Pam Tau Lee

Pam Tau Lee (born 1948) is an American labor and environmental justice advocate. She is fourth generation Chinese-American and was born in Northern California. Her work focuses on challenges faced by Asian-American restaurant and hotel workers in San Francisco's Chinatown. She worked for 20 years at University of California Berkeley's Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and has 10 years of experience as an organizer with Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees (HERE) Union Local 2.

Pam Tau Lee is a co-founder of numerous organizations including the Chinese Progressive Association, the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), and the Just Transition Alliance, where she is currently a board member.

Career In 1972, Pam Tau Lee joined the San Francisco I Wor Kuen (IWK). This organization was inspired by the Black Panther Party and composed of Asian American youths in opposition to economic exploitation, racism, and misogyny. She became active in the anti-imperialist struggle that critiqued American involvement in Asian, including the U.S.'s role in the Vietnam War.

San Francisco's International Hotel During the early 1900s Filipino and Chinese immigrants began settling in areas around San Francisco's Chinatown. By the 1950s, this community had developed an area known as “Manilatown”, which included the International Hotel. The hotel was home to many elderly Filipino and Chinese immigrants. In 1968, the hotel was sold, resulting in many residents facing eviction. Pam Tau Lee participated in the grass-roots anti-eviction movement that resulted. Together they engaged in a research project and campaign aimed at addressing workplace conditions for Chinese immigrants. This was a participatory research project involving focus groups and surveys of over 400 Chinatown restaurant workers from over 100 of the restaurants in the area. The research identified work-related issues such as wage theft, injuries, and violations of minimum wage. Workers used the findings to apply pressure on their employers that, for some, resulted in being paid back wages. Many of these workers took on more active roles in the community, partnering with the CPA on campaigns for political elections and participating in demonstrations promoting the rights of immigrant workers.

As a result of this research, the CPA partnered with the San Francisco Progressive Workers Alliance (PWA) to introduce the San Francisco Wage Theft Protection Ordinance. This ordinance aimed to improve the processing times regarding claims of labor violations and to increase employer accountability in the face of said violations. The ordinance also called for increased education for employees of their workplace rights and enhanced protections against retaliation from their employer for claims of labor violations. This ordinance was passed into law by then Mayor Ed Lee in 2011.