Coffee Sit-In Serves Up Minimum Wage Controversy at Denny’s

An alliance of high-pressure activists, campaigning for a major increase in the $3.35-an-hour minimum wage, descended on a Denny’s restaurant in the Mid-Wilshire area Saturday and this time, at least, added cream and sugar to their arsenal of persuasion.

They drank coffee.

As about 150 protesters rallied and picketed outside the restaurant at 6th Street and Vermont Avenue, scores of their brethren crowded inside, ordering java and nothing but.

“They’re having a minimum-wage meal. . . . That’s all you can afford if you’re making minimum wage,” organizer Larry Fondation explained.

Meeting Set for Monday

Targeted by activists as a symbol of a low-wage industry, Denny’s officials said they are planning to meet with protest leaders Monday. The activists are hoping to persuade Donald Pierce, president of Denny’s Inc., to come out in support of a substantial increase in the minimum wage.

The so-called “campaign for a moral minimum wage” is being led by an alliance of three church-based social action groups--the United Neighborhoods Organization, the South Central Organizing Committee and the East Valleys Organization. The groups are trying to persuade the state Industrial Welfare Commission to raise the hourly rate to $5.01.

The commission is expected to rule on a possible increase Dec. 18. The standard has been $3.35 since 1981.

The groups identified Pierce, a member of the California Restaurant Assn., as a “prime enemy.” One week earlier, the activists had targeted Byron Allumbaugh, chief executive officer of Ralphs markets, but a planned protest turned into a victory rally after Allumbaugh issued a statement endorsing a “substantial increase” in the minimum wage. Boys Markets issued an identical position Thursday.

Although neither Ralphs nor Boys Markets would define a “substantial increase” as $5.01 an hour, the Rev. John Seymour, a South Central Organizing Committee leader, said their statements debunk the impression that California’s business community is uniformly opposed to a big increase.

“They broke corporate ranks,” he said of the market chains.

Denny’s Inc., which also owns Winchell’s doughnuts and the El Pollo Loco restaurant chain, may be tougher to persuade because, unlike the supermarket industry, many restaurant employees start at or near the minimum wage.

‘An Open Mind’

“We really want to go into the meeting with an open mind,” said Ivy Council, Denny’s director of human resources who was on hand to meet reporters Saturday. “We do want to engage in a dialogue.”

Council said plans for a meeting last Wednesday between Pierce and the three social action groups had to be called off because of scheduling conflicts. She said that, with tips included, Denny’s employees average more than $7 an hour.

Activists, in turn, stressed that bus boys, janitors and counter personnel in the industry would benefit from an increase.

Activists said they initially had planned to tie up the tables at Denny’s for a few hours, but called off the demonstration after an hour because Pierce had agreed to meet. As they left the restaurant, activists let loose a chant of “five-oh-one! Five-oh-one!”

The demonstrators said they left big tips so the waitresses would not suffer from their visit.