Serving Socialism: Restaurant Workers Organizing for Relief And Power

Revolutions Per Minute - Radio from the New York City Democratic Socialists of America

This past Monday, New York City shut down indoor dining at restaurants and bars as COVID cases continue to rise in the city and across the country. Many restaurants were barely surviving before New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year. With little to no government support to make up for the loss of business needed to maintain necessary restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19, restaurants and bars across the city are shutting their doors for good. And of course those most impacted in all of this are restaurant workers.

Today we’ll be talking with Natalia, Paul and Crystal, comrades from here in New York City and across the country in Minneapolis and Austin who are organizing with the Restaurant Organizing Project, and effort to organize restaurant workers for relief and power on the job during COVID-19 and beyond. We’ll talk about the many labor issues that existed for restaurant workers before COVID, how the pandemic has exacerbated those struggles while creating new ones, and how workers are fighting back.

Follow the Restaurant Organizing Project at twitter.com/@restaurantproj or visit labor.dsausa.org/restaurants to learn more about how you can get involved!