Chinese and Latino workers at the Industry Workers of the World, a restaurant wholesale company based in Bushwick, Brooklyn, have a message for their employer: They want to unionize.

Many see this as a sign that the increasingly prosperous Chinese restaurant wholesale industry is becoming a new battleground for union organizers.

According to Mr. Ho, the manager of the wholesale business, he employs five Chinese and nine Mexican workers. Overall, he said, he has less than 20 employees and has just passed a Department of Labor inspection.

Ho was surprised to learn about the unionization initiative because, he said, he always pays his workers above the minimum wage as stipulated by law, have them work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with one hour lunch break, and does nothing against the law.

Billy Randel, an organizer for the Industry Workers, said that they are asking their employer to provide health insurance, job security and wage increases.

Ho confirmed that he has received the workers’ petition and will look into it with his lawyer before making any judgment. The workers are asking the employer to respond within three days.

Randel said that Ho’s company is fairly big; it has daily delivery trucks going out to several states on the East Coast.

Most of the Chinese and Mexican workers are drivers or delivery men, Randel said, adding that these workers have no legal working papers and that the company did not pay minimum wages until last September.

According to Randel, to date, nine Mexican workers have joined the union and another five Chinese are planning to do the same. Most of the workers are under 30.

The company pays the workers between $6.1 and $6.25 per hour. The goods delivered include rice, cooking oil and pineapple.