Restaurant Opportunity Center, LA
- Parent organization funded by labor unions: AFL-CIO, SEIU, and HERE
- Funded by progressive foundations such as the Lynn Handleman Charitable Foundation
- Parent organization accused of labor law violations on multiple occasions.
- The San Francisco Chronicle reported three former employees sued ROC for sex, age, and race discrimination, wrongful termination, and retaliation for criticizing the organization. Employees claim that leadership muted, reprimanded, and even fired employees for speaking up in meetings about racism.
- In 2007, former employees sued ROC and its founder Saru Jayaraman for being forced to perform “sweat equity” — unpaid work in return for promised partial ownership of ROC’s restaurant Colors in New York City
- In 2019, a former ROC employee published “ROC Confidential”, which exposed the hypocrisy between the preached mission of the organization and the actual mistreatment of their employees. The author quotes a staffer from the Colors restaurant: “How come ROC fights for all these issues for restaurant workers, but they don’t give them to the workers at their own restaurant?”
- Employee accusations of labor law violations at parent organization:
- “I’ve been bullied by my current manager to fudge numbers, and I’ve witnessed the top executive/spokesperson be repeatedly dishonest.”
- “ROC is tokenizing, transphobic, anti-black, anti-poor, and ridiculous”
- “[U]pholds racist ideologies about POC organizing. Be prepared to be constantly $1000 out of pocket and wait months for reimbursements.”
- “Be prepared to see tens of thousands of dollars flushed down the toilet and then told you won’t be getting reimbursed for your phone bill or parking.”
