Chosun Galbee

In late 1997, ChoSun Galbi, became the site of a landmark dispute between immigrant workers and one of Koreatown’s largest restaurants. ChoSun Galbi fired Mr. Park, the head cook, when he refused to sign documents that illegally sought to make him responsible for paying the restaurant’s payroll taxes. Such abuses are common among the thousands of mostly Korean and Latino immigrant workers in Koreatown, who typically work 10-14 hours a day for wages as low as $2.50 an hour. Mr. Park turned for assistance to Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates (KIWA), an independent worker center which combines worker and community organizing and legal advocacy to end these conditions. KIWA organized daily community pickets in front of the restaurant, including a 10-day holiday hunger strike, until ChoSun Galbi agreed to pay back wages, comply with by basic labor laws, and to reinstate Mr. Park. Today, according to KIWA, ChoSun Galbi remains one of the few restaurants in Koreatown where basic labor laws are followed. The Restaurant Workers Association of Koreatown, an outgrowth of the struggle at ChoSun Galbi and campaigns at several other restaurants, continues to train workers around employment rights and to monitor standards in the industry. See KIWA at www.kwa.org.