Working Washington issues the following statement in response to the restaurant industry’s aggressive effort to lift restrictions on indoor dining:
The Washington Hospitality Association’s well-orchestrated lobbying push to overturn the state’s restrictions on indoor dining is divisive, misleading, and wildly irresponsible. A more forward-looking restaurant industry would be fighting to expand unemployment benefits to keep the economy moving, pushing for investments in ventilation systems and other measures to build customer confidence, and advancing policies that provide financial support to workers and businesses so people can stay home and stay healthy during the pandemic.
Instead, industry leaders are asking the state to put restaurant workers’ lives on the line.
Restaurant industry lobbying groups have a poor record on public health and economic security. They have opposed whistleblower enforcement of health & safety laws, opposed expanding eligibility for unemployment benefits in cases where workers raise health and safety issues, and even fought against our state’s paid sick days law. They have a financial interest in making this case, but their employees — who are far more likely than restaurant owners to be women, immigrants, and people of color — are the ones who will bear the risk of their wild speculations.
Restaurant workers are concerned about their own safety at work with regard to indoor dining, especially as dine-in customers have often ignored masking requirements, owners have pushed to seat large parties in dangerous circumstances, and many employers have failed to share information about COVID-positive co-workers and customers. Workers also know that the industry they love will only bounce back when customers feel safe returning to dine — and that this irresponsible lobbying push doesn’t help. In fact, it harms workers by effectively compelling them to work in unhealthy situations, and harms customer confidence by publicly disputing the need to protect public health.
We urge the state to reject the push to loosen health restrictions, to immediately fix the unemployment system to provide benefits quickly to workers in need, and to ensure any relief offered to restaurant owners should be equally shared with restaurant workers who are bearing the health risk as well as the financial impacts of the restaurant industry’s actions.
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