On April 7, Democrats in the House of Representatives passed a $42 billion bailout for the restaurant industry. It faces resistance in the evenly divided Senate. Republicans are, unsurprisingly, opposed to fresh pandemic spending in an election year. In the eyes of the National Restaurant Association (NRA), the industry’s main lobbying group, the bill’s chances are still “uncertain.”

But if the bill does pass, it will be a massive victory for the NRA, as Democratic leaders who crafted the legislation are firmly in the pocket of those corporate lobbyists. Like a $29 billion version signed into law last year, this legislation is a blank check for restaurant investors and owners. It contains nothing that will directly improve workers’ pay or benefits. It will not even save their jobs if there is another COVID surge and shutdown. Cooks, servers, and bartenders need real aid and huge changes at work, but Congress is only talking to their bosses.

With no help coming from above, the only solution for America’s 15 million food-service workers is the same for workers everywhere: we need to form unions and get organized. The recent wave of unionization at Starbucks might show the way forward.