I have been hesitating to post this, since there is so much buzz about the new Arunee and the stories about an immigrant family business. But from all the posts about Trade Fair, it does seem that many people on the list care about how employees of local businesses are treated, so here goes:
We made friends with some of the workers at Arunee a few years back; met with them regularly to help them with their English.
At some point, one of them came to us needing help figuring out a letter from the IRS. We realized that the owners were forcing them to pay the employer's portion of the social security tax -- he/she didn't realize it was illegal. This opened a larger conversation, and to our distress we found out some pretty unpleasant things about how the undocumented workers, in particular, were being exploited and threatened. We really liked the food, so it was hard to stop patronizing them!
We didn't publicize what we knew because the workers asked us not to. However they have long since moved on, so we are doing so now. They weren't whiners -- we knew them for more than a year before they told us anything.
Perhaps, now that the business is under the management of the next generation, and they are trying to change their business model, it's worth it to have a conversation with the owners and let them know how important these issues are to many who are likely to be their regular customers?