers who experience a 300 turnover rate because workers are moving constantly from job to job because they cannot support themselves when these families turn these wages. It also impacts every single one of us can be out. Dude eats out. [applause] i think we actually have 13 minutes to answer questions so do you want to say a minute and i do have time for questions. I will try to talk for just a little bit. I just want to tell you something about what i have observed in the Restaurant Industry in baltimore and one restaurant in particular which i wont name. I would like to be able to name it that its probably better not to name it at this point. And the library asked me not to, so i wont. This is a restaurant that does really massively steel wages. In the case of servers, they virtually dont pay the servers at all. They take the attitude at the servers work for themselves and they have to pay them a little bit of course but they pay them far fewer hours than the hours actually worked and in a number of cases similar things happen. They dont pay overtime overtime. Another case reported to me. I didnt observe it personally but it was reported in a reliable way of a person who worked 12 hour days, 14 days in a row with no days off and had a hard time getting 40 hour weeks. This restaurant also gets gives no benefits of any kind. They can do a few nice things for you when you come in, give you free food that benefits in the sense of things that are going to take care of you as you move through life or if something happens to you, you get nothing. If you are not working you have no money coming in. Well lets just suppose just analytically that something happens. You have a illness and you are disabled and you cant work, what are you going to rely on . In the first instance you will have to rely on Social Security safety net programs. Social Security Disability and there are others. Im trying to talk fast. Well, guess what . All of these programs are tied to wages. So, when the restaurant steals your wages as it is its also stealing your benefits in the same act. This is a point not very well understood by the people who work in this restaurant or people who work in some other restaurant and incidentally this restaurant never talks about what the wage laws are. I said i would give you an analytical summary remark about this restaurant and i have. Now i want to say this is a situation that has really occurred. A person who worked in this restaurant became ill and was unable to continue to work, had no wages coming in, no benefits of any kind coming in from the restaurant found she was unable to live on the Social Security benefits that she was able to get. She was reduced to poverty. It was not a tragic story. She is not living in the street but its a very disturbing story and its going to happen again. The people who work in the restaurant are middleaged people. Saru alluded to this. They are often the main wage earner for their family and the main source of benefits for their family. This is going to happen again. This is a human consequence of restaurant practices that exist in baltimore. Thanks and i will turn it back to saru. [applause] i wanted to open it up for questions and comments. Thanks for your good book. I understand the which is the highest job are also paid much less than they should read. You know they have to buy their own gas and so on so i was wondering whether you paid attention to that . You mean delivery workers . Delivery workers obviously dont just work for pizza restaurants. They work for all different kinds of restaurants and they actually can also be paid a sub minimum wage. Not 2. 13 cents. Its 4. 65 for delivery workers. They experience all kinds of exposure to violence, health and safety issues so we actually in new york at a special study of delivery workers in particular and we found that there was a rate of about one to two near deaths or deaths each year among delivery workers and not just traffic accidents but being staffed, having to go to all different kinds of places and facing all different kinds of violence, being robbed, being assaulted and not being actually in any way supported, reimbursed or help either employer. Actually its an important component of the industry. Also today talking moon said we should all fight poverty. So poverty has been rising in america. Things of this nature will definitely contribute to more poverty and the Restaurant Industry is producing an annual revenue of nearly 700 billion which is not a small sum. They do quite well. Hi. I am allen with working newsletter and a proud union member. I want to salute the restaurant workers that have been going on strike. Ive heard its now 58 cities and i think a lot of people dont understand that they are really at the cutting eggs edge of the Labor Movement and they are fighting for all workers even if they dont realize it. Theyre teaching us things that are National Union leaders choose to forget that strikes work. I am wondering in addition to the demands for raising the minimum wage up to 15 and ive heard in some cases which is what we really need, nobody should resist raising to 10 if these laws get passed. Are they making other demands . For example Peoples Organization for progress is holding a conference in new jersey on october 19 and looking at issues like the minimum wage but also calling for jobs for all. I think you know if we have Jobs Available for everybody we would have job security and we would be able to fight for higher wages that way as well. Are there any other demands that i havent heard about on the news other than the minimum wage increases . Yeah so subtwelve does not run the fast food worker sites. We have been supportive. Its definitely an ally and we support obviously restaurant worker standing up. I totally agree with you that these workers have surprised everybody, have surprised the union that organized them to stand up, surprised them in their force and willingness to come out in the issues they presented. In many cities across the country you do have committees of fast food workers in various localities fighting for issues like store level issues like not stealing out of the tip jar or uniform related issues. A lot of restaurant workers are forced to pay for the uniform which is actually illegal or being forced to work in extremely hot or unhealthy or unsafe conditions. Definitely these workers have formed committees across the country and they are taking on these store level issues and their national claim is 15 an hour but they are also asking for the right to organize a union. It isnt just that one demand. The theories from city to city. That demand is the only