Workers At Genwa Korean BBQ In LA Just Scored A Union Contract, In An Industry First

Employees at Genwa Korean BBQ have achieved a historic first.

The workers have ratified their first contract under a newly established union, California Retail & Restaurant Workers Union, making it the first privately owned and operated Korean restaurant in the United States to successfully organize.

Genwa Korean BBQ has three locations across Los Angeles County, in downtown, Mid-Wilshire, and Beverly Hills. Employees at each restaurant are covered under the contract, which lasts for three years. The restaurants are privately owned by Jin Won Kwon and Jay B. Kwon.

José Roberto Hernández is the president of the union and director of organizing for Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA). He said the employees’ work is “groundbreaking.”

“It’s the joining together [of] the Latino workforce and the Korean workforce that sustains these industries,” Hernández said.