Workers' and immigrants' rights advocates said they will resume protests at La Hacienda after a judge refused the restaurant owner's request to order demonstrators to stay away from his South Park Street establishment.
A petition for an injunction against the protesters was filed in Dane County Circuit Court last week, but Judge Diane Nicks dismissed it Friday without hearing any arguments after lawyers for the defendants, which included two organizations and their directors, argued successfully that it was improperly filed.
"They really shouldn't be wasting all their time and money trying to tie this up in court," said Patrick Hickey, director of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin and one of the defendants of the injunction. "They really should sit down with us and try to work out the money that's owed to the workers."
Several protests and boycotts have been staged at La Hacienda over the summer after complaints emerged that employees have been forced to work off the clock without pay. According to the Workers' Rights Center, five former workers who complained to the center are owed between $3,000 and $11,000 each for several years' worth of violations. Herrera was also forced to pay $38,000 to employees in January 2006 after the U.S. Department of Labor determined it had violated overtime standards, Hickey said he has not been contacted by Herrera's lawyers, and that a meeting scheduled at the end of July was canceled by Herrera after a protest organized for that same week was canceled with the understanding the two sides would talk.
"I think they're only responding when they see public pressure and when they're actually getting hit in the pocketbook by customers not coming to their restaurant," he said. He added that the ICWJ, the Immigrant Workers Union and Workers' Rights Center will hold another protest at the restaurant next Wednesday during lunch time.
According to the Associated Press, Herrera's lawsuit alleged that protestors were blocking the parking lot entrance, scaring away potential customers and interfering with other customers' dining experiences with their noise, but Hickey denied that any customers were prevented from getting into the restaurant. He said people from the organizations were stationed at each entrance to the restaurant to make sure people could get in safely, and that no one has been arrested and police had not told them to do anything differently.
Hickey said he would prefer not to protest outside of the restaurant, but that the negative impact of Herrera's business from protesting is a motivation for him to negotiate with the workers and organizations.
"We're not really interested in continuing to be out there picketing if we can get these folks paid and make sure that people in the future will get paid, then everyone should we be happy and we can move on," he said.
Lawyers for Herrera and La Hacienda's side of the case did not return phone calls for comment.