Restaurant Worker News

01/17/2026

On this day, 17 January 1893, a coup d'état took place in Hawai’i, organised by the United States.
The background to the coup was in the changing economy. Hawai’i’s traditional, Indigenous ways of life came into conflict with the growing capitalist sugar industry, through which a few white, landowning families from the US and Europe effectively gained control of the economy. Only wealthy landowners could vote, and so they could effectively pull the strings of Native monarchs.
However, after Queen Liliʻuokalani ascended to the throne, she proposed a new constitution, which would abolish the high property requirement for voting, and only enable Hawaiian citizens to vote.
Members of Liliʻuokalani’s cabinet leaked the plan to the US minister to Hawai'i, John Stevens, and together they plotted to overthrow her and enable a complete US takeover.
A group of 13 white men, 11 of whom were capitalist business owners, formed a “Committee of Safety” to take over the country. On January 16, they summoned US marines and sailors who arrived that afternoon.
The following day, they forced Queen Liliʻuokalani to give up the throne, in a coup which was largely bloodless, although one plotter shot and wounded a Hawaiian police officer. A republic was briefly declared, and the island was annexed by the US five years later: the first of many overseas imperialist conquests by the nation.
Before annexation, Hawai'i had free, universal healthcare and education. The US took over the education system and used it to try to eradicate the Hawaiian language, culture and identity.
From being spoken by a majority of the population, Hawaiian declined to have only a few dozen speakers in the 1980s.
The US also abolished free healthcare. Today, Native Hawaiians still have the poorest health outcomes of all groups in Hawai’i.
Since the 1970s, there has been a resurgence of Native Hawaiian activism, culture, and resistance to colonialism which continues today.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8879/us-organised-coup-in-hawaii

01/17/2026

01/17/2026

On this day, 16 January 2016, women beer promoters working for Cambrew, co-owned by Carlsberg, in Cambodia walked out on strike. The casually-employed women were demanding recognition of their legal rights to a permanent contract with paid maternity leave and other legally mandated benefits.
The company had refused to meet with their union, the Cambodian Food and Service Workers Federation, and instead extended working hours until 11 PM, which would cause the workers transport difficulties and, they believed, increase the amount of harassment they faced from customers.
On January 21, the company retaliated by sacking 11 union members.
We are unsure what the result of the dispute was so if you are aware please let us know by emailing [email protected].
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8787/cambrew-promoters-strike

01/17/2026

01/17/2026

The Tesco Worker Campaign has confirmed that the Tesco worker from Newcastle, county Down, in the North, suspended and under disciplinary action for following their conscience and refusing to handle goods from so-called Israel, has been reinsstated by Tesco and the disciplinary dropp A number of pro...

01/17/2026

“People began calling for a boycott of the fast casual chain after a man with the ID of William Ackman made a $10,000 donation to a fundraiser for Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Minnesota mother Renee Good.”

Calls for a boycott began after Bill Ackman donated $10,000 to a fund for the ICE agent who shot Renee Good.

01/17/2026

On this day, 17 January 1915, Black Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union organiser Lucy Parsons (pictured) led a march against hunger and unemployment in Chicago. It was during this protest that famous union hymn “Solidarity Forever” was completed by IWW member Ralph Chaplin.
Police attacked the crowd of 1500 unemployed people and their children, opening fire with live ammunition and clubbing marchers with blackjacks and pistol butts. The crowd attempted to defend itself, and police reported that "women were fighting just as much as the men". 21 protesters were arrested, including Parsons.
Chaplin had begun writing "Solidarity Forever" during the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek coalminers strike in West Virginia in 1913. The lyrics were written to be sung over the tune of US civil war battle anthem "John Brown's Body", in the tradition of US folk music, which frequently repurposed existing songs with new lyrics.
It became one of the IWW's most famous songs. Music was a key tactic the union used to spread its ideas through working class communities, including those with low levels of literacy. It was sung on picket lines all over the US and the world, being translated into languages as diverse as Spanish, Polish, Yiddish and Swahili.
"Solidarity Forever" has also been performed by popular artists including Leonard Cohen, Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips and (as The Nightwatchman).
This book contains "Solidarity Forever" as well as lots more IWW music: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/products/the-big-red-songbook-250-iww-songs

01/17/2026

01/17/2026

On This Day In History (2021):

"On 17 January 2021, 1400 members of Teamsters Local 202 walked off the job at Hunts Point Produce Market in New York City.

The first strike at the market since 1986, the workers were upset with the lack of compensation for continuing to keep operations going throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused hundreds of workers to fall ill and ten to die. Furthermore, bosses offered a pay rise of only 32 cents an hour, and wanted to increase workers' contributions to their health insurance.

With Hunts Point Produce Market being the largest wholesale produce market in the US and the core of New York City's food supply to restaurants and supermarkets, the strike quickly dealt a massive blow.

Within a week a deal was made including a pay rise of 70 cents an hour (somewhat short of the $1/hour workers demanded, but more than double the initial offer) and no increase in health insurance contributions."

Working Class History

Teamsters

01/17/2026

On This Day In History (2014):

"On 17 January 2014, the Yippie Museum Café at 9 Bleecker St. in New York City was foreclosed. From 1967 until its foreclosure, "Number 9" was an important counterculture speakeasy and home for left-wing activities, including rallies and protests and Rock Against Racism concerts."

Working Class History

01/17/2026

ICE is not invulnerable. The Avelo Airlines win proves what happens when we refuse inevitability and fight together.

01/17/2026

On This Day In History (2013):

"Shehzad Luqman was a 27-year-old man of Pakistani origin who was murdered by members of Golden Dawn in the early hours of 17 January 2013 in Petralona, Athens.

29-year-old firefighter Christos Stergiopoulos and 25-year-old Dionysis Liakopoulos were accused of the murder. They were accused of attacking and killing Luqman with folding knives while he was cycling to work delivering oranges."

Shehzad Luqman was a 27-year-old man of Pakistani origin who was murdered by members of Golden Dawn in the early hours of 17 January 2013 in Petralona, Athens.[1]