Saigon Grill Workers Allege Abuses, Call for Boycott

Ren McKnight
Posted: 3/8/07

The chant could be heard blocks away: "Boycott! Saigon Grill! Boycott! Saigon Grill! Boycott! Saigon Grill! Boycott! Saigon Grill!" Twenty-two delivery workers employed by the restaurant, most of them from the Fujian province of southeast China, and workers from Chinese restaurants across the city marched Tuesday on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant at 90th Street and Amsterdam Ave.

Workers said that they recently began organizing and planning to file a lawsuit against Simon and Michelle Nget, the restaurant's owners. When Nget heard about this, he allegedly called a meeting of the workers at which he demanded they sign a contract stating they were paid minimum wage, and he offered a deal: $20 pay for a half-day's work of 5.5 hours, or $35 for a full twelve hour day.

The employees rejected the deal, and the owners locked them out and shut down the delivery service.

Accompanied by representatives of Justice Will Be Served!, an organization which helps service workers across the city to fight against long hours, poor wages, and stolen tips, workers protested what they described as longstanding sweatshop conditions.

Saigon Grill management declined to comment on the allegations.

According to Yu Guan Ke, an immigrant from Taiwan who has worked at Saigon Grill for over ten years, fulltime workers earn as little as $1.60 an hour, and often work 6-7 days a week.

Ke said that if a worker's day off fell on a holiday or on a day with bad weather, when there are typically more delivery orders, he would be forced to work anyway. He further alleged that workers are charged fines for taking sick leave or for offenses like shutting a restaurant door too loudly.

According to Ke, if workers are robbed while delivering an order, they are made to pay for all lost orders from that day. When they delivered long-distance orders, for which customers are charged an extra fee, the restaurant owners kept the money. If workers had an accident on the job, they had to pay their own medical costs. For their on-the-job meal, they were given whatever food was left from the day.

"We ask to be reinstated right away. Right Now!" Ke yelled, speaking through translator and fellow campaign member Tony Tsai. "We want to change our working condition! We demand the same meal as other workers have. Us delivery workers, they treat us like a dog. That is not right!"

He said the workers demand minimum wage and also the back pay owed to them by the restaurant.

When patrons entered the Grill, Josephine Lee, CC '01 and coordinator of the JWBS campaign, yelled, "Don't patronize this restaurant! Shame on you!"

The crowd echoed, "Shame on you!"

After the press conference, Ke told Spectator through a translator, "Many of the conditions were illegal from the beginning. For example our wage was always below the minimum. But starting about three years [ago] things started getting worse."

"He's always scolding us, yelling at us, calling us dirty dogs," Ke said.

He said delivery workers used to be able to ask customers to meet them in the lobby if they felt the building they were delivering to be unsafe, but that the boss didn't allow that anymore.

Lee, said workers will hold daily protest at the two Saigon Grill locations at 620 Amsterdam Ave. and 91 University Place until their demands are met.
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© Copyright 2007 Columbia Daily Spectator

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Watch out you sleazy business owners, those darn "immigrants" are getting uppity. Imagine the nerve of those ingrates demanding fair wages!