Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) is a national restaurant-workers' organization that seeks to build power for restaurant workers nationwide.

Although initially founded in New York City to support to restaurant workers displaced after September 11, 2001, ROC went national in 2008. ROC-United now organizes restaurant workers for improved working conditions and includes over 6,000 restaurant-worker members participating in nine affiliates nationwide (Chicago, Los Angeles, Maine, Michigan, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.). In each region, ROC works with local groups to conduct a comprehensive study of restaurant workers' needs, creating an advanced program that trains restaurant workers and places them in high-end restaurant jobs.

UUSC is supporting ROC-United to guide local leaders in Chicago, New York, Miami, and Washington, D.C., to initiate multiracial women's committees that are building the leadership and voice of women restaurant workers. In these four cities, women restaurant workers  are largely immigrants and workers of color, and many are single heads-of-household forced to work for low wages in subhuman working conditions. Based on 4,323 surveys of restaurant workers in cities nationwide and 240 one-hour worker interviews, ROC found that women in the restaurant industry face discrimination in obtaining living-wage jobs, sexual harassment and exploitation on the job, and intimidation due to their legal status. Despite these challenges, no institutional support existed for female restaurant workers until ROC launched local affiliates in these cities.

Through this new program, ROC-United will convene women restaurant workers in these four U.S. cities with women restaurant workers from other nations worldwide and develop a common campaign against gender discrimination in the restaurant industry.