khan network which relied on financiers and switzerland suppliers in malaysia and the ability to ship to places like libya and elsewhere. and so i think we have created enough awareness and systemic attention and now you need the political will to go after these targeted networks and that takes political guidance and strategy. >> thank you. we will ask one more question. as a moderator and giving you a chance to make closing remarks. you talk about the system and ecosystem of bad banks and rogue actors and terrorist networks. in the beginning after 9/11 there was a moral imperative. it wasn't a tough sell to get the cooperation. i wonder if you could talk a little bit about the evolution of that now 12 years on, is that corporation which really is essential to what you describe as an organic kind of process

that has a sense of fragility to it. is that cooperation is forthcoming and how do you ensure that it is going forward? ..

either because the u.s. has lost its predominance, in terms of currencies, or because we have just overused and people stopped paying attention and so i don't think that the attention has waned. i think that the pressure is still there. people understand that comes from different motivations. and in part that is what makes these tools part of this. >> with that, this is the book and you can buy some copies outside. thank you all so much for coming. think you to doctor juan zarate for being at this event. >> thank you, i appreciate it. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> booktv is on facebook. like us to interact with booktv guests and viewers and watch videos and get up-to-date information and events. facebook.com/booktv. >> you're watching booktv. next, saru jayaraman talks about the experiences of food industry workers in the united states. the second larger private sector workforce in the country. she says that these individuals, even those who work in restaurants that champion fair trade food options, are paid the lowest wages and experienced some of the worst working conditions of any workers in the country. this is about an hour.

>> welcome. i have worked for three employers over the past seven years. all three employers have been a little bit icy, there were a little bit of things and they have had all the wages that are based on all employees. it is sometimes a great practice, wage that, it can have really serious and grave consequences. i will talk to you separately and describe the baltimore restaurant scene, but the consequences of this can be serious. he gives me a lot of pleasure, and including other related

practices. it is unique and bringing these practices to public attention and putting them into the public consciousness. they could not exist if they were seen. hands the practices are hidden in there behind something. otherwise they couldn't exist. and for practical work, it is very important and effective. sarah is a cofounder of last opportunities united and has done important work in a number of areas, more than $7 million in wages that have been stolen from employees and other important changes as well. in addition, a diner's guide, which lists a smaller number of ethical restaurants in the larger number of restaurants

that have ethical problems. there's more work to do. if you have information, please get in touch with us. outside there is a fire which has the e-mail address of the baltimore rock affiliate on. this practical work also has different categories with respect to information that you get knowledge about it. in this work is important in bringing these matters and to consciousness. and they have also helped you set the number of worker owned establishments. these restaurants can be night contributors in the way in which some of the restaurants have been detrimental to the community. in addition to all of that, i think that this is going to resonate and have effects more

widely than just in the restaurant workplace. she has done work with other aspects of the food system, and i believe that her work will make changes throughout the system, not only in restaurants. i think it's going to be important more widely even than not. i think that the work is going to reform the low-wage service economy and this is important in the world we live in today. we have moved away from the manufacturing economy. in the old days there were some hard run but achieved protections for workers in the manufacturing economy. if the workplace was unethical, they could make complaints about that and they would be protected against retaliation and different kinds of making those complaints and protecting them against that. they also had benefits that

could be expected to give them a secure future that could provide for them as an inevitable life events occurred, if they age were caught well, if they had survivors they could provide for the side entrance arrivers and these drugs have largely been lost. we have moved into a service economy. in these protections have also been lost. i believe that the work that sarah has been doing has a lot of potential to reform the structure of economy we have today and reforming the structure of this really means reshaping the society with the fundamentalists. for all these reasons, because of what i take to be her uniquely important theoretical work and intellectual work, because of the also very important and effective practical work and because of the gravity of the issues that we are going to be discussing today, and because i believe that this work will resonate and

have restructuring of the parts of the economy to reshaped the society that we live in for all of these reasons. it is my great pleasure to introduce our speaker today, saru jayaraman. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ [music playing on video] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ single ♪ ♪ ♪

