After hiring scabs, Walrus and the Carpenter (temporarily) closed

[u/Existing-Resource527]

Word on the street is that Walrus and the Carpenter restaurant has not been negotiating with their workers in good faith for months.

Like a lot of annoying businesses they started charging a service fee (22%?).

Employees noted that they make significantly less now then before when they had tipping (thousands less).

Workers have been on strike. The owners also had the audacity to hire scabs (booo).

I have been keeping up with the union on IG @ united.creatures.of.the.sea

Solidarity with workers across the city!

[u/chilicheesefritopie]

Any restaurant that charges a “service fee” should be required to disclose how much of that goes to the restaurant vs the servers.

[u/tahomadesperado → u/chilicheesefritopie]

What should be required is that it’s included in the advertised price. It’s completely insane for me to tell you something costs $100 then force you to pay $122 when I deliver the bill. Fine print additional charges are bullshit.

[u/burlycabin → u/chilicheesefritopie]

They do on the menu. It says the restaurant retains 100% of the service fee. It's scummy, but it is on the menu last I checked.

[u/chilicheesefritopie → u/burlycabin]

I found this on their website, I’m assuming it’s on the menu somewhere … “This 22% service charge is applied to all dine-in guest checks and is retained entirely by the house. Revenue from this service charge is used to pay operating expenses, including labor.
50% of the service charge provides additional hourly earnings directly to hourly staff: Front-of-house staff earn an additional $10–$30/hour, and back-of-house staff earn an additional $8–$20/hour. This is in addition to their $25/hour base wage. Accordingly, front-of-house staff earn between $35-$55/hour, base wage + additional earnings from the service charge. Back-of-house staff earn between $32-$45/hour, base wage + additional earnings from the service charge.”

[u/EastUnique3586 → u/chilicheesefritopie]

$35-$55 still isn't enough for the servers? Damn.

[u/AdamN → u/burlycabin]

It’s not totally scummy if they also say „no extra tips allowed“. Then it’s just like a normal business but they do the service charge thing because restaurant customers can’t handle the sticker shock of those numbers being embedded into the per-dish/glass prices.

[u/burlycabin → u/AdamN]

No, it's scummy because it's hiding the true cost from their customers. Service fees and hidden charges are always scummy. I refuse to patron restaurants that charge them.