Club Casablanca Strikers Rally

Club Casablanca's 40 striking workers held their first rally last night in an effort to garner support for their demands for health benefits, increased wages and sick and vacation pay.

Both the workers, who were in their seventh day on strike, and the owners of the Brattle St. restaurant have said they want to return to the negotiating table but have not yet met.

Domenic M. Bozzotto, president of Local 26 of the International Hotel, Institutional Employees and Bartenders, which represents the workers, said he was pleased with the rally's turnout. "Morale has been great. Management locked them out, but they keep encouraging each other. They are definitely holding out," Bozzoto said.

"If they try to open, its war," Bozzotto said. "The workers will stage sit-ins and use additional avenues of civil disobedience if the management breaks the picket lines with scabs. We will not let people take our jobs," Bozzotto added.

In addition to daily picketing, a second rally is also scheduled for the night of Thursday, November 15. The workers also plan to hold a fundraiser complete with entertainment and refreshments at the Phillips Brooks House this Sunday from 8 p.m. to midnight.

Bozzotto said several church groups, State Rep. Saundra Graham and City Councillor David Sullivan have all indicated their support of the strike.

The restaurant declared bankruptey in June 1983, and "Club Casablanca can not afford to meet the financial demands of the union and pay off its creditors," attorney Andrew L. Eisenberg, said earlier this month.

But 13-year bartender Reggie A. St. Paul said "they are not negotiating in good faith." St. Paul said that the health is not very expensive, and could have been paid for with the estimated $25,000 revenue lost since the strike began.