Across the United States, immigrants did not attend school or work to demonstrate just how important they are in their communities. Many Chapel Hill restaurants and businesses closed because they could not operate without their immigrant staffers.
“We definitely heavily rely on them, especially in the kitchen,” said Root Cellar co-owner Susan White. “It definitely hits business, but we support them and we feel like immigrants contribute to our economy and business. We appreciate what they do.”
White said the Root Cellar hired a skeleton crew so that the cafe could open for part of the day. While she does not usually come in to work everyday, she came in and helped in the kitchen herself Thursday.
She said 22 of the Root Cellar’s immigrant employees participated in the strikes.
“They started talking about participating and we started planning,” White said. “We’ve got a great team of workers, immigrants who have been here for years. We’re like family.”
The Franklin Hotel owner Jay Patel also said some of his employees came to him in advance of the protests to discuss participating. He said they were concerned their absence would overwork their teammates.
“Our team came to us last week and said that they were struggling and didn’t want to leave the hotel in a bind, but wanted a way to confront the situation,” he said. “We were able to confront the situation together.”
The Franklin remained open Thursday.
