Workers strike, protest at Twin Peaks in Brentwood claiming managerial abuse

Thirty-one workers at Twin Peaks in Brentwood, a Hooter’s style restaurant, are striking over alleged managerial abuse and toxic working conditions. 

Multiple back-of-house staff have claimed that a new manager hired at the location has been physically abusive, does not let workers take breaks and screams at employees. Workers protested just beyond the site Saturday, holding signs that read “Twin Peaks allows abuse” and “Twin Peaks abuses their workers.”

“[The manager] yells at us,” said Ricardo Juarez, an employee. “He pushes us. He treats us like nobody. I have been working here for about eight years, and everything was fine until November when they hired this manager, Hunter, and he said he’d come to fire everyone. He started to fire more people. … He doesn’t let us eat or drink.”

Another employee, Patricia Mendoza, corroborated Juarez’s statements in a separate instance.

“The manager is very abusive, very racist,” she said. “We can’t take a break. We can’t eat. He pushes us. He calls us stupid.”

Manuel Hernandez, a third worker on strike since mid-January, also said, “He doesn’t let us eat. He doesn’t let us take breaks.”

This reporter attempted to speak with the owner of Twin Peaks in Brentwood, Greg Casatelli, and the manager in question, Andrew “Hunter” Kirkpatrick, about workers’ claims. When confronted, Casatelli said, “we don’t speak to reporters here,” and rushed inside the restaurant. 

Workers’ Dignity, an organization, according to its website, dedicated to “shaking corporate power in the South by teaching workers how to fight and claim historic victories against high-profile employers, landlords, and developers,” is assisting the striking workers in protest initiatives. 

“When workers want to unite against a boss to make their workplace better, or they want to unite for any reason, we want to be there to help and support them in any way we can,” said Paige McCay, an organizer with Workers’ Dignity. “The end goal is that these workers go back to a workplace that is better for them and their co-workers.”

All the workers protesting on Saturday were back-of-house, but according to McCay, there are also 10 front-of-house servers on strike. This article will be updated when front-of-house contacts are ready to speak and/or if the owner or manager becomes available for reaction.