Blues Bar Guilty of Racism!
Fight Racism and Sexism at the
Soup Kitchen Saloon!
Fire Renee Pomante! Fire Dave Thacker!
There's a racist enclave in the heart of black Detroit,
and it's called the Soup Kitchen Saloon, owned by Brian McDonald and run
by a tyrannical, racist general managers, Renee Pomante. Although Soup
Kitchen Saloon claims to be "Detroit's home of the blues," the
only ones singing the blues are the employees.
On Friday, October 10th, Larry Courtney,
a black man, was the victim of a legal lynching at the hands of Soup Kitchen
Saloon management. Larry Courtney, a former employee, walked into the restaurant
to use the payphone and get a set of keys from his girlfriend, Anya
Wislocki, who is white was a waitress at the Soup Kitchen. While at the
payphone, Larry Courtney was approched by Generel Manager Renee Pomante,
who is white, who then told that because he filed from unemployment from
the Soup Kitchen that he was not allowed to enter the establishment and
had better get out or she would "kick his black ass". As Larry
Courtney walked out of the restaurant, Renee followed him onto public property
and continued her racist and outrageous threats. By this point, Anya had
come outside to see what was going on, and Renee stated that the onlyt
reason that Larry was there was because he was "fucking Anya".
When Anya said that Renee has no right to say such sexist and racist marks,
Renee fired her on the spot. After witnessing this racist attack on Larry
courtney, tow members of the wait staff, Lisa Resch and Adam Lerman, wwlaked
off the job in support of their coworkers. While waiting outside, Renee
continued to scream threats and obscenties and threatened to have the police
come and strip search Larry.
Larry Courtney dis nothing to warrant this kind of
attack. In fact, he worked as a porter and cook for over five years with
an excellent record of service. Larry Courtney's only "crime"
was to date a white woman, something Renee Pomant and Dave Thacker,
another Soup Kitchen manager, found intolerable. When management found
out that Larry and Anya were dating, Anya was written up for merely speaking
to Larry at work. When that threat didn't work, Renee Pomante took the
racist policy a step-further--firing Larry Courtney.
Larry's firing is part of a long tradition of racist
and anti-worker policies at the Soup Kitchen Saloon. Renee Pomante has
created a hostile enviroment where employees are bullied, threatened, treated
like dogs, and subject to Renee's irrational behavior and mood swings.
Renee Pomante fires or forces out over 100 employeesd per year. The Soup
Kithcen management doesn't bother to file any paperwork on most employees
because they assume that any employees--especially black employees--will
soon be fired or will quit in disgust and "why bother with the paperwork"!
Employees are fired at whim, for reasons that range from not answering
Renee fast enough, not speaking in the correct tone of voice, mislabeling
hamburger meat, and any other problem Renee might have that day. Workers
are constantly looking over their shoulders and watching every move to
make sure that they aren't next on the firing line. With out any protection,
employees feel that unless they are prepared to swallow this type of crazy
mistreatment, they will soon be fired.
The opnely racist atmospshere at the Soup
Kitchen has been instituted and promoted by Renee Pomante and supported
by Dave Thacker. Renee has openly called black employees "niggers"
and stated the "black people are lazy". A Latino porter was fired
for speaking Spanish in the kitchen! Black and othr minority employees
are forced to endure degrading, humiliating, racist treatment and sweat-shop
conditions only to be handed a measly check and then a pink slip. Their
racist policies are not contained only to employees. Renee and her henchman
have no problem treating black customers with racist contempt and disrespect.
They gave called the police on black customers who dared to complain that
their beer was flat. They have made racist comments about black customers
to white customers. A black customer was called a "bitch" by
a white employee who was merely given a pat on the back for her racist
outburst.
The attacks have also been aimed at women employees. Employees
have overheard Renee loudly complaining that she wants an all male workforce
and has referred to some women employees as "sluts" and that
all they want to do is sleep with "her boys" which is how Renee
refers to the male wait staff. Many female employees have felt they have
been fired solely because they are women.
We intend to eradicate the racist atmosphere at the Soup
Kitchebn Saloon through public campaign. Earlier this year, workers at
Fishbone's Rhythm Kithcen protested against the racist enviroment they
were forced to endure. They picketed with theit supporters and shut down
both Fishbone's restaurants by informing customers of the racist conditons
and asking them not to eat at Fishbone's. They won there demands when Fishbone's
lost tens of thousands of dollars in business. Black employees who had
been fired by a racist manager were offered their jobs back, were awarded
back pay, an employee grievance procedure was created, a standardized employee
attendance policy was insituted, and the racist manager was fired. We must
build tge same type of campaign at the Soup Kitchen Saloon. We must picket
and shut them down until our demands are met.Please join us!
Demands
1. Fire Renee Pomante! Bar her from the premises!
2. Fire Dave Thaker! End employee harassment by managers! Stop the
racist and sexist treatment of employees!
3. Rehire Larry Courtney with full back pay!
4. Issue a public apology via the news media to Larry Courrtney
also stating Soup Kitchen Saloon will no longer tolerate racism within
its doors. A public offer will be made to rehire any employees fired by
Renee Pomante!
5. Institute a strict seniority system applied to decision making
including time off, shift preference, section distribution, raises, promotions,
etc...
6. Increase staffing and increase wages of cooks and porters! Cooks
and porters will be treated with respect! They will no longer be required
to ask management for permission to use the bathroom, phone, smoke cigarettes,
etc...
7. Create a Grievance Committee made up of waitstaff, porters, cooks
and bartenders to hear complaints of staff and hear appeals on discipline
and firings.
8. Grievance Committee findings are to be binding decisions that
management must follow.
PICKET AGAINST RACISM!
BOYCOTT THE SOUP KITCHEN!
Picket begins at 8pm!
Corner of Franklin & Orleans, 1 block south
of Jefferson
Just east of the RenCen.
Justice for Malice Green Coalition: National
Women's Rights of Organizing Coalition
313-438-0922
10/15/97