Tenant Worker Center
Empowering working-class Chinese immigrants in San Francisco to fight for dignity and justice in their workplaces and homes.
Questions about your worker’s rights?
We provide free in-language consultations about workers’ rights. Please leave a voicemail, and our team will reach out in 1-2 business days.
History
In the early 2000s, the Tenant Worker Center (TWC) formed out of large-scale manufacturing worker organizing campaigns, particularly in Chinatown’s restaurant sector, where immigrant workers faced wage theft, long hours, unsafe working conditions, and lack of benefits.
TWC also has roots in the campaign to save International Hotel (I-Hotel). In the late 1960s-70s, CPA joined the fight to stop the demolition of the I-Hotel, which provided affordable Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units to low-income, elderly Filipino and Chinese tenants. Chinatown residents, tenant and community organizations, labor unions, religious allies, and student groups came together to transform the hotel into a center of progressive activism.
Today, TWC continues the activist legacies of Chinatown restaurant campaigns and the I-Hotel by focusing its work on immigrant labor and housing justice to preserve the dignity and respect of San Francisco’s low-income immigrant residents.
Tenants Rights
For improving affordable housing conditions of SRO tenants, TWC conducts building safety workshops, addresses building issues, runs legal clinic services, and provides rent strike support. TWC also empowers families in advocating for themselves and navigating critical resources, such as the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8), which TWC utilizes to support families in moving into better living conditions.
Notable Campaign
Substandard Housing Report (2005) — As part of the Chinatown Justice Project, TWC interviewed almost 200 Chinatown tenants and documented housing-related health threats, including respiratory problems caused by poor ventilation and inadequate sanitation. This report continues to guide TWC’s current strategies for housing and tenants’ rights activism.
Workers Rights
To date, TWC has helped low wage workers recover over $8 million in owed wages in high-profile campaigns by advocating for the workplace protections and fair wages of low-wage immigrant workers.
Notable Campaigns
Z & Y Restaurant Settlement (2021) — 22 employees at Z & Y, a Chinatown restaurant on the Michelin Bib Gourmand list, won a settlement of $1.61 million for stolen wages, tips, penalties and interest.
Yank Sing Restaurant Settlement (2014) — 280 Yank Sing restaurant workers in San Francisco to achieved a historic $4 million settlement for wage theft and labor violations.
Current Work
TWC’s core member leaders consist of community members and grassroots leaders that have long been involved in campaigns throughout the East Bay. These leaders recruit, inform, and organize members to participate in economic justice campaigns together. TWC leaders also represent our working class interests in the media, as well as endorse fair local ballot measures.
