Crime

Hundreds Call for Boycott of Calavera Restaurant After Alleged Labor Abuse

Published

8 years ago

July 8, 2016

Hundreds of restaurant workers and community members are calling for a boycott of Calavera, a Mexican restaurant in downtown Oakland, after several kitchen workers were fired from a job they say was riddled with abuse and wage theft.

Flor Crisostomo, originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, and four other colleagues have filed a class-action lawsuit against the restaurant’s owners Christopher Pastena and Michael Iglesias for repeatedly violating labor laws.

According to the former employees, the employers did not pay minimum wage, failed to compensate the employees for overtime work and did not provide legally required time for breaks and lunch.

“When we worked there, they started firing workers by text message or they’d just take them off the schedule without saying anything,” said Crisostomo in an interview with the Post. “Some of us would work for 12 or 14 hours straight with no break, and we didn’t know our rights.”

Crisostomo also says the owners used her to appropriate traditional recipes of Oaxacan food—such as tamales and moles—which she knows because she is indigenous to the Mexican region.

Flor Crisostomo. Photo courtesy of Brooke Anderson Photography.

For Crisostomo, the experience has led her and several other restaurant workers to call for community action in educating immigrant workers of their labor rights and revealing to customers the conditions that those working in kitchens often face.

After being fired from Calavera, the workers formed the Bay Area Restaurant Workers Movement (BARWM) to bring attention to local labor rights.

According to a statement released by Calavera’s management to the Post, the restaurant has files contradicting the former workers’ claims that they were not paid minimum wage, given payment for overtime or made breaks mandatory.

“We value all of our employees at Calavera and work hard to maintain a healthy and supportive work environment, as is evidenced in the positive support we’ve had from the Calavera staff,” according to the statement.

It continues to say that the restaurant’s ownership and management is a multi-cultural group with longtime roots in Oakland.

During last week’s First Friday, over 100 people picketed outside Calavera, rallying for the former employees and calling for reparations for the wage theft and abuse they say they faced as immigrant workers and enlightening potential customers of their experiences.

“Undocumented workers are the most likely to be exploited due to the fact they have little knowledge of labor laws in the states that they’re employed in,” said Shonda Roberts of the Oakland Livable Wage Assembly.

“A lot of our sisters and brothers who are undocumented also don’t speak up against abuse because they’re afraid of retaliation and being fired,” Roberts said.

According to BARWM, workers’ legal rights include a 10-minute break after four hours of work, a lunch break after five and a half hours of work, a minimum wage of $12.55 an hour and paid sick days after 90 days of work.

“The majority of kitchen workers are people of color, and Oakland earns the fifth highest revenue for restaurants in the country,” said Crisostomo. “We are calling on the Oakland community to help us build a conscious movement for justice.”

“I understand the conditions many of my colleagues work under, in fear of being fired if they stand up for their rights,” she said. “But the violation of our rights will continue to happen unless we do something about it.”

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Remembering Khadafy Washington: His Memory Has Inspired Hope and Healing in Oakland for 24 years

August marks the 24th anniversary of the shooting death of Khadafy Washington. Washington was only 18 years old when he was killed at McClymonds High School just months after his graduation in August 2000.

Published

1 week ago

October 1, 2024

Oakland Post

Marilyn Washington-Harris, posted 19 billboards around Oakland with the picture of her murdered son, Khadafy Washington, and the blaring question: Do You Know Who Killed Me?

By Brigitte Cook

August marks the 24th anniversary of the shooting death of Khadafy Washington.

Washington was only 18 years old when he was killed at McClymonds High School just months after his graduation in August 2000.

At McClymonds, Washington was the captain of the football team and a talented athlete who enjoyed working out. At 5’6,” he impressed his bigger and taller teammates with his ability to lift 350lbs and to toe-to-toe with them on the gridiron.

Preparing for the future, Washington enrolled in Laney College with dreams of continuing his football career and ultimately transferring to a college in Florida. However, those dreams were abruptly and violently ended.

The young athlete and rising star loved his family and friends, and they loved him, too — especially his sisters and his West Oakland community.

For 24 years now, Washington’s family has been searching for answers and struggling with deep sorrow and grief stemming from his tragic, senseless and untimely death. During the months following his murder, outraged and in pain, Washington’s mother, Marilyn Washington-Harris, posted 19 billboards around the city with his picture and the blaring question: Do You Know Who Killed Me?

Those signs were stark reminders to a city sometimes in denial that too many of its young men were dying violent deaths. Soon she was organizing marches to bring attention to Oakland’s problem with violence, and to the lasting pain families of victims endure. Privately, Washington-Harris would reach out to individual families in the immediate aftermath of a homicide, sending them mementos and reminders that they were not forgotten. In their weakest moments, she protected them from exploitation, scraped up funds for the mostly poor families so that they could bury their dead with dignity and grace, and continued to counsel and care for them as they tried to heal and recover.

As Washington-Harris’s mission grew and evolved, she founded the Khadafy Washington Foundation for Non-Violence to continue to support the thousands of family members of the well-over 2500 people that have been killed in Oakland since that fateful night in 2000.

Even though she has dedicated her life to helping and supporting those who have lost loved ones, Washington-Harris still struggles with the hurt and pain of losing her only son every day. She said, “It comes just like a storm – sometimes it comes quietly and sometimes it is raging. But it never goes away.”

Her plea is that those responsible for his murder be held accountable and her family, and all families like hers, receive the justice they deserve.

Washington-Harris is a founding member of the Family Support Advocates with the Violence Prevention Coalition, advocating for legislation and policies to support all crime victims and especially family members of homicide victims.

FAMILY SUPPORT ADVOCACY TASK FORCE

The mission of the Family Support Advocacy Task Force, a committee of the Violence Prevention Coalition, is to advocate for local, state and federal policies and legislation to enhance and expand support to families and friends of those who experienced violence; for more compassionate and transparent communication between law enforcement, the district attorney with the family of homicide victims and to push for the elimination of all violence, but particularly gun violence and homicides.