demand that unifies that Campaign Across the country. Yes, i havent had a chance to read your book yet and i will bite after the talk i was wondering a couple of things. Is there a way to get on a contact list . I was trying to find the web site and i really wasnt successful in that. Definitely. Thank you for asking the question. Do we have a signup sheet today please put your email down. We can send you updates and information and the two web sites you should check out our roc united. Org and the welcome table. Net where you can sign this petition to raise the wage. On roc united youll find everything we have ever done related to a wide range of issues from wages to raise an agenda to paid sick days. I guess my question was you mentioned the success in california and i was wondering your thoughts on how that could be spread to maryland and other places and also the national legislation, if you could talk about that. California like i said decided to raise its wages to 10 an hour for the entire state for tipton on tipped workers alike. There was a bill moving through the state of maryland that would raise the wage here as well, not with parity between tip to nontipped workers. It will be coming back very soon in maryland in the state legislature and my hope is that not only will the tipped minimum minimum wage be increased and pegged to the overall wage of 70 but actually now a number of states and localities that are part of our movement around the country are demanding to get rid of this ridiculous lower tipped minimum wage altogether and saying look, no worker should receive less than the minimum wage. So that is actually a growing movement around the country but here in the state of maryland there will be legislation soon that will be going to the state legislatulegislatu reto raise both the regular and the tipped minimum wage. What we need everybody here to do is maryland residence is to call on your state legislators to make sure that tipped workers are not left out in the last minute closeddoor deal that occurs all the time. It just happened in new york state. The minimum wage just wage just one of the wage just went up and it just happened in connecticut in d. C. We cannot let that happen anymore. How do you do . I went to a restaurant along time ago and the waitress told me something about tipping which i didnt know anything about. Part of her tip has to go to the cook. I did not know that. Then she told me that the cook would make it hard on her if she didnt come up with some money. Thats all i have to say. Well its true that tipped workers do have to share their tips and they should not be sharing them with cooks. They should only be sharing them with other Service Workers which include runners and busters and bartenders. When tipped workers are asked to share tips with what they call the back of the house cooks crepes and dishwashers or management that is illegal and according to u. S. Federal law if that happens the restaurant worker can actually be paid back the difference between the tipped in regular minimum wage for every hour that person has worked in the restaurant. Any inappropriate sharing of tips breaks down the entire system in the restaurant and allows workers to sue for all of that money that they have lost between the tipped in regular minimum wage. My concern is this. When you go into work in a restaurant you dont have a contract. When you go into a restaurant you sign. You are not a contract shall worker. You dont have to show cause at any given time. This is a one day off. You dont show up, you work 10 or 25 years. This is baltimore. The same people. Just change the numbers. If you dont have a contract then you cant show cause, right . You dont have a contract. If you dont have a contract you are at will. You dont have a to show cause to fire you. I think in america thats the case. If you dont have a union its true, you can be fired at will. You do have the right to organize always. You do have the right to organize. Im sorry, i answer your question . Its okay. I understand. There are other people waiting to ask questions. Thank you. You do have the right to organize, and you do have the right even without a union to actually be able to speak up against conditions on the job together with your coworkers and not he retaliated against. We have actually gotten workers reinstated or we have gotten them we have fought against retaliation and one because they came together and stood up with their coworkers even without a union instead we demand change. We demand a higher wage. You dont actually need a union to have that detection. Contracts. If you have a contract someone says i work for you and otherwise its [inaudible] thanks. Which is going to say, i worked in and this was 83 i think it was. There was a the muffin oven and the potato oven, the plate warming oven and the steam table and they would not allow the backdoor to be opened because they were worried about theft. I really started feeling like i was going to faint. I thought you now, the floor is style and theres a sharp edge on the table. I would rather sit down rather than waiting until i fall. The guy was like, get back to work. It came to a point where i thought it was going to faint again so i sat down a second time and he fired me. I thought well, two days later i showed up when i was supposed to work and i thought i would try that just to show up. He was like dont you understand, you were fired . A month later i went back to collect my last paycheck and all the sallet girls which is seven people were all different. The second story, i worked at the pizza hut and again i believe it was actually 20 years ago or maybe more. They forced you to do jobs like washdown things in the kitchen. Even the baseboards washing them with beach leach solution. Basically instead of paying the cooks minimum wage they made the waitresses do that kind of stuff. Obviously we were getting no tips at that time. Those are my stories. The harassment is too embarrassing. [applause] some of my questions just got answer but i was curious what happens if youre an individual worker into about violations and confront your ask lex i imagine there is fear of consequences because they might say well we will hire someone who will do it creates be absolutely so that is why we dont recommend doing it alone. We recommend joining an organization like roc to join together with coworkers who can say these things. Youre not protected on your own. You are protected when you get together with other lands say enough is enough sewing courage it go to roc united web site and be a member and we will support you. We created a web site called living off tips. Comhe