Crush Bar Workers Collective Hardship Fund

To our beloved queer community and allies,

For the last six months, we the staff at Crush Bar and Woody's Coffee Tavern have been tirelessly and fruitlessly advocating for a voice in our workplace. From one-on-one conversations with managers, to all staff petitions presented to management, to all staff meetings, none of our pleas to be heard have resonated. Instead, we faced job insecurity, hostile management, and everyday anxieties in the workplace merely because we had begun advocating for ourselves. And now, we have all been laid off.

In light of the ongoing pandemic, Crush Bar, like many other restaurants and bars, has shut down completely and laid off all of the workers. While there were many creative and compassionate ways to do this that would help mitigate the trauma, harm, and dangers a complete loss of income has on paycheck to paycheck workers, the management team and owner, John Clarke, decided on a path that would protect the owner's financial bottom line. 

This profit motivated, greedy, and harmful decision is upsetting in its own right; however, in the context of the wider public health crisis this decision is downright catastrophic.  How are we supposed to isolate if we cannot afford rent? How are we supposed to afford the doctors office if I get sick? This has impacts that spread beyond 27 workers, it will have lasting consequences for the city at large.

Today, we’re calling on you as our community to bear witness, to support, and to stand up for us--your fellow queers, fellow workers, fellow people of color.

We’re asking that you like and share our page, donate what you can so we can help keep each other afloat during this crisis, and keep up with our fight, because at Crush we’re continuing a struggle that’s all too familiar for the queer community: the struggle to be seen, to be recognized, and to be valued. And that struggle has never been more life or death than it is for us now.

Love and solidarity,
Crush Bar Workers Collective