BY MICHAEL WHITE DAILY NEWS WRITER
Restaurant workers accusing business owners of unfair labor practices
at a Chinese buffet in South Huntington picketed yesterday along
busy Route 110.
Employees accused the owners of East Buffet and
Restaurant of paying wages as low as $1 per hour and stealing
tips, then beginning a harassment campaign when workers threatened
to unionize.
Waiters also said they were forced to pay for customers
who walked out on bills.
The employees released documents they say support
their claims, including pay stubs and a letter from the restaurant
manager threatening to fire an employee because patrons had walked
from his table without paying on two occasions.
A manager for the restaurant declined to comment
on the workers' claims.
About 25 people, including 11 servers and bus people
wearing black pants and white button-down shirts, carried signs
along the sidewalk of the thoroughfare and chanted, "Boycott
East Buffet."
Waiter Michael Chu, 50, of Woodhaven said, "We
tried to form a union, and they took our tips completely away.
Before, they used to take just some of our tips from us."
Workers said they were required to place all tips
in a box so management could take its cut. When the workers signed
a petition and threatened to form a union, the owners interrogated
them individually and used scare tactics to prevent them from
unionizing, employees said.
"The employers told me if you join the union,
you know what the consequences will be," said a waitress
who identified herself only as Yuan. "And they told me if
I tried to work someplace else, no one is going to hire me."
East Buffet and Restaurant employees contacted 318
Restaurant Workers Union in response to what they called "slave
wages and unfair labor practices."
The president of the union, Nelson Mar, who also
attended the event, said the brave workers "stood up because
they understand the laws in this business have to be enforced,"
adding that the group plans to file a lawsuit against the Kong
couple who owns the establishment.
He called for the restaurant owners to reinstate
employees who claimed they were fired because of their threat
to unionize.
Several other wait staff employees were spotted
yesterday in the establishment serving customers.
Patron Cami Leon of Commack said she and her boyfriend
will continue to frequent the restaurant until the truth comes
out. "I don't know enough," she said, entering the buffet.
"If I knew that what the employees are saying is true then
I would stop coming."
Originally published on August 24, 2005
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