SAN FRANCISCO,CA - Activist and organizer for restaurant workers Saru Jayaraman has emerged as the 2019 Visionary of the Year Award recipient. The award, given by the San Francisco Chronicle, is an honor that recognizes individuals who use their business savvy to change the world for the better. Jayaraman, according to the Chronicle report, has said that as a plate of food moves from the kitchen to the dining room table,
it passes from brown hands to white ones the closer it gets to a paying customer. Research shows that white male restaurant workers in San Francisco get hired faster, promoted sooner and paid more than their Latino, black and Asian co-workers, while employees of color are often relegated to posts in the back of the house, as bussers and dishwashers, the report noted.
Jayaraman, 43, has devoted her career to fighting injustices large and small in the restaurant world: raising minimum wage and confronting sexual harassment.
The Chronicle announced the honor at a March 27 gala.
By receiving the award, Jayaraman was given a $10,000 grant from the publication that can be applied to advance her work. “We are facing the highest levels of income inequality in our nation’s history ... and unless we address that, our nation has no future,” Jayaraman said as she accepted the award. “Because people in this country will not be able to survive ... unless we pay attention to the fact that everybody deserves the right to feed their families.”
Jayaraman was a recent graduate of Yale Law School and working in Long Island when 9/11 happened. Seventy-three low-wage immigrant workers died at Windows on the World, a restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. She set out to find jobs for the 300 workers at the restaurant who suddenly were without work, the report said.
During that time, she helped start Restaurant Opportunities Center United, a national advocacy group that today counts more than 25,000 workers, 770 restaurant owners and 15,000 consumers as members.
Jayaraman, 43, has devoted her career to fighting injustices large and small in the restaurant world: raising minimum wage and confronting sexual harassment.
The Chronicle announced the honor at a March 27 gala.
By receiving the award, Jayaraman was given a $10,000 grant from the publication that can be applied to advance her work. “We are facing the highest levels of income inequality in our nation’s history ... and unless we address that, our nation has no future,” Jayaraman said as she accepted the award. “Because people in this country will not be able to survive ... unless we pay attention to the fact that everybody deserves the right to feed their families.”
Jayaraman was a recent graduate of Yale Law School and working in Long Island when 9/11 happened. Seventy-three low-wage immigrant workers died at Windows on the World, a restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. She set out to find jobs for the 300 workers at the restaurant who suddenly were without work, the report said.
During that time, she helped start Restaurant Opportunities Center United, a national advocacy group that today counts more than 25,000 workers, 770 restaurant owners and 15,000 consumers as members.
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