Serving Justice All Along the Food Chain

A woman takes food orders from guests at a restaurant — Not only do restaurant workers comprise at least half of the country’s 22 million food industry workers, they also happen to be among the lowest paid — the minimum wage for tipped workers is still just $2.13 an hour at the federal level. Photo by Andreas Brændhaugen.

Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley, speaks with Earth Island Journal editor Maureen Nandini Mitra and Terra Verde cohost about why the environmental movement should work in solidarity with restaurant workers as well how the ongoing restaurant worker revolt in the country could have enormous implications for labor and environmental justice and for our democracy as well.