ROC Chicago

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About Us

ROC-Chicago is a worker rights’ organization founded in 2009. We build power and voice for restaurant workers through policy and workplace organizing. With the disappearance of manufacturing jobs in Chicago, the service sector is becoming increasingly important, and within it, the restaurant industry, as the anchor of the City’s tourism and entertainment industry, is one of the fastest growing sectors of Chicago’s economy. 

There are hundreds of thousands of restaurant jobs in the Chicago area and while this high-profile industry is growing rapidly in Chicago and provides some decent-paying jobs, particularly in fine dining restaurants, the largely immigrant and migrant workforce color, you generally cannot access them. jobs, due to discrimination and occupational segregation. 

We focus our organizing efforts on the Chicago restaurant industry and provide opportunities for workers to advance their careers and transform bad jobs into good jobs across the industry.