[music playing on video] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello. good evening. can you hear me? is great to hear you. thank you for the library for having us in for paul for introducing me and getting engaged here with restaurant

workers here in baltimore. it is a pleasure to be here with you. that film was amazing and created by restaurant worker who is also an amazing videographer and actually kind of told the stories of my book as he saw them, actually created that whole production as he saw them every day in restaurants. but i have to confess that actually meet, myself, i did not know the things that were per trade in this video 12 years ago. twelve years ago i was living in new york city and i had just graduated from law school. i was actually working at a small workers center in long island, new york, and i was actually organizing factory workers and custodial workers and even some restaurant workers. every evening i come back into into manhattan or brooklyn where i lived. and i would enjoy the most amazing cuisine that new york city has to offer.

i would eat great asian fusion food, vegetarian, vegan, raw food, anything and everything. i was definitely a foodie. and as a new yorker, sometimes you eat out three times a day. and i would do that. i was definitely a foodie. but i have to admit that in all those years of eating out prior to 12 years ago, i cannot actually describe to you one person who touched my food, one who cooked at a product my table. those people were invisible to me. i would argue that that is true for most all americans and that actually americans eat out, more frequently than anyone else on earth. and it isn't just the frequency with which we eat out. it is those moments that we actually eat out in. we tend to celebrate almost amazing amazing life moments, restaurants, weddings, anniversaries, special meetings

that we are having. i was proposed to in a the restaurant. i bet most people in this room can recall some very special and wonderful intimate moment in a restaurant. but most of us cannot recall the special and wonderful intimate moments of the people who touched our food. they have been invisible to us and i would argue that that is very purposeful. that was me. i knew nothing and i saw nothing 12 years ago. then 12 years ago, 9/11 happened. on september 11, 2001 in new york city, there is actually a restaurant at the top of the world trade center tower one. it was on the 107th floor. it was above the clouds and certainly above where the plane hit that morning. seventy-three workers died that morning in the restaurant. he jumped to their deaths when they were incinerated inside the restaurant. about 13,000 restaurants in trans- restaurant workers lost their jobs. it was unique because it actually had a union side of it. less than .001% of all

restaurant workers are unionized. this very unique restaurants mean that it has been asked to start a little relief center in the aftermath of the tragedy. we called it the restaurant opportunities center and what started as a little relief center post 9/11 has now grown into a national restaurant workers organization with about 10,000 worker members and 32 cities across the country. about 100 employer partners and employers who are doing the right thing, providing good wages and good working conditions. they range from celebrity chefs, the star of top chef is actually a really great employer. all the way down to small mom-and-pop restaurants trying to do the right thing. we have also organized several thousand consumer members as

well. we have won some things over the last 12 years. we have won about 15 campaigns against very large and high-profile restaurant companies, where we won about $8 million in stolen tips and wages and much more important, the policy changes that we have one, raises and benefits and promotions, paid sick days and job securities and grievance procedures. we have one better things for workers in large restaurant companies that are setting the standard in their local region. we have also actually open our own worker owned restaurant in the restaurant was in that video is actually our restaurant, a worker owned restaurant. that is not how we treat our workers. that was staged. we have a second such restaurant in detroit, michigan. inside those restaurants we have created a training program that now trains about 1000 workers per year to move up the ladder

to better wage jobs. we have done a ton of research on industry, and we have won some policy victories. we actually made it illegal in the city of philadelphia to deduct credit card processing fees from workers tips, which unfortunately is legal everywhere else, which is why we encourage you to leave your tips in cash rather than on a credit card. we raise the wage in new york state for tipped workers. but to me the most incredible part of the last 12 years has been getting to know the thousands and thousands of restaurant workers, some of whose stories we tell in the book. and to learn all of the things that i never knew were happening behind the kitchen door. i was saying that you should take tip about 20%, that is what most do, tip about 20% when you eat out. but i had no idea at the tip that i was leaving was not on top of the wage. it was the wage itself.

