We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Graham K. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Graham below.

Alright, Graham thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

As a content creator, I’m most proud of my online project Restaurant Worker News. It first started after a coordinated walkout by low wage fast food workers at three Sonic locations in Ohio. I thought it was impressive that the workers were able to coordinate such a massive job action on their own.. There wasn’t much press about it at the time (maybe one or two articles) and there was even less discussion about it in labor circles. But as a lifelong restaurant worker, I knew that there have been all sorts of actions like this throughout the industry, but nothing was really tying them together into any sort of narrative. So I started Restaurant Worker News as a way to consolidate these sort of stories and to add my own analysis based on my experience as a restaurant worker and union organizer. Since being launched in 2019, it has grown to have a following of almost 60,000 followers.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve been working in restaurants since 1997 and first got involved with organized labor in 2012. Throughout the years, I’ve seen and been part of all sorts of formal and informal organizing efforts on the job and throughout the industry. I love seeing workers stick it to the bosses and win improvements on the job and in their lives and so I’ve been dedicating a lot of my time to help share those stories and to have more stories of my own. I’ve been creating and sharing social media content, writing for various blogs and have some larger written content in the works.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Restaurant Worker News really started to take off during the COVID pandemic. As the virus spread, line cook became the deadliest job in the USA. Workers responded by quitting individually, walking off the job in groups, and by forming unions. I was being contacted around the clock by workers who wanted me to share their stories. My initial plan was to try to focus on round the clock reporting on these sorts of actions, but it ended up becoming very time consuming and many more outlets and publications started popping up. I eventually decided that instead of focusing on journalism and reporting that I would still try to keep up with current events as much as possible, but shift my focus to creating online resources and books.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I think a lot about how long I worked in the restaurant industry without having any concept of what worker power or resistance could look like. I live in Detroit, which is known for the auto industry and auto unions, but nobody knows about waitresses who waged a sit down strike in and occupation in Detroit against the biggest retailer in the US – Woolworths- and won. I want restaurant workers to know the past and present manifestations of resistance and how to apply those to their jobs, industries and lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.restaurantworkernews.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/restaurantworkersnews?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Other: I write under a pseudonym, Jean Carl Elliott. Here’s my linktree: https://linktr.ee/jeancarlelliott?fbclid=IwAR122fbQWWfkToOTZPCUeNj84UL82qrkRSAxxGFqoU1GAK8bPXrUTIP8YA8_aem_AQBz7BRukMYBuYt8xlYP7CcExqLuCj0-U9RNblesD4OXjUZiE0B7kHOg7_bNqkZC7UZWUzJKrLOPoNVuIXSfLZYG&mibextid=Zxz2cZ