‘Diners Guide’ Exposed as Labor Union Front

Member Group : News Releases

For Immediate Release
December 4, 2012
ROC Exposed
For More Information, Contact: Alison Harden

Full-Page Ad in USA TODAY Calls Restaurant Opportunities Center "Diners’ Guide" Hypocritical
New watchdog organization educates the public about the union front group’s effort to organize the restaurant industry

Washington, DC – Tomorrow a new watchdog organization called ROC Exposed will run a full-page ad in USA TODAY criticizing the release of the Restaurant Opportunities Center’s (ROC) annual "Diners’ Guide." The guide purports to rank restaurants based on their labor practices instead of their food quality, but given ROC’s history of harassing restaurants and mistreating employees, as well as its own failed "labor-friendly" restaurant, diners should take this "guide" with a grain of salt—if not the whole shaker.

The ad shows a picture of the dictionary and the headline reads, "Hypocrite/ hip ǝ krit /n.: An activist group that uses unpaid employees to accuse restaurants of not properly paying their employees."

The ad highlights the fact that ROC’s Diners’ Guide judges restaurants on their pay practices, but the organization hypocritically uses unpaid workers to collect the data for its own reports. ROC has also been sued by its own members for "intentionally failing to pay… a minimum wage."

"ROC is the last organization that should be advising restaurants on their labor practices," said Alison Harden, Spokeswoman for ROC Exposed. "Their half-baked Diners’ Guide is just another example of the lengths to which this front group will go in its quest to harass the restaurant industry into unionizing."

ROC regularly issues flawed, agenda-driven reports, files ridiculous lawsuits, and leads protests that harm many of the restaurant employees they claim to represent, all in an effort to attack and harass non-unionized restaurants. ROC is currently part of an investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives for its "history of intimidation towards opponents and management problems." Many of these issues are highlighted in a new video by ROC Exposed which can be found on the organization’s website.

Harden continued: "Given ROC’s checkered past, its hidden agendas, and its illegitimate tactics that can harm the very same employees it claims to protect, ROC has no credibility to speak on behalf of restaurant industry employees. This so-called ‘Diners’ Guide’ is a sham and should be treated as such by consumers and the media."

For more information visit ROCexposed.com or contact Alison Harden at
(202) 713-9141.

ROC Exposed is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants and consumers dedicated to educating the public about ROC’s real agenda.

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