Madison Affiliates Publish 'Just Dining' Guide is a cross-post from Interfaith Worker Justice.

The Workers' Rights Center of Madison (WRC) and the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice (ICWJ) teamed up to publish a "Just Dining" guide that informs customers and workers about the employment standards and conditions for the people who cook, prepare and serve food in the downtown restaurants of Madison, Wis. The guide focuses especially on the working conditions in central Madison restaurants.

Sure, you're eating free-range chicken and fruits and veggies sans pesticides in your favorite upscale restaurant, but did you ever consider the working conditions "behind the kitchen door?" Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) just released its 2013 National Diners' Guide that provides information on the wage, benefits and promotion practices of the 150 most popular restaurants in America in nine major cities across the country. Now you won't have to wonder whether your server is sick or if the person preparing your food is being paid a living wage. 

Workers at Walmart need public assistance to afford heating their homes. Workers at Wendy's and McDonald's need food stamps to survive. As more and more jobs get shipped overseas, workers in the United States are clinging to the jobs that can't be easily outsourced: food service, domestic care and retail. People all over the country are taking bold actions to shed light on the poor working conditions they face. 

Next time you’re sitting down at your favorite restaurant, you may be getting an unordered side of germs with that cheeseburger or maybe unexpected exposure to the latest flu virus with that healthy garden salad. Why? Because, as this new video from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United illustrates, 90% of all restaurant workers have no paid sick days.

UNITE HERE Local 54 casino workers in Atlantic City, N.J., are pitching in to help their members and the local community impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Local 54 has started a Helping Hands Relief Center to provide the public with information and help to apply for services. Local 54 President Bob McDevitt told the Press of Atlantic City newspaper:

There is an incredible need in the community....We felt we should coordinate this. As far as organizations go, we connect to most of the people.

Veronica Avila, the daughter of immigrants who rose out of Chicago's poor meatpacking neighborhood and later organized restaurant workers, has been named winner of the 2012 Edna Award.

The Edna, which has a $10,000 prize, honors women age 35 or younger who already have distinguished themselves as leaders of the social justice movement. The award honors Edna Berger, a pioneer for women’s rights, who rose from a receptionist at The Philadelphia Inquirer to become a writer, editor and the first female organizer in The Newspaper Guild-CWA.

Jennifer Angarita, AFL-CIO National Worker Center coordinator, sends us this.

From locally grown, organic greens to grass-fed beef, we care about the food that comes out of the kitchen—but what about the workers who chop, grill, sauté and serve our food? Today, the restaurant industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the United States. Despite its size and growth, the industry suffers from pervasively low wages, wage theft, non-existent benefits, rampant discrimination and often dangerous or unhealthy working conditions.

Mariya Strauss, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA), sent us this report.

Today’s jobs—especially in the hotel and restaurant industries—”don’t fit today’s workforce,” said Joan Williams, president of the Center for Worklife Law at the University of California/Hastings. Restaurants and hotels typically employ low-wage workers with “just-in-time” personal schedules, meaning the workers’ reliance on family members for child care and their need to care for elders who need medications at certain times often clash with their employers’ habits of scheduling them differently from week to week and day to day.