ROC-NOLA is a local restaurant worker center founded in 2017. We build power and voice for restaurant workers through Policy change, organizing, and partnering with High Road Restaurants.

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New Orleans (ROC-NOLA) is a multi-racial, grassroots organization dedicated to winning improved working conditions and raising industry standards for all New Orleans area restaurant workers.

ROC-NOLA is a membership-based worker center and advocacy organization that organizes and trains hundreds of restaurant workers. They also advocate for improved labor standards and higher wages and actively work with high-road employers to implement equitable and dignified workplace practices in restaurants.

ROC-NOLA builds power for low-wage restaurant workers through a tri-pronged strategy:

1) organizing workers against exploitation and discrimination in high-profile restaurant companies to win unpaid wages and workplace policy changes

2) conducting policy work to improve wages and working conditions industry-wide

3) partnering with responsible employers in a local Restaurant Industry Roundtable to promote the ‘high road’ to profitability, and helping members obtain living-wage jobs in the industry through training and leadership development.

ROC-NOLA operates CHOW, an educational program that provides in-depth training for the development of restaurant skills at no cost for employees and employers. ROC offers five FREE classes – Service 101 and Bartending 101, for those new to the industry. Our advanced courses, Serving & Wine 201 and Bartending 201 teach technicalities of service and advanced spirit and mixology. The classes are hands-on and provide opportunities for students to learn on site, in restaurants and bars. When our non-profit restaurant and training center COLORS fully opens we will offer more classes like Barista training, Kitchen Management, and others.