With Michigan’s dining rooms slowly beginning to reopen across hard-hit metro Detroit after a three-month COVID-induced hibernation, the dawn they’re waking up to is casting fresh light on the issues that have long-plagued the restaurant industry, namely the way it treats front-line staff.

As Michigan’s 350,000 laid-off hospitality workers begin returning to work, some are questioning why they’re being called back so quickly during a health crisis when benefits like quality health care and paid sick leave are rarely made available to them. And while business owners and lobby groups have had a say in how the state reopens through committees and political might, some service workers feel like their concerns aren’t being heard.  

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