because of a man named herman cain. you all remember herman cain? you try to run for president on the republican ticket. he failed. but in his earlier days he was the head of something called the national restaurant association, which we call the other nra. a very powerful lobbying group that has been named the 10th most powerful lobbying group that represents the interest of the fortune 500 restaurant companies in america. as the head of the nra, he struck a deal with congress and that day, the nra would not oppose an increase in the overall minimum wage as long as the minimum wage for tipped workers stayed frozen forever. so it has been stuck at the federal level at $2.13 per hour for the last 22 years. it is a little bit better here in maryland at $3.63, but it is

nothing to live on anywhere. it is because of the power of this industry that is essentially striking a deal that says we should not have to pay our workers wages. you customers should pay our workers wages for us. something i didn't know. i knew something about health and safety and restaurants. i grew up in los angeles. they actually put letter grades in restaurant windows to tell you about the sanitation of the restaurant. i thought i knew something about sanitation. but i had no idea that 90% of restaurant workers in america do not have paid sick days, which means two thirds report cooking, preparing and serving our meals when they are sick but true stories from my book, including pinkeye or swine flu or hepatitis a, typhoid, all true stories of real people that i can introduce you to. the cdc reports that 50 to 90%

of all moral virus outbreaks, that's the winter stomach flu, 50 to 90% can be traced back to sick were restaurant workers. i thought i knew something about competition in restaurant and we have all seen the shows top chef, iron chef, it's gotten out of control and the food network and although a lot of us watch the shows. i had no idea but for the vast majority of workers in this industry, getting to even a livable wage job as a matter of their skin color or gender. there are right now over 10 million restaurant workers in america. actually one in 12 americans right now works in the restaurant industry and it's one of the only industries to grow the last couple of years of an economic crisis rather than to decline. unfortunately holds another accolade that it is the absolute lowest paying employer in the

united states. seven of the 11 lowest paying jobs in the united states and the two absolute lowest paying jobs in the u.s., lower than any job you might think of as a low-paying job, the two low-paying jobs in america are the people who serve and touch our food. and it is entirely due to the power of an industry lobby called the international restaurant association a decade after decade has said that we should not have to pay our workers wages. in fact, we suffer from uniquely thin profit margins and so we should be able to pay the lowest wages in america. in fact this industry enjoys a 45% profit margin nationally, which may sound small until you know that wal-mart, which is generally considered to be one of the most profitable companies in the world, has a 1% profit margin. which means that the restaurant

industry, the absolute lowest paying employer in the united states, enjoys 45 times the profit margin of the largest corporation in the world. they are doing quite well. but as they have continued to grow, wages have stagnated in the industry and workers are struggling with no paid sick days and who are we talking about exactly? when i say workers in this industry earn a tip of minimum wage of $2.13 or $3.63, two to $4 around the country, 70% of workers who are in that kit minimum wage are women. women who work at ihop and applebee's and the olive garden and red lobster and denny's. i say this because the industry likes to say that well, no one is earning $2.13 per these are wealthy steakhouse servers rolling in tips in the paint a picture of a tall and white man

who is not to be paid anymore because he's getting a lot of money. but in fact 70% of these workers are women. they work at these restaurants and they suffer from three times the poverty rate of the rest of the u.s. workforce and the use food stamps at double the rate of the rest of the u.s. workforce. which means the one who put food on our tables cannot afford to feed themselves. one of the stories in my book is a woman named claudia muñoz who ended up becoming a leader in my organization. when she was in graduate school in houston, texas, she worked at the ihop using $2.13 per hour. the law says that restaurants are supposed to make sure that kids make up the difference between $2.13 per hour and a regular wage of $7.25 per hour. u.s. department of labor reports

in 80% violation rate with employers actually making up the difference and in claudia's case, the ihop corporation that it is, they said to her that we don't want to have to be held liable for making sure that kids make up that difference, so we are going to report that you are earning $7.25 per hour regardless of what you actually burn, which means that she was taxed at $7.25 per hour, and like most workers received a pay stub that said this is not a paycheck. and it said zero because when you earn $2.13 or $3.63, or wages are so low that they go entirely to taxes and you live off of your tips. claudia lived off of her tips, which were sometimes $5 an hour and sometimes $4 per hour and sometimes $0 per hour when she was doing side work for the restaurant was slow. and she was hungry and she said i'm ashamed to admit it, but i

