THE KITCHEN STAFF OF THE FROG RESTAURANTS HAS BEEN ON STRIKE 
SINCE APRIL 16th

Frog Pub is a company which has four pubs-restaurants in Paris :
The Frog & Rosbif, 116 rue St-Denis ; The Frog & Princess, 9 rue Princesse; 
Café Frog, 25 cour Saint-Emilion ; The Frog & British Library, 114 avenue de France.

Since April 16th, the entire kitchen staff (cooks, dishwashers and other kitchen help) have been on strike, to protest the arbitrary firing of two of them, following their demand for a pay increase (a perfectly legitimate demand given the amount of work involved). The decision to strike was made by the entire kitchen staff, both members of the CNT union and non-union employees. 

These firings express perfectly the harsh methods of management, which respects neither labour law nor the sanitary standards required by law. Judge for yourself:

– In certain restaurants, the dishwashers have to work with cold water, as the water heater is not large enough for both the afternoon and evening shifts.
–  The staff has no place to change into work clothes: those working in the kitchen have to change there or in the bathrooms, or not at all!
– Both kitchen help and waiters have to use the same bathrooms as the customers.
– The kitchens are minuscule: in some cases they are not more than ten square meters for ten kitchen staff, whereas the restaurant itself totals more than 300 square meters.
– There is no time clock, which makes it possible for management not to pay overtime.
– Some kitchen staff on the evening shift (working till midnight or 1 a.m.) also have to work the morning shift (starting at 8 a.m.), whereas the law requires a minimum of eleven hours between shifts.
– The kitchen staff has no say whatever about scheduling: shifts and vacation time are decided by management with no consultation.
– The official designation of jobs, as required by labour contracts, is not respected, and management refuses to hire enough staff for the smooth operation of the kitchens. People hired as kitchen help wind up doing the work of cooks and cooks' assistants wind up in charge of the entire kitchen, thus assuming the work of two or three people.
– In a single contract, pay for the same job varies from one restaurant and one person to another.

Strikers' demands:
An end to the lay-off proceedings, dropping of all management harassment and penalties, observance of the labour contract, improvement of sanitary and safety conditions, payment of overtime when the latter cannot be avoided, election of staff delegates at the 4 Paris restaurants, enforcement of the right to paid vacations, full payment of monthly subway pass, extra pay for staff whose shifts end after midnight, payment of the 13th month, an improved organization of work, eliminating wherever possible inadequate time between shifts, letting staff leave in time to return home by public transportation, wage increases, respect for right to exercise trade union activity at the work place.

As customers, you can help the strikers win :

– by boycotting Frog restaurants until the strikers' demands are satisfied;
– by informing others of the reasons for the strike.
– by giving them financial support (make cheques to the order of SHRT; indicate "Soutien aux grévistes de Frog", and send to CNT-SHRT, 33 rue des Vignoles, 75020 Paris).

Solidarity Collective
Contact : sutf2000@yahoo.fr

Restaurant workers are not slaves!