Striking workers from Hungry Charley's in New Haven will picket the Cambridge branch of the restaurant chain at noon today. The workers claim that Restaurant Associates Industries, owner of the chain, refuses to let them unionize.

Henry Tamarin, a sympathizer of the New Haven workers not employed by Hungry Charley's, said yesterday that Cambridge workers will not participate in the picket.

A flier distributed by the 11 striking New Haven workers in the Square yesterday claimed that, without unionization, employees are "underpaid, understaffed, and denied benefits such as medical insurance and paid holidays."

Tamarin said that, rather than negotiate, Restaurant Associates closed Hungry Charley's New Haven branch indefinitely. The New Haven workers hope to force the management to negotiate by picketing the Cambridge store, Tamarin said.

The manager of Hungry Charley's in Cambridge said yesterday that he did not know about the New Haven strike or about today's picket.

Restaurant Associates is one of the largest restaurant chains in the nation. It owns Zum Zum's and the Treadway Inn in Harvard Square as well as Hungry Charley's.

Michael Schweitzer, spokesman for Restaurant Associates in New York, said yesterday, "If the workers really believe we're ignoring a legitimate vote to unionize, why don't they throw us in jail?"

Schweitzer said that the Restaurant and Hotel Employees Union wrote Restaurant Associates in January notifying them that over half of Hungry Charley's New Haven employees had voted to unionize. If 50 per cent of a firm's workers vote for unionization, themanagement is forced to comply by law.

"We felt that some of the workers may have been coerced to vote for unionization by an open ballot, so we called for a closed ballot conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. The union refused to go along, and that's when the picket started," Schweitzer said.

Schweitzer claimed that "at least three" of the workers voted against unionization in the open ballot.

Schweitzer said that Hungry Charley's employees are "better off" without unionization because union membership prohibits pay raises on the basis of merit. "The $5 monthly union dues would more than eat up anything they might gain," he said.

According to Schweitzer, Restaurant Associates opposes unionization because "it would compel us to define employees' positions and limit any flexibility in their duties."

"It is never productive to ask anyone to negotiate at the point of a knife. This is counter-productive as far as I can see," Schweitzer added.

Schweitzer said the New Haven strike was successful because the town is small and the strikers were able to mount a successful public relations campaign.

The New Haven Hungry Charley's will reopen "after things have time to cool off," Schweitzer added.