would wait to get to the restaurant to eat pancakes because i couldn't afford to eat and like the other women serving alongside me, we would wait and we would foot the management or the cooks to get extra food to eat because we were so hungry. one night claudia worked a full night shift at the ihop in houston, texas, at the end of a meal a couple -- i'm sorry at the end of the night a couple walked out without paying the bill. at the ihop, a mega-corporation that it is, even though it is illegal, said to her we don't want to be held liable, you have to be held liable for the bill. which was actually $20 more than all of the tips that she had earned the entire night, which meant that she ended up paying $20 for the luxury of having worked a full night's shift at houston, texas. i cannot tell you how many times i heard that same story. i will bet there are people in this audience who can tell the

same story. in fact i have spoken in large audiences were state legislators get up and say that that used to happen to me. the bar would make me pay for restaurants and for customers walking out without paying the bill. i can't tell you how many people have told me that experience because the restaurant industry is 10 million people. so many of us. many of us in this room, it is our friends and family members, sisters and brothers, it is our mothers, so many people who actually work for the legislators were making the deals with the nra to make sure that these workers are the lowest paid workers in america. in the industry says that it is okay because these are young people moving on to something better. which i find hilarious because essentially the industry is saying that everything else out there is better than eyes. that is essentially what they are saying. but the truth is that 60% of

restaurant workers are over age 24 and the median age is in the late '30s. women for restaurant workers are parents and one in 10 are gentle mothers. these are mostly adults with families and children trying to survive off of tips or a measly minimum wage that you get in the back of the house. these women and men are trying to put food on their families tables and the majority of them are actually not trying to move onto something else. the majority are actually professionals who take great pride in food service and hospitality and who want to be treated as the professionals that they are. in another story in my book is an immigrant from korea who actually was a very highly intelligent person, went to the university of california at berkeley. grew up in california and went to uc berkeley, pretty hard to

get into. got an engineering degree and graduated with honors. with an engineering degree. but he knew in his heart but his passion was in food and food service and hospitality. so he decided to become a bartender in a fine dining restaurant in california. in california there is no difference between the wage for tipped workers and non-tipped workers and everybody got the same wage of $8 per hour, actually we were part of a coalition urges freeze it to $10 per hour. california is the largest and fastest-growing restaurant industry in the united states, and in fact it has the city with the largest restaurant industry in the u.s., los angeles, which has a larger restaurant industry than new york city. it is frightening and there are seven states in the united states that have the same wage for tipped and non-tipped workers, five of the seven states have faster growth rates than the restaurant industry

growth rate. the argument that raising this from $2.13 to the regular minimum wage, a stable base wage, would kill the industry, it just doesn't pan out or if you were to come back with me, come back with me to california. i live in oakland. see the most vibrant restaurant industry will ever see or to come to san francisco where you have the highest minimum wage of $10.55 and you cannot trip without running into a restaurant. the city industry is thriving. so the argument that raising these wages would kill the industry just doesn't hold true and in this case, he was doing quite well, earning a base wage and tips as a bartender and decided he wanted to be in the center of it all, actually work in our nations capital, serve his country and serve congress members and senators and decided to move to washington dc and got

a job at a restaurant. serving congress members, senators, people from the white house, and earning the district of columbia tipped minimum wage of $2.77. when you earn $2.77 an hour, you live of your tips. and if you get sick, guess what? you still have to go to work to get those tips and there is no way to do that if you've are at home sick. especially because in washington dc, paid sick day legislation was passed, but in another one of those backdoor deals, the national restaurant association and the local restaurant association managed to sneak into the bill at the very last minute and do an exemption for tipped workers. which means that everyone has paid sick days except for the people who tortured. so this was one of these tipped workers in washington dc earning $2.77 per hour, one day he is

