NY Restaurant Deliverymen Continue Pickets for Labor Rights

By Tracker
Thanks to Katie Li
August 30, 2007

For the past six months, Chinese restaurant deliverymen of Saigon Grill have continued their fight for the right to unionize. By unionizing, they hope to achieve wages at the minimum wage, and to avoid arbitrary penalties for late deliveries and too loudly closing the restaurant's doors. After the delivery workers refused to sign an illegal contract, stating that they have received minimum wage, the owners locked them out.

They continue to be supported by dozens of other deliverymen, waiters, cooks and busboys from across New York and have filed a lawsuit against Saigon Grill. Other angry deliverymen have mimicked their lawsuits five other restaurants here with similar lawsuits, including the high-profile Devi Manhattan eatery. Another ripple effect of the Deliverymen's stand is that dozens of Manhattan restaurants have raised wages for deliverymen. Saigon Grill workers themselves have been inspired by a victory earlier this month at Our Place Restaurant.

Saigon Grill itself, meanwhile, has suspended food delivery and forced to raise prices. The owners Simon and Michelle Nget has said that he would not give in to 'extortion.'

The workers, many of them Fujianese undocumented workers, vow to continue to picket until they win and testified that "We feel strong now."

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