Saigon Grill Student Sit-In, Protest, & Rally: May 4, 2007.

Directed & Edited by Calvin Sun. Protest & Rally led by Christina Chen.

Saigon Grill Restaurant owners Simon and Michelle Nget locked out all their delivery workers because they were organizing and planned to file a lawsuit. The owners demanded workers sign an illegal contract, stating that they have received minimum wage, even though they received less than $2 an hour. The owners told them not to come back when the delivery workers refused to lie.

The workers have been picketing everyday and garnering huge community support.

On May 4th, 2007, students from Columbia University, New School, NYU, Hunter, John Jay, BMCC and Sarah Lawrence staged a sit-in protest at Saigon Grill.

Anthony Hang from Hunter College describes the experience: "When the students had to leave the restaurant, I saw them all walking out. It was large and impressive watching this. There was so much power that I almost cried seeing this unity among people, among workers. I stood there in awe, chanting, "Boycott Saigon Grill!" and the students chanted with us.

They merged with our picket line one by one. All the students and workers stood beside each other and the chants were so loud that people stopped to find out what was going on. It was a great sight to see."

More information can be found at: http://boycottsaigongrill.blogspot.com/


Filmed May 4th, 2007. Edited May 23rd, 2007.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• protest
• sit
• in
• sit-in
• saigon
• grill
• boycott
• student
• activism
• restaurant
• asian
• american
• columbia
• new
• york
• city
• university

[peleus25]

what's the name of the song?

[csohosun]

Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand in Mine.

:-)

C

[csohosun]

I understand the lighting may be a bit dark here; but that is a nonissue in the uncompressed version (the film quality is much better before being compressed by youtube). E-mail me if you would like a copy of it,

C

[dickenscd]

$1.65 an hour?

Why so many idiots believed it?

You are lucky if you can get anybody working for $8.- an hour in the NYC.

[democracyandfreedom1]

Time to start to protest all businesses that pay their workers substandard wages and poor treatment. Picket them, pass out fliers, protest, call your legislators, and let everyone know what you think

[dhardisty]

Fuck yeah!!!!!!

[QevolveQ]

justice served today, see nytimes, $4.6mm settlement!

[amylicious09]

y would his house need to be taken?

[workerzrights]

If the boss, Simon, isn't going to respect workers rights, he needs to be shut down and his house should be taken to pay the workers all the money he owes them.

[workerzrights]

Boycott Saigon Grill! How can anyone eat at this restaurant when the workers are calling for a boycott because they were getting paid $1.65 an hour. The said thing is that the people who cross the picket line don't realize that they're hurting themselves in the long run, because if we let the government divide documented and undocumented workers, conditions in the United States are going to keep declining.

[josecoconut]

jajajajajajajajaj

who the fuck do ya think ya are

activists??????????????

there is no comparison from the 60's 70' 80's

[jc8083]

saigon grill has yummy food.

you should stop being hippies and eat the yummy food.