For too many Southeast Michigan restaurant workers, the real promise of living wages and good benefits remains a distant dream.

Dangerous working conditions, unpaid and stolen wages, harassment, and discrimination are daily realities.  Those who dare to speak out lose their jobs; others face deportation.  Less than one-tenth of one percent of the restaurant industry is unionized.  Often, there is nowhere to turn for help.

ROC’s innovative workplace justice campaigns combine litigation along with worker and community organizing to win justice for exploited restaurant workers.  We win compensation for restaurant workers who have been cheated out of wages and discriminated against, as well as legally binding improvements in workplace policies to ensure those restaurants are better places to work in the future.

Our campaigns have resulted in innovative grievance procedures, paid breaks, anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies, protections for non-English speakers, prohibitions on deductions for equipment and uniforms, and more.

Together we can win what we cannot win alone.