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Golly Issue 02 - Insights - Part Time Grind
- 1. 26 INSIGHTS Part-Time Grind Lauren McQuade The ROC-LA office sits at the end of a long stretch of hallway and at 1P.M. on a Monday, the door is open. New member orientation is an open call for restaurant workers to come by, meet the small staff, and talk about, well, anything. Upon entering, visitors are handed a stack of paper, the neon green sheet on top titled The Principles of Organizing. Below the headline is information pertinent to restaurant workers, mostly outlining the laws that are supposed to protect them. ROC-LA is an offshoot of the New York City-based Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Formed in 2007 to help displaced restaurant workers after 9/11, there are now ROC branches in several major cities, including Detroit, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Oakland, Boston, and Washington, D.C., with nearly 10,000 members nationwide. ROC-Uniteds goal is to surround the industry, a term the organization uses to describe simultaneously organizing justice campaigns, promoting the high road to pro鍖tability via superior management practices, and improving industry-wide standards through research and policy work. ROC-LA offers guidance and bene鍖ts to members not otherwise provided by Unreliable schedules, shady management, and zero job security cranky customers are just the tip of the iceberg. employers, like affordable healthcare, access to legal counsel, and six-week job training courses. According to The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the restaurant industry employs more immigrants than any other industry nationwide, and in Los Angeles County, restaurants are an especially important source of jobs for new immigrants, people of color, and those just starting out in the workforce. That last bit of insight comes from a comprehensive 2011 research study conducted by ROC-LA and designed by the Los Angeles Restaurant Industry Coalition. Culled from 562 worker surveys and over sixty interviews with workers and employers, the study is one of the 鍖rst and most complete research analyses of the restaurant industry in Los Angeles, the largest in the nation. Among the 鍖ndings: Los Angeles- area restaurants employ over 276,100 workers, a vast share of the regions total employment, second only to the retail sector. The majority of these jobs are considered low road, meaning theyre dangerous to the worker, and frequently violate employment and health and
- 2. 27 safety laws. Employment is mostly part- time, with no bene鍖ts, no overtime, and little opportunity for increased income more broadly referred to as wage theft. 89.8% of restaurant workers reported that their employers do not offer health insurance. 82% earn less than a living wage. 44.1% are not paid overtime when working more than forty hours a week. The numbers are daunting and somewhat abstract, but Kathy Hoang, the director of ROC-LA, is certain of one thing: change starts with telling the workers stories. Charisse Ford is an actress and works at an upscale Mexican restaurant in Downtowns Historic Core, a narrow grid of streets located between the Financial District and Skid Row. The restaurant, like most, is big on cutting labor costs, and Fords shifts are frequently canceled just a few hours before shes due to arrive at work. Under pressure from the owners, management can end up picking up the slack themselves in order to cut costs and make some extra cash. Ford was cut early one Friday night when an unexpected rush came. I asked my manager if she wanted me to stay on. She said no and hopped on the 鍖oor and started taking tables herself. I was so upset. I was livid, she recalls. On a national scale, just-in-time schedulingthe practice of matching workers hours to consumer demand, often at the workers monetary expense, health, and well-beingis designed to save businesses money and maximize productivity. For the individual workers affected by these ever-changing schedules, the results are hardly bene鍖cial. When hours 鍖uctuate, so do workers incomes, says Susan J. Lambert, a University of Chicago professor whose research focuses on low-skill, hourly jobs, And unpredictable, 鍖uctuating work hours can make it hard to gain traction in the labor market, to move up into a better job. Lambert has discovered that just-in-time scheduling isnt necessary for long-term pro鍖tability and is, in fact, a mechanism of social and economic inequality. What has happened is that the accountability requirements that trickle down from Wall Street to the front lines of 鍖rm result in practices that privilege short-term pro鍖ts over long-term 鍖nancial stability and worker engagement, motivation, and well-being, she says. Theres real, profound economic insecurity that one faces when forced into these types of precarious work schedules. PART-TIME GRIND Just-in-time scheduling is used most in both retail and service, two of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy. Carrie Gleason is the director of the Fair Workweek Initiative and co-founded the Retail Action Project. The sectors that are growingthe sectors creating new jobs with this economic recoveryare the sectors that are more likely to employ women, said Gleason. Theres real, profound economic insecurity that one faces
- 3. 28 when forced into these types of precarious work schedules, making it even harder for low-income women, especially black and Latina women, to get ahead when theyre faced with this type of employment instability. Ford got a second job out of necessity at local sandwich chain Mendocino Farms. She recently accepted a leadership position for guaranteed hours and a set schedule, but INSIGHTS still needs both jobs to make ends meet. Im resentful of both my jobs because I have to work them both to survive, she says. Then, inevitably, Im not giving time to what Im actually here for, which the money is supposed to go toward in the 鍖rst place. Its like a big circle of bullshit. Ford was recently picked up by an acting agency and has already missed two auditions. As a new client, her track record isnt great. Im just praying I dont get dropped. Marlena Ortiz* is an aspiring fashion designer. For a while, she was working thirty-eight hours a week at Rubys Diner, taking on a full course load, and holding down an internship with a local designer. It all came to a head one day when she woke up in her car, confused and disoriented. I was sleep-deprived, she says. I hit the car in front of me because I had fallen asleep at the wheel and didnt realize it. Desperate to make a change and anxious to live and work closer to school, Ortiz got a new job at a tapas restaurant and moved into a studio apartment downtown. As she worked her way up from busser to bar manager in a matter of months, she says she felt pressured by management to take on more and more shifts to secure her new job. She gave up her internship and eventually stopped attending classes altogether. Now Im stuck with too many hours and no overtime. My school is only three blocks away, she says. Unions have been on a steady decline over the past four decades. Overall, weve Im resentful of both my jobs because I have to work them both to survive...
- 4. 29 PART-TIME GRIND become much more focused on what is good for corporations than what is good for families, says Professor Lambert. Sometimes these go together, but not always. In a depressed job market, tactics like just-in- time scheduling are proving to be the virtual norm for employers who, in effect, operate unregulated without an organized workforce. Yet by not allowing a signi鍖cant portion of the working population to have a disposable income, a necessary element in an economy that relies heavily on consumer spending, these policies have inadvertently stymied economic growth. No major federal wage-hour legislation has been passed since the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. In July 2014, Representatives George Miller and Rosa DeLauro introduced the Schedules That Work Act, proposing new protections for healthy work schedules. The Fair Workweek Initiative works with community groups and unions around the U.S. to pass new standards on work hours. Despite the disappointing election, we saw the minimum wage pass, and across the country were winning earned sick time, Gleason says. I think that theres an exciting movement to pass new policy standards, especially in cities, at the same time were seeing workers taking action in organizing. I think we are seeing a resurgence with low-wage workers. Despite the overwhelming pressure that led to her current predicament, Ortiz blames herself for sacri鍖cing her career goals. Now I see the bigger picture, and I see that I prioritize work because at the end of the day, I need money to survive, she says. I just needed a break, and then I ended up getting stuck at another job. I guess Im addicted to money or whatever. *Name has been changed. I just needed a break, and then I ended up getting stuck at another job.