Led by outgoing Rhode-Island Jobs with Justice executive director Jesse Strecker, workers chanted and marched around the building, finally settling in front for a series of speeches from various workers and advocates “all the way down the food chain.”
Long time Wendy’s worker and minimum wage advocate Jo-Ann Gesterling spoke not only about fair wages, but about wages stolen when management forces workers to work through their breaks, lack of accountability in the management structure, and other issues fast food workers deal with on a daily basis.
Demonstrators were not only demanding $15 an hour, fair treatment and a union, they were also demanding that Wendy’s join the the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program (FFP). Attentive readers will remember that the Brown Student Labor Alliance lead a protest in October around the FFP, described as a “ground-breaking model for worker-led social responsibility based on a unique collaboration among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers and 14 participating buyers.” It is “the first comprehensive, verifiable and sustainable approach to ensuring better wages and working conditions in America’s agricultural fields.”
Emelio Garcia, a former employee of Teriyaki House Restaurant in downtown Providence spoke about not having been paid for work he did at the restaurant. Wage theft is a story sadly common in Rhode Island, as more and more employees stand up and demand the wages that have been stolen from them by employers. Garcia says that he was docked for two hours of pay a day for breaks he was never actually allowed to take.
Flor Salazar, who worked at Café Atlantic and was owed thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, was allegedly assaulted by owner Juan Noboa with a baseball bat when she and a group of workers confronted Noboa at his home Halloween morning. “We are tired of having our work stolen, we are tired of being disrespected in our workplace,” said Salazar, “It’s enough.”
The final speaker was a not a restaurant worker but Magdalene Smith, a CNA working at a Pawtucket nursing home. “This is not a fight for just restaurants, but for everybody,” said Smith. “Everybody deserves $15. We work hard.”
In addition to Jobs With Justice and the Brown Student/Labor Alliance the event was sponsored by 1199 SEIU Rhode Island, Fuerza Laboral/Power of Workers and Restaurant Opportunities Center of Rhode Island.
]]>The local march starts at 4pm, at the Grants Block, 260 Westminster St., and will proceed through downtown to Burnside Park. Hotel workers are also holding a separate action today in front of the Hilton Providence at 5pm.
Speakers at the larger action will include Jo-Ann Gesterling, who led this action at a Wendy’s in Warwick, Malchus Mills, a DARE organizer, Mike Araujo, of the Restaurant Opportunities Center who is helping waitstaff win a higher wage this year and Providence City Councilors Luis Aponte and Mary Kay Harris. And while the group is marching in solidarity with workers around the country, they’ve also got a few local demands.
According to a press release from Jobs With Justice:
]]>“The coalition seeks to pass a city ordinance that would require all companies getting tax breaks in Providence to:
- Pay workers a living wage of at least $15/hr, provide paid sick days, health benefits, and fair, predictable schedules
- Follow the First Source ordinance by hiring residents of Providence, prioritize hiring people from high poverty neighborhoods, and make sure that people working these jobs have a pathway to a real career by using apprenticeship programs
- AND, to set up a community board with the power to approve/disapprove projects, take back money if companies aren’t living up to what they say they’ll do, and negotiate the construction of projects community members identify as needs, such as affordable housing, or fixing up an abandoned lot into a park”
In 2011, Vecchione made $7.88 million as the chief executive of Lifespan, a WPRI investigation revealed recently. Meanwhile, Gesterling helped organize a protest at the Wendy’s in Warwick where she works in hopes of calling the media’s attention to her hourly wage of $8.20 an hour. In other words, Vecchione made almost twice as much in one day (~$30,300) as Gesterling will make all year (~$17,000).
hourly | weekly | monthly | annually | |
George Vecchione | $3,788.45 | $151,538 | $656,667 | $7,880,000 |
Jo-Ann Gesterling | $8.20 | $328 | $1,421 | $17,056 |
But perhaps it is unfair to compare a free enterprise fast food economy with that of a non-profit, regulated for consumer health. So instead let’s use Wendy’s internal pay grades. At $16.5 million in 2011, CEO Roland Smith made more than twice running Wendy’s as Vecchione made leading Lifespan. Here’s how his salary compares to Gesterling’s:
hourly | weekly | monthly | annually | |
Roland Smith | $7,932.68 | $317,307 | $1,375,000 | $16,500,000 |
Jo-Ann Gesterling | $8.20 | $328 | $1,421 | $17,056 |