Support Former Winnie's Manayunk Staff

I am a former employee at Winnie's Manayunk, a neighborhood staple since 2003. When our checks started bouncing back in December of 2024, we all hunkered down and tried to weather the storm because, as a close-knit staff, we all had empathy for the owner's shortcomings and tragedies this past year. However, the checks kept bouncing, and many people's bank accounts were locked. Some people haven't been paid in nearly a month. On 1/20/2025, the owner made a statement to the staff telling us that we would be paid on 1/21/2025. When we were ignored that day, we wrote a letter to her asking kindly to give us an explanation or ultimately we could not return to work without being paid. Upon receiving the letter, she terminated all of us, including management.

I am asking for help because a lot of employees here live paycheck to paycheck. Some of us have children to support, bills to pay, and landlords do not care; they just want to be paid, so some people are facing potential eviction.

Most servers at this establishment are paid $2.83 an hour and rely on tips to live, and this establishment does not do cash payouts for credit card tips at the end of the shift. All tips were delivered to servers, bartenders, and any other tipped staff member in the form of a weekly paycheck.

The money raised from this fundraiser will be equally distributed to any staff member who was involuntarily terminated due to asking to get paid what they were owed. I would like to raise enough money to float people while they transition to find new jobs.

UPDATE:

1/27/2025 4:19PM: Marian Murphy reached out to me via email through GoFundMe telling me telling us all to get unemployment. As much as we would like to receive unemployment benefits, the process takes a while. Again, the purpose of this fundraiser is to help those who can not wait for unemployment to get approved. Hope this brings some clarity.

1/27/2025 3:40PM: Winnie sent staff a message through the HotSchedules app informing employees that our paychecks will be available on Wednesday at the restaurant on 1/29/2025 between the hours of 12-4pm. She has hired a security team because of alleged threats and vandalism from the general public. Her sister Marian Murphy has stated in a Facebook comment that she reported this fundraiser as fraud. **** I would liken to say again that the point of this fundraiser is not to repay the debts owed by Winnie Clowry. This is here if anyone who is saddened by this story wants to be charitable and help my less fortunate coworkers who were living paycheck to paycheck get through the next month as they transition to new employment. It takes time to find new jobs and it also takes time to get paid in said new jobs. Every penny of the donations will be equally distributed to my former coworkers. The coworkers who opt out of donations will have the option to redistribute their share to their peers or donate the remainder to a local charity.

As of 1/27/2024 the former emplyees of Winnie's are still owed their wages and W2's.