Protesters rallied against unfair labor practices outside Tomo Sushi and Sake Bar on 110th and Broadway Tuesday afternoon. The demonstration raised suspicion about the restaurant’s decision to permanently shut its doors this Sunday.
Organized by the Justice Will Be Served campaign, the noon rally was attended by workers from Tomo and Ollie’s as well as representatives from the 318 Restaurant Workers Union and the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association.
The demonstration targeted Tomo owner Tsu Y. Wang, who the protesters referred to as the “Sweatshop Boss.” Fliers were distributed, accusing Wang of paying less than $2 per hour and failing to compensate for overtime.
“We are protesting against exploitation,” Mika Nagasaki, part of the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, said. “The workers were organizing to sign a petition and form a union. The response of the owner was to cut their hours and harass them. This is very common.”
According to Tomo manager Dee Loke, who declined to comment on the rally, the Japanese eatery is closing on Sunday because it cannot pay the rent.
Protestors said this was not the case. Josephine Lee, CC ’01 and coordinator of the JWBS campaign, said “He [Wang] owns real estate property all over New York and China. He can pay rent.”
Workers at Tomo filed a lawsuit against Wang in January and his response, according to Lee and Fong Tsai—vice president of 318 Restaurant Workers Union—was to threaten employees and decrease hours.
Tsai said that the workers were experiencing “verbal abuse,” and described Wang’s actions as a “tactic to make employees quit. Get rid of workers. Stop them from organizing.”
Frank Chang, manager of Ollie’s at 116th—one of the chains under Wang’s ownership—said, “We have a different system than Tomo.” Ollie’s is a partnership and Chang said that they have little direct interaction with Wang. “Policies are different here. They [Tomo] have had person-to-person problems; personal issues. We never touched the workers here. We don’t have complaints here.”
Last March, workers at Ollie’s 44th Street location, also owned by Wang, organized protests similar to Tuesday’s rally at Tomo. Shortly thereafter, the restaurant closed.
Chang said, “Maybe long ago there were problems, but not now.”
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