The ROC Mission
Who We Are
The Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United is a nonprofit organization fighting to improve wages and working conditions for the nation’s restaurant workforce.
Founded after Sept. 11, 2001, as a worker relief center for affected restaurant workers and their families, ROC United has grown into a national organization, activating thousands of restaurant workers, employers, allies, and consumers.
What We Do
Our approach has always been and will continue to be rooted in people — moving restaurant workers, high-road restaurateurs, policy-makers, consumers, voters, and institutions — who have active interests in making the restaurant industry work for everyone.
Providing training and professional development opportunities for restaurant workers is at the core of our daily focus. Facilitating upward economic mobility for people in some of the lowest paid occupations in the nation is an essential pillar of our mission. We also educate employers on improving the workplace climate, by providing tools that advance racial and gender equity and reduce on-the-job harassment of any kind.
We advance the interests of restaurant workers by connecting people with ideas and institutions, while expanding and deepening our organizing efforts through local chapters.
Where We Work
We have local chapters in New York, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Chicago, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Orleans, Massachusetts, Los Angeles, the Bay Area (San Francisco-Oakland), and a national team that supports the chapter-level projects, programs and campaigns.
