South Carolina AFL-CIO sends us this update:

On Monday, more than 50 community members from Boiling Springs and Spartanburg, S.C., participated in a “dine-in” at Copper River Grill in support of the servers, bartenders, hostesses and other workers as they fight for a voice on the job and the right to self-representation at work. The community wore stickers today that read "I Support the Workers of Copper River Grill." 

The action coincides with the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march with sanitation workers demanding union recognition in Memphis, Tenn., where he delivered his famous “Promised Land" speech before his assassination.

Ken Riley, president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, met with the workers of Copper River Grill this weekend. Riley said, “We are with these workers because what Copper River is doing is undermining the fundamental pillars of the workforce in America. They are taking us back to the 1920s.”

“I serve food to people all day, but I make barely enough to get by. I am a single mother and I have to think about the future of my 9-month-old son,” said Victoria Ballard, who has been at the Copper River Grill for three years. “Is it too much to ask that a working mother gets paid enough to put food on my own table without having to rely on food stamps?”

Restaurant workers have files more than a dozen federal charges against Copper River Grill, including harassment, coercion, surveillance, interrogation, discrimination and retaliation."I joined the 'dine-in' to show support for these workers' rights and reasonable demands," said Spartanburg Rep. Harold Mitchell, co-chair of the South Carolina Progressive Network. "It's wrong for corporations to rely on taxpayers to subsidize their low-wage, high-profit policies," Mitchell noted.

Mitchell, who is also chair of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus, pledged to introduce legislation to protect often-exploited service workers. "It's against federal law to fire someone for organizing for better pay or working conditions," Mitchell said. "We need to require bosses to have a 'just cause' to take someone's livelihood away from them."

“Apparently, Copper River thinks that the taxpayers are responsible for paying their workers,” stated Spartanburg resident Russell Bannan with South Carolina Jobs with Justice, which helped to organize the event. “Because that is what Copper River is saying when it pays hardworking employees starvation wages.” 

Many community organizations participated in the “dine-in” yesterday, including Jobs with Justice, South Carolina AFL-CIO, Communications Workers of America, Electrical Workers, South Carolina Progressive Network, SC Democratic Women's Council and others.