Labor
Tipped Service Workers Are More Vulnerable Amid Pandemic Harassment Spike: Study
NPR 12/6
In the best of times, service industry workers are typically paid below the minimum wage and rely on tips to make up the difference. Now, those still working in an industry battered by the coronavirus pandemic are on the front lines, enforcing COVID-19 safety measures at the expense of both tip earnings and avoiding harassment.
Food Industry Policy
Op-Ed: Restaurants have become pandemic scapegoats. My last one is struggling to survive
Los Angeles Times 12/6
Before the pandemic, my husband and I managed a staff of more than 100 among our four restaurants. Now we’re down to one location, in Playa del Rey. Decimating our staff was never part of our business plan.
Local restaurants to sue Governor Newsom for Stay at Home Order
KGET 12/6
The state’s stay at home order will go into effect at midnight. Some restaurants will follow the state’s stay at home order and close their doors when the clock strikes midnight.
Lockdowns are depressing and economically devastating. But California might not have a choice
Los Angeles Times 12/5
Stay-at-home orders are increasingly unpopular, wreak havoc on the economy and leave some people feeling even more isolated and depressed. But as California careens toward the most dangerous surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, many public health experts say the orders may well be the best — and possibly the only — way to slow the rapid spread of the virus.
She Couldn’t Open for Outdoor Dining. The Film Crew Next Door Could.
The New York Times 12/5
Restaurant owners say Los Angeles County is unfairly enforcing its ban on outdoor dining, but health officials say rules for film crews are much more strict.
Bay Area stay-at-home order stirs frustration, anger even as residents grasp seriousness of situation
San Francisco Chronicle 12/5
With lockdowns looming starting Sunday night, it seemed like nobody in the Bay Area was staying home on Saturday, enjoying a last outing before hunkering down for weeks.
Five Bay Area counties to enact strict stay-at-home order ahead of state edict, starting Sunday
San Francisco Chronicle 12/5
Five Bay Area counties on Friday ordered the most severe shelter-in-place directives since March, shutting down large swaths of the regional economy and requiring that people largely stay at home for the rest of the year in an urgent attempt to slow down the surge and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.
Breweries, hair salons and other businesses hurt by pandemic brace for additional lockdowns
The San Diego Union Tribune 12/3
San Diego restaurants, hotels, hair salons and breweries bristled at the prospect of further COVID-19 restrictions announced Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom — particularly new regional criteria that lumps their fate together with Los Angeles, Riverside and other Southern California counties with higher hospitalization rates.
On the Side
A total restaurant apocalypse is coming. But it’s not inevitable
San Francisco Chronicle 12/7
Outdoor dining has been paused in many Bay Area counties, including San Francisco and Alameda counties — a logical health policy step but a punch in the stomach for the restaurant industry. Restaurants have plunked down tens of thousands of dollars on outdoor dining structures and heat lamps and rehired staff to make an impossible situation work.
10,000 More Restaurants Have Closed in Three Months
QSR Magazine Dec. 2020
It’s been less than three months since the National Restaurant Association updated Congress on the sector’s troubled state. And since, an additional 10,000 restaurants have closed across the country, the Association said Monday.