working at this posh restaurant and starts to feel a little woozy. the next day he is feeling dizzy and he can barely stand. he finds himself actually not being able to see things very well. the third day he is barely able to stand on his feet. but he has to keep coming to work. a few more days like that. then he finally can't even get out of bed. and he spends a month coming in and out of a coma before he says to himself that i don't have health care, i of course do not have paid sick days. but i think i need to find out what this is before it kills me. so he decides to go and find a doctor who will take mercy on him and maybe see him for free and he decides maybe there is a doctor in koreatown who'll see him for free and he is right. he finds a doctor who actually sees him for free and tells him that he has the swine flu, also

known as h1n1. he suffers another month, goes into $10,000 of credit card debt before he finally feels better and he calls the posh restaurant and said he's ready to come back and they say, sorry, we've replaced it. and he says, you know, i was young. i had an education. i was able to find another restaurant job fairly quickly and i worked my way out of $10,000 of credit card debt. but i always think about workers that are infected at that restaurant. people with families and people with children. immigrants for whom $10,000 in debt would completely wipe them out. so what about the customers? how many customers would i have infected with the swine flu? i will never know because it was not important enough to have restaurant were frankly to the industry to ensure that the people who are serving us are

not sick themselves. in fact, the world's largest restaurant corporation is a company that is the world's largest full service restaurant company that many people have never heard of. darden is the brand that owns olive garden and red lobster and capital grille steakhouse, longhorn steakhouse, seasons 52, bahamas breeze, yard house and so many other brands they can't even list them. and back in 2001, it announced a partnership with michelle obama and her campaign of "let's move" saying that they will have healthy food for youth. and at the same time they forced a woman to work with hepatitis a. three thousand people had to get tested for it, forced by the local health department, filed a

consumer class-action against them and won. the same year there were two neural virus outbreaks. it is the winter stomach flu. there weren't two of them, one in indiana and one in illinois. and i ask you how healthy can the food be for your kids if you're going to expose them to hepatitis a in the stomach flu. it cannot be that healthy. not just for you and your family. but for the workers and the coworkers, even for the employers. this is a public health disaster and certainly a moral disaster as well. the people are living off their tips to the point where they can't even afford to do anything except for work all the time. fortunately there is good news on the way. after many years of fighting together with coalition partners, there is a bill in

congress and lower the weight of $2.13 per hour and it is called the fair minimum wage act of 2013. and it would raise the regular minimum wage for all workers and will raise the wage for the first time in two decades to 70% of that for $7 and it would continue to rise with the cost of living. it is a great deal for us because it was the first time that leadership in the house and senate introduced a bill that would overcome the legacy of herman cain. yet when it was introduced, congress members sent to us overcome the power of this, we have to and see a groundswell of public support, which is ridiculous. because this issue pulls 71% in favor of republicans and democrats alike. so who exactly is congress listening to if not all of their constituents. they have been listening to the national restaurant association and this bill has a chance we can demonstrate a groundswell of

public support. we thought about that. where have we seen this in this industry. we had seen one, about five years ago or so, fast food nation came out and we saw a change in our industry, consumer demand leading to people asking if this is local or organic and restaurants jumping over themselves to say that i provide locally sourced organic cuisine, whether or not they did. we believe that same kind of consumer demand can change this industry as well. so we are asking for three things from everyone who eats out and who has a conscience, who eats at all. the first thing is to read the book and it is our fast food nation. and it is our way to educate consumers and let them know what is happening behind the doors. we are asking that you spread the word, tell people to read

it. it has created a series of beautiful profiles in the book that you can watch. there is a lot that we can do. you can find this at the auto see united ductwork and.org and you can also donate to support the organization including workers and consumers and that is number one. buy the book. support the organization. number two is to actually go to the new consumer website we have created to collectivize the voices of people who eat out who also want to say that enough is enough. it is called the welcome table.net. already over 100,000 consumers have signed a petition asking congress to wait and try and raise that abysmally low wage of $2.13 an hour. also you can find a guy that we have created that paul mentioned

