Up Against the Other NRA: Trump Could Help Restaurant Group Eat Away at Workers' Right.

AuthorPopp, Evan
PositionNational Restaurant Association

AMANDA NORRIS WAS FED UP.

In October 2016, after nearly a year of working at the Philadelphia-area Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar, she began organizing a union campaign at the restaurant. Norris says she had "never seen so much economic injustice packed into one work scenario." She wanted to change that.

But the effort ended just a few months later, in February 2017, failing after Harvest brought in an outside consultant to meet with workers.

In April, Norris was fired.

She's unsure whether her union activities were a factor, but says the company's explanation for her firing was vague. "Legally they needed to document a reason, and the only thing they supplied was misconduct," Norris, thirty-six, tells The Progressive, adding that she doesn't know what the restaurant meant by that. "I didn't have a disciplinary history with them."

At Harvest, Norris earned just $2.83 an hour. As a tipped worker, her wage could legally be lower than Pennsylvania's regular minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. If such workers don't make the regular minimum wage after tips, the employer is required to pay the difference. Even if that happens, tipped minimum-wage laws often relegate employees to poverty. The Economic Policy Institute, a leftwing think tank, found that tipped employees experience a poverty rate nearly twice that of other workers.

But the low pay received by many restaurant workers is no accident. Operating in the background of the industry is a powerful lobbying organization determined to keep wages low and benefits skimpy.

The National Restaurant Association is the world's largest foodservice trade association, representing more than 500,000 restaurant businesses, including many major chains. Founded in 1919, the organization seeks to "represent and advocate for foodservice industry interests--taking on financial and regulatory obstacles before they hit our members' bottom line." The group is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but each state has a National Restaurant Association affiliate.

The organization has long been at the forefront of opposing raises to the minimum wage, especially the tipped minimum wage. And its efforts have been largely successful. Just seven states require tipped workers to make the state's full minimum wage before tips, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The rest set a minimum wage for tipped employees lower than the state's regular minimum wage or follow the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour.

Teofilo Reyes, research director at Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United)--which advocates for restaurant workers--argues that the National Restaurant Association, often known as "the other NRA," is extremely influential.

"Their impact is huge, not just in Congress but in every state legislature and in many city councils," Reyes says.

Reyes's group recently authored a report titled "Stop the Other NRA," which warns that "with the arrival of the Trump Administration, the National Restaurant Association has gained new sway in Washington, D.C., to advance its agenda" and has "eagerly adopted elements of the Trump Administration's platform to do so."

Even during an Obama Administration that often opposed its interests, the NRA was a powerful force. In June 2013, the organization crowed that efforts to increase the minimum wage had been beaten back in fifteen states, and paid sick-leave laws were stymied in twelve states...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT