nothin Wage-Theft Protesters Stir The “Pot” | New Haven Independent

Wage-Theft Protesters Stir The Pot”

Paul Bass Photo

Thai Taste!” boomed the voice emanating from loudspeakers attached to the roof of a parked Nissan Bac-Pac.

Pay your workers!” responded the picketers circling the Chapel Street sidewalk.

The call and response occurred Thursday evening outside Thai Taste restaurant at 1151 Chapel. The picketers, from Unidad Latina en Accion/ New Haven Workers Association, distributing a flyer charging that owner Roger Jaruch owes more than $37,000 … to three former workers” who were trained at Thai Taste and then worked at Rice Pot, another restaurant he runs on State Street.

ULA organizer John Lugo was behind the wheel and the microphone in the Nissan during the protest. Between chants, he said the three workers had approached his group about the lost wages, beginning in May. Lugo said the group conveyed the complaints to the restaurant. The group received an Oct. 5 letter from Jaruch’s attorney, Andi Hallie from the Branford firm of Riccio & Beletsky. The letter sought documentation of unpaid wages, which Lugo said the group provided. The group hasn’t heard back yet, Lugo said, so it decided to picket in hopes that public pressure would produce a result short of filing a formal legal complaint.

Allan Appel Photo

Jaruch could not be reached for comment. In a previous interview with the Yale Daily News, Jaruch denied the allegations and claimed that one of the workers claimed wage theft in the hopes of paying off hospital bills.

Hallie told the Independent Friday that she’s still in the process of gathering information from Lugo’s group, so she can’t comment yet.

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