and a smart phone app that you can download called the ioc national diner's guide. that tells you how the restaurants around you are faring on issues of wages and benefits and promotions. but the third and most important thing you can do. and often sometimes want to make these talks come at happen today. i spoke in washington dc and i heard someone say that i should tip better. i always say that that is great. please tip well when you eat out. but that cannot be all that you do. because if that is all that we all do, we continue to subsidize an industry that expects us to pay its workers wages for it. so besides tipping well, we are asking that the end of your meal you go to the manager and owner and city you love the food, i love the service. i would love to see you provide a livable wage or promoted from an thin or provide sick days and i would love to see you create a

diverse working environment and i would love to see these things and i am a paying customer and i want to keep supporting you. but i want to see this change. it feels uncomfortable to say something, you can just tweet the management or you can leave them a note on your bill. it is important that we communicate. because just as asking for locally sourced organic potatoes or strawberries wanted to know how or chicken was treated or pork, it made a change in our industry, so can these birds. i will give you a quick story of how i have done it. when i first daughter, who is now three years old, was born, we took her for one of those special and wonderful intimate moments, a little vacation to a beach town in california, locally sourcing organic vegetarian restaurants. we were having one of those special and wonderful moments in a restaurant, taking pictures of the new born baby, having a great time.

i happened to notice that all of the servers were white and all of the busters were another ethnicity. segregation by race and necessity is pretty severe. we've done studies where we have sent hundreds of pairs of white and people of color applicants into fine dining restaurants to see who gets hired in these positions. we found that white applicants have twice the chance of getting one of these jobs even when there's a 10 person of color has a better resume. we reported this and sometimes the response is isn't all these folks can't speak english or they are illegal and that is why they are not leaders. so we tested that as well. we gave the white applicants and unintelligible european accent and we gave the people of color a very slight non-european accent and we found that for white workers come any kind of accent, even unintelligible was a bonus for getting a job and for people of color, any kind of

accent was a detractor and we knew was an accent or language, we knew was actually race. that is what i saw in this restaurant. and in fact i encourage you to go to any fine dining restaurant in baltimore or washington dc were in the region and look at who are the servers and the busters and who is in the kitchen. at the end of my meal we paid and my husband took the baby out and i went to the manager and said i love the food and i love the service. i happen to notice that all of the servers are white and the busters are latino. what training and promotion opportunities have you offer these women. i think they'd be great servers. and he said, well, i think any of them want to be servers, none of them have ever asked me to be a server. i thought about that that might be true. if you've never seen anyone who looks like you in a server position, why would you ask for a position. so i said i appreciate that, but i have to say that it is

important to me as a paying customer to see that people have the opportunity to advance. i think these women would be great servers. and it's important to me as a new mother that my little daughter who is brown, grows up seeing people of every skin color and every position in a restaurant so she knows that she knows she can do whatever she wants when she grows up. it isn't that i thought my one comment was quite change that restaurant forever, but i do think in the same way it had become a locally sourcing restaurant, another half dozen people, if they had said something over the next couple of months, you better believe that that restaurant would have done something about it. that is why we are asking for this change in intervention, which we need now so desperately. impacts so many workers and hundreds of millions of family members of those workers and frankly our entire economy and our health and impacts these

workers and even these employers who have experienced a 300% turnover rate because workers are moving constantly from job to job because they cannot support themselves and their families in these wages. and it also impacts every single one of us that eats out. thank you. [applause] >> so i think we actually have 13 minutes to ask questions and answer them. so i do want to have some time for questions. >> okay. >> i will try to talk for just a moment. but i just want to tell you something about what i have observed in the restaurant industry in baltimore and one restaurant in particular, which i will not name. i would like to be able to name it, but it's probably better not to at this point. the library asked me not to, so

i will not. but this is a restaurant that really does massively steel wages. in the case of servers, they virtually don't pay the servers at all that they take the attitude that the servers work for themselves and have to pay them a little bit, of course, but for far fewer hours and in a number of other cases, similar things happen like they don't pay overtime. i know a case that was reported to me. i did not observe it personally. but it was reported in a reliable way of a person who worked 12 hour days and had a hard time getting paid for it to 40 hour work weeks. and they can do a few nice things for you, free food and benefits in the sense of things that are going to take care of you as you move through life or if something happens to you. you get nothing. if you're not working, you have no money coming in.

