Read our editorial on the significance of strikes here.
Service workers at Twin Peaks Restaurant in Brentwood, TN returned to work on April 27 after winning their jobs back and receiving a $200,000 settlement. The victory follows a 2023 strike and a protracted legal battle against abusive management.
Twin Peaks is a Hooters-style restaurant that forces its employees to wear lingerie while serving customers. The manager has a history of assaulting workers with a spatula, carrying out frequent physical and verbal harassment, and refusing to let workers eat lunch.
Workers reported to Labor Notes that their manager “threw out two workers food, smacking a cup of water out of a worker’s hand… in another incident he shoved a worker for not understanding a ticket order”. Black servers in particular reported experiencing frequent discrimination, with their tips being stolen by management and working overtime unpaid.
The strike was led by Oaxacan kitchen workers who walked off the job and united front-of-house and back-of-house workers across language barriers.
Unity across front and back of house is a significant barrier for organizing in the service industry. One striking server told a local Nashville activist organization, “When we found out back of house was on strike, everyone in the front of house was communicating with each other saying ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve been experiencing the same thing.’”
After over a month on strike and picketing during the Super Bowl, the management retaliated by firing 24 kitchen workers and 1 server, attempting to intimidate the other striking workers and divide the front of house.
The workers immediately filed an Unfair Labor Practice with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Twin Peaks paused retaliation on the other workers.
After three years of fighting their case, the fired strikers are receiving $200,000 in compensation and are getting their jobs back. Additionally, the violent manager was fired.
On April 27, around a dozen workers have returned to work, with more expected to return throughout the week.
Twin Peaks Midtown LLC shared a statement detailing their defeat: “WE WILL offer [the strikers] their jobs back along with their seniority and all other rights and privileges they lost because we fired them, and WE WILL make them whole for any losses they incurred because we fired them, including wages, interest, expenses, benefits, and compensation for direct or foreseeable pecuniary harm.”
One of the strike leaders told The Worker, “If we hadn’t organized, this wouldn’t have happened. We wanted to quit our jobs and that wasn’t correct. What was correct was to not be afraid and organize, and we went on strike. We accomplished this.”
Photo Credit: Jeremy Fasouli.
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