Restaurant Workers Set Sights On Walmart Wannabe: Darden

[Omaha Steve]

http://labornotes.org/2012/05/restaurant-workers-set-sights-walmart-wannabe-darden

Jenny Brown May 29, 2012

Restaurant workers organizing with the Restaurant Opportunities Center have trained their sights on their most ambitious target yet—a giant chain that wants to become the Walmart of sit-down dining.

Called Darden, the company says it’s the largest full-service restaurant corporation in the world.


Restaurant workers organizing with the Restaurant Opportunities Center have trained their sights on their most ambitious target yet—a giant chain that wants to become the Walmart of sit-down dining. Photo: ROC.


Darden owns 1,900 restaurants under the names Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse, Capital Grille, and others. This year the company added a new name, “defendant,” when Capital Grille workers in five cities sued, charging the corporation with stealing wages and firing Black workers because of their race.

According to the suit, restaurants in Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Chevy Chase, Maryland, required workers to work off the clock, paid them the tipped minimum of $2.13 an hour when they weren’t doing tipped work, and denied them breaks, among other violations of federal and state wage and hour laws.

FULL story at link.

[limpyhobbler]

1. About time. nt