let's just suppose analytically that something happens. you having disabled list, woody .1 and in the first instance you're going to have to rely on social security safety net programs like disability programs and others. sorry, i am trying to talk fast. well, guess what? of these programs are tied to wages. so when the west entrance restaurant stills your wages, as it is, it stills your benefits in the same act. this is a point not very well understood by the people who work in this restaurant were those who work in some of the restaurants and incidentally this restaurant never conforms to what the wage and hour laws are. i said that i wanted to give you an analytical summary remark about this restaurant and i have. and i want to say that this is a

situation that has truly occurred. a person worked in this restaurant became ill, was unable to continue to work. had no wages coming in, no benefits coming into the restaurant. found she was unable to live on the social security benefits that she was able to get. and was reduced to poverty. it is not a tragic story. she hasn't lost everything and she's not living in the street. at the very disturbing story and it's going to happen again. the people who work in this restaurant are middle aged people and sarah alluded to is that they often have families and main wage earner for their families. often the source of benefits for their families. this is going to happen again. this is the human consequence of restaurant practices that exist in the city of baltimore. thank you and i will turn back to sarah.

[applause] >> okay, we wanted to open it up for questions and comments. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you. i understand that [inaudible] which is part of his job, and they are also paid much less than they should be in the have to use their own vehicle and by their own gas and so on. so i'm wondering whether you gave some attention to the. >> guesstimating delivery workers. delivery workers obviously don't just work for pizza restaurants but for all different kinds of restaurants and they actually can also be paid a sub minimum

wage. there is a different sub minimum wage which is $4.65 for delivery workers. and they experience all kinds of exposure to violence and health and safety issues in new york we have done a special study of delivery workers and particularly found that there was a rate of about one to two near deaths or deaths each year among the delivery workers, not just traffic accidents, but being stabbed and having to go to all different kinds of places and facing all different kinds of violence, being robbed and assaulted and then assaulted and not being able to support reimbursement by the individuals. >> also and also ban kimoon also

said that they are producing in all parts of this, $700 billion, which is not as small as some. >> hello, i am a proud union member and i want to salute the restaurant workers that have been going on strike. it is now 58 cities. and i think a lot of people don't understand that they are really at the cutting edge of the labor movement and they are fighting for all workers, even if they don't realize it. and they are teaching us things that the national union leaders choose to forget that works. and i'm wondering in addition to the demands for raising this the minimum wage up to $15, i have heard, which is what we really need, no one should resist raising this if the laws get

passed. and making other demands as well. for example, people's organization for progress is holding a conference on newark 19. looking at issues and calling for jobs for all. and i think that if we have jobs available for everyone and job security and we will be able to fight for higher wages in that way as well. are there any other demands that they are making you haven't heard about on the news other than the minimum wage increases? >> okay, this does not actually run the fast food worker strikes but we have been supportive and it's definitely an ally and we support restaurant workers standing up, and i totally agree with you that i think these workers have surprised everybody and the very union actually organize them to stand up and surprise them in their force and willingness to come out and the issues that they presented. it actually wasn't just against

wages. but we do have committees of fast food workers in various localities fighting for issues like small store level issues like not stealing out of the tip jar or, you know, uniform related issues and a lot of restaurant workers are forced to pay for their uniforms, which is actually illegal. were being forced to work in extremely hot or unhealthy or unsafe conditions or it's a definitely they have formed committees across the country and they are taking on these smaller store level issues and the broad plains around $15 per hour and they are asking for the right to organize a union. so it isn't just that on demand. but it varies from city to city and that is the only demand that unifies the campaign across the country. >> yes? >> i haven't had a chance to read your book yet, plan to buy it after the talk. but i'm wondering a couple of things. is there a way to get on

contact. i was trying to find the website and i was not successful at that. >> yes, definitely. thank you for asking the question. do we have a sign-up sheet today? please put your signing up, but your e-mail down, we can send you updates and information. the two websites are rock united.org and the welcome table.net. where you can find it petition to raise the wage. and you will find studies and issues and just everything we have ever done related to a wide range of issues including sexual harassment which is pretty severe in our industry. >> i guess my question is he mentioned the success in california, i'm wondering your thoughts is how to spread this

