GG Restaurant Assoc Sues City to Block Health Care Bill

“On the 4th day of Christmas, GGRA said to me:
Send out some pink slips,
Keep up our profits,
We won’t pay for health care,
So its time to sue the city”

Protesters sang revised carols as members of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association drank expensive wine at a Christmas party on Monday at a swank Restaurant in the marina. A day after recent elections, the GGRA, filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco to prevent implementation of the Health Care Access Law that would guarantee health care for many SF employees. The GGRA, which according to its website was created to promote, extend and protect the interest of the Restaurant industry, represents some 3,000 employees at its 800 member restaurants.

“To solve these problems, leadership is needed,” said GGRA Executive Director Kevin Westlye. “Nobody can afford healthcare and to say that the employer should take 100 per cent responsibility for it is not realistic.”

Speaking to me in an exclusive interview over some tasty samosas and a few glasses of wine and some cocktails, Westlye rambled on about something about the GGRA championing more fiscally responsible alternatives to universal healthcare and then got me kicked out for trying to make off with some of the wine.

The Association celebrated the holidays with a private party, where toys were collected for the salvation army. Attendees to the event passed a gauntlet of about 50 community activists and a few politicians, who handed out leaflets condemning the Association for trying to deprive workers of the benefits of a health care bill and a Sick Leave initiative.

“Noone should have to choose between food and rent and health care, but many do,” said Ian Kim of the San Francisco People’s Organization. Groups such as the Milk Club, the SF People’s Organization, and Local 780 SEIU promised to mount a sustained campaign to protect the bills.

Info on the campaign will be posted at seiu790.org/healthaccess/