Unionizing the Food Industry in California

This Note situates the labor rights movement between two stories: that of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union’s (HERE) waitress locals and that of Genwa, a Korean barbecue (KBBQ) restaurant that organized with the help of the Koreatown Immigrant Worker Alliance (KIWA), a worker center. Highlighting the rise and fall of HERE’s waitress locals from the late 1800s to the mid-twentieth century provides historical context for why unions became dominant as a source of worker rights. Limited state labor protections made workers more dependent on outside sources of power to enforce better working conditions. Union membership brought pride and protection to the average worker. But during the early 1900s, shifts in legislation and Supreme Court precedent brought the downfall of waitress unions and unions generally. Since then, organizers in the food industry have had to get creative. The tactics utilized by Genwa employees to successfully organize are the products of today’s social and political landscape. Between a Supreme Court that has aligned more with conservative ideologies and restaurant lobbyists who have maintained strongholds in Washington, D.C., organizers have become more reliant on the powers afforded to them through state agencies. The progressive rights afforded to workers in California make the state’s organizing landscape unique. In helping Genwa employees organize, KIWA utilized state enforcement mechanisms to not only help employees get retribution for labor law violations but also pressure employers into agreeing to unionization. Considering changes in worker composition, labor laws, enforcement, corporatization of the food sector, and the relevant jurisprudence, this Note compares organizing efforts at two points in time to propose how organizing in the food industry should continue in the future.