and could you maybe talk a little bit about that. >> california, they decided to let this for kids and non-supporters alike and there was a building that would raise the wage here as well, not with parity between tech and non-tipped workers. so we coming back here in the state legislature and my hope is that not only will the tip and wage be increased by at least 70%, and a number of states that are part of our movement around the country to get part of the slower ridiculous 10 minimum wage altogether. saying that no worker should see less than the minimum wage. so that is actually a growing movement around the country but here in maryland there will be

legislation soon that will be going to raise the tip minimum wage. and we need to call on the legislators to make sure the tipped workers are not left out of the closed-door deal that occurs all the time. just happened in connecticut. and we cannot let that happen anymore. >> how do you do? went to restaurant a long time ago and the waitress told me something about tipping, which i didn't know anything about. it is part of her tip and has to go to the cook. and i did not know that. i think that she told me that the cook had made it hard on her and she didn't come up with some money. that is all have to say.

>> it is true that they do have to share their tents and they should not be sharing them with cooks. there should only be sharing them with other individuals, and other workers who interact with the public. and they are asked to share tips with what we call the back of the house, or with management, data is legal. according to u.s. and federal law, if that happens the restaurant worker can actually be paid back the difference between the tip and regular minimum wage for every hour that that person has worked in a restaurant. so any inappropriate sharing of tips breaks down the entire system in a restaurant and allows them to sue for all of the money that they lost for the tip and the regular minimum wage. >> hello. >> hello. >> my question is that when you

go to work at a restaurant you have a contract. >> no -- know -- because 99 -- >> one moment. [inaudible] some signs say that they are in a nonsense contractual worker and they don't have to show cause. at any given time. >> you could have with this is one day and you worked there 10 years or 25 years. and they change the management and you don't have a contract or a cause. [inaudible]

you cannot unionize because you do not have a contract. >> you can go at will. [inaudible] in baltimore and that is the case. >> so that we do not have a union, that is true, you can be fired at will. but you do have the right to organize always. you have the right to organize a union. i'm sorry, can i answer question? >> many people are waiting to ask a question. thank you. so you do have the right to organize and you do have the right even without a union to actually be able to speak up together with your coworkers can not be retaliated against. we have actually gotten workers reinstated we have gotten him,

we have fought against the retaliation and one because they came together and stood up with coworkers even without a union and said that we demand change and a higher wage and whatever they do now. so you don't actually need a union to have this protection. thank you. >> otherwise [inaudible] >> thank you. >> i was just going to say that i worked at a restaurant and this was like in 1983. and i think that there was a muffin oven, a potato oven, a plate warming oven and a steam table and they would not allow tobacco to be open because they were worried about theft. so i really started feeling like i was going to faint. and i thought, you know, the

floor is tile and there is a sharp edge on the table and i better sit down rather than wait until i fall. the guy was like, get back over here. so anyway i stood up again and when i came to the point where i thought i was going to faint again, so i don't a second time and he fired me. so i thought, well, two days later a show that was supposed to work. i thought i would just try that was like, don't you understand you have been fired. so about a month later i went back to collect my last paycheck and all of those salad girls, which is about seven people, they were all different. that is one story. the second story i worked at pizza hut. and again, i believe it was actually 20 years ago were maybe more. they force you to do cleaning jobs like washdown things in the kitchen, even the baseboards, watch wash them down with bleach solution and stuff stuff like that. instead of paying the cook's minimum wage, they made the

waitresses do that kind of stuff. obviously we were getting the tips at that time. and this is very important. [applause] >> thank you. >> when my questions to scott answered. when you learn about this to confront your boss, i imagine it will be a big fear of consequences because they will do it anyway. >> absolutely. that is why we don't recommend doing it alone. we recommend joining an organization and trained together with coworkers who can say these things. and we encourage you to go to the website and become a member and reach out to us because we can support you. we have created a website called living off tips.com, with anyone who has worked in the inu