Opinion: Service workers face disrespect, harassment, and low pay. D.C.'s restaurant industry needs more unions.

The toxic nature of restaurant industry work has grabbed headlines in recent years. Among them: food service workers seeing some of the highest death rates of the COVID-19 pandemic; celebrity chefs facing abuse allegations; even the hit TV show The Bear showcased the brutal nature of our workplaces. Still, no real reckoning has come: tyrannical managers, sexual harassment, minimal access to health insurance, poor pay, and punishing hours are all still par for the course – and unfortunately, D.C. is no different. We’re often told to just move on if we’re unhappy, but jumping from toxic workplace to toxic workplace has done nothing to solve the problem.

Last week, we voted to join UNITE HERE Local 25 to make it clear we’re not disposable and must be treated as equals. At non-union restaurants, workers can be fired for no reason, at any time. With a union, that changes. Management has to negotiate with us over wages, benefits, and workplace policies like those governing table and server section assignments. Without a union, those policies can be unilaterally made by management, often leading to less stable scheduling or even reduced tips for some workers. 

One of us, Estela Lux, is a cook who’s worked at St. Anselm for five years. As a single mother of three originally from Guatemala, she’s worked in food service in D.C. for 15 years. It’s work she’s chosen to do because she loves to learn and there’s no better school than the kitchen. But she’s also experienced a lot of disrespect. One time, a manager told her the former chef doesn’t listen to Latinas because they don’t speak English.

One of us, Denali Graham, is a server who’s worked at St. Anselm for three years. She joined the team while pursuing a degree in Anthropology from George Washington University. After graduating, she chose to stay at St. Anselm because of her colleagues and how much she enjoyed her work. But she’s also seen team members be fired without cause or warning, causing her to worry about her own job security. With medical and credit card debt in addition to rent, losing her income would be crippling. 

With a seat at the negotiating table, we can now be true partners in bringing the industry to its full potential. Unions raise the wages of members by 10-15 percent, as well as improving retirement plans and making scheduling more predictable, according to a 2023 report by the Treasury Department. We think people will want to work and stay in the industry, which always seems to be experiencing a staffing crisis, if workers were treated better. 

And it’s not just our working conditions that can be impacted: states with the most union density have higher minimum wages, less people without health insurance, and fewer restrictive voting laws, according to research by the Economic Policy Institute.

We’re not in this fight alone. Workers across four other restaurants, including fellow STARR restaurants Pastis and Le Diplomate, as well as those at Rasika and Modena from Knightsbridge Restaurant Group are seeking to unionize. Roughly 500 workers across front and back of house positions are organizing at the same time, making this the largest union drive the local restaurant industry has ever seen.

Unfortunately, rather than listening to us and respecting our decision to form a union, STARR Restaurant management has done everything they could to try to stop us.

When a majority of workers sign union cards, management can choose to respect that decision. That's what José Andrés did when he voluntarily recognized the workers’ union at The Bazaar just days after they announced their campaign. Last year, they won a first contract with significant wage increases, affordable health insurance, and new rights and protections for immigrant workers.

Instead, according to Local 25, STARR spent large amounts of money on anti-union persuaders. We’ve both seen them at the restaurant nearly every day since late January, where they’ve harassed our colleagues.

Owner Stephen Starr promised one of us, Estela, along with her back-of-house colleagues, that he’d improve issues such as wages and paid time off after the union election. Meanwhile, one of us, Denali, was told in a meeting with Mr. Starr that wages and healthcare costs were unchangeable, and that neither he nor the union would be able to make improvements. Local 25 tells us they documented management giving extra money to our colleagues, supposedly related to past complaints about unpaid sick time or other issues but which the union believes to be union busting. 

We are furious about how management’s campaign polarized and pitted us against each other, with server group chats devolving into aggressive debates. We’ve never felt more tension in the workplace than in the last month. Of course, our unionizing efforts have been blamed for this environment. 

Still, we knew that the only way to guarantee permanent change in our workplace was to stick together. Stories about management mistreatment that had stayed in back-of-house circles due to language barriers finally reached the ears of everyone at the restaurant with the help of translators. Voicing our experiences to one another gave us the courage to stand up not only for ourselves, but our colleagues as well. Simple hellos at work are now imbued with a sense of community and support; we have each other’s backs. 

With our union, we’ll be able to speak up against injustices we experience or witness at work because we know management cannot fire us without just cause. If past Local 25 contracts are any indicator, we’ll have guaranteed raises, affordable health care, and access to a team of lawyers who can help us with anything from immigration to personal injury cases. 

At this point, it’s time for STARR Restaurants to end their smear campaign against us and bargain in good faith. The heart of the restaurant industry is hospitality, and it can only truly flourish when the people who cook food and serve tables have a dignified and respectful work environment – and enough money to feed their own families.