Workers at one of Brooklyn’s signature eateries are demanding more than their just desserts.
More than 100 workers at Junior’s restaurant, the iconic cheesecake emporium on Flatbush Ave., are in the early stages of forming a union.
The cooks, servers, busers and bakers say they work too hard for their paltry pay, which averages about $24,000 a year including tips, and they also want health benefits, paid sick leave and vacation time.
“It just takes such a toll on your body,” said Garrett Mitchell, 33, who has been a waiter here for just over a year.
“We just want the owner to respect our dignity, and we want to be able to live a balanced life.”
Mitchell supports a family of three kids and a wife, and says he can’t afford to take a day off. He earns $5 an hour, plus tips.
Mitchell and a majority of his 140 co-workers reached out in November to Unite Here Local 100. The 260,000-member union represents 6,000 food service and restaurant workers in the city, and was one the first labor groups that endorsed Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio in April.
The next steps for the hungry workers remains unclear; the group can either go through an official application process with the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that oversees workers’ rights, or negotiate directly with the owner.
Workers said their conversations with Junior’s owner, Alan Rosen, have so far gone nowhere.
Workers met with the organizers last week to hash out the steps needed to unionize, but they say the effort remains in the early stages.
“Money is not the main issue here,” said Andre Toussaint, 27, a waiter at Junior’s for the past four years.
“The main concern is really the lack of communication and disrespect on part of the management.”
Rosen, the owner, declined to comment on the matter, but Borough President Marty Markowitz spoke in the deli’s defense.
“There has to be a majority of workers who want it,” the outgoing Beep said. “That is very much in question.”
Junior’s also has restaurants in Times Square, Grand Central Terminal and in Mashantucket, Conn., but the unionization would only cover employees who work at the flagship location on Flatbush Ave.
rblau@nydailynews.com