Food Service Industry Workers Rally for Better Conditions

According to Unite Here, workers employed in the food service industry have long been plagued with low pay, no benefits, long hours, and no paid sick leave time. These workers have been keeping our nation well fed, from public school cafeterias, to university campus cafeterias, to concession stand workers at convention centers, and more.

After everything they have done to keep the nation content and with full bellies, shouldn't we be appreciating them more by at least giving them decent pay for those long, grueling hours that they have been working in order to do this? There are so many people doing this work that not too many people go out of their way to become involved in simply because of the low wages and the fact that they don't get benefits.

These workers went out of their way in New York's financial district to make these problems known to more people. These people who are feeding rich businesses are not even in the right financial situation to afford to feed their own families. Think of that, they spend all day feeding rich stock-brokers and other industries and yet they can't afford to keep food on their own tables. Something's wrong with that picture.

Workers employed in the laundry, food service, apparel, textile, and hotel industries are represented by Unite Here. They are advocates for the people that otherwise go unnoticed in today's economy. They have been standing up for better health benefits and working standards for the workforce that often is taken for granted by the people who use it the most. These people are up and working first thing in the morning getting meals ready to be served and they are barely even offered a simple "Thank You."

According to United Here, their days are often filled with fights for contracts that give them a decent benefits package and they endlessly fight for higher wages. The rally in New York's financial district was not only for food service workers, but to allow a chance for financially stable, decent paying jobs for everyone who works in the financial district.