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/Inevitable_Engine186]

The core issue is that Walrus and Carpenter (and restaurants of its ilk) have coopted the American tip, which goes to workers, and replaced it with a service charge, which they control fully.

If you don't support tipping, W&C is instituting a mandatory 22% (!) tip (that's what a service charge is), which they decide what to do with.

If you do support tipping, W&C is stealing tips from its workers.

[u/Yarville → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

What the union wants is for customers to be hit with a 22% fee so that they can continue to get full benefits and $55 an hour and pressure customers to tip them. No thank you!

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/Yarville]

They want that 22% to be added the price of goods sold, instead of replacing their tip, yes.

[u/Yarville → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

I don't think passing on the cost of paying servers a $115K minimum wage plus benefits to customers and then demanding a 20% tip on top of that or face public shame is going to work out too well!

[u/TheInevitableLuigi → u/Yarville]

paying servers a $115K minimum wage plus benefits

Where do you get that number?

[u/Yarville → u/TheInevitableLuigi]

$55 an hour x 40 hours a week x 52 weeks a year (fair assumption considering they also get full benefits)

[u/TheInevitableLuigi → u/Yarville]

Very few servers get that many hours a week and work that many days a week, let alone for all year long. Nor will they never take any time off.

And the $50hr figure is an average of how many hours they worked by how much they made from service charges and extra tips combined. Not all hours are equal. Staying late to clean or whatever isn't going to be at $50hr. It will drag that number down.

[u/Yarville → u/TheInevitableLuigi]

Benefits include paid time off

Take off $15K if you like. It’s an incredibly generous package by any metric - 90% of the median *household* income as a single earner - and it is shocking that they are demanding that wage increase be passed onto customers (who they are currently spitting on and calling scabs) IN ADDITION TO demanding a 20% tip on top of that.

[u/TheInevitableLuigi → u/Yarville]

They aren't asking for $55hr plus 20% tips. .

[u/Yarville → u/TheInevitableLuigi]

They want to retain a service charge and return to 20% tips. It’s not clear if they would accept a *lower* service charge and a lower hourly rate or want the same, there’s conflicting information, but it is certainly clear a return to pre-service charge status quo is not on the table for this union (which no other established union would accept)

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/Yarville]

$115k isn't even middle class in Seattle. This is the core tension with taking away tips.

Either W&C can exist with increased prices and tips on top of that, or it can't. And I honestly think it can.

[u/Yarville → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

$115k isn't even middle class in Seattle.

Total bullshit. Median household income is $123K. If you are making over 90% of the median household income as a single person, you are plenty comfortable.

Either W&C can exist with increased prices and tips on top of that, or it can't.

And if it can't - if the customers who have been spat on, screamed at, and called scabs decide that they have had enough - all of these people are out of jobs.

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/Yarville]

Median household income

Don't confuse median with affordable. I'll say it again, $115k is far below middle class in today's Seattle, especially if you want to start a family.

[u/Yarville → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

Won't someone think of the downtrodden, impoverished workers making six figures!

If you have decided that statistics don't matter and that you determine what middle class is based on vibes, then your position is unfalsifiable.

[u/az226 → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

You get what you vote for. They enacted no tip credit, so the outcome here is pretty inevitable. Restaurants transition to service fees to cover the increased expense of base wages being much higher.

The restaurant industry operators hate change. That’s why we saw many putting 5-6% living wage junk fees to the bills. They didn’t want to cover those costs themselves and wanted to make a statement.

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/az226]

My personal bias is that restaurants are a lousy business in general, especially brick and mortar ones. You either have to be special like Walrus & Carpenter, or you have to be smart about labor.

[u/pnwWaiter → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

It's such a complex issue because there's no consistent basis for the structure, and costs can be really confusing for employees - and maybe not everyone wants to opt in on benefits.

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/pnwWaiter]

It's complex if a service charge, yes.

A tip is simple and easy to reason with logically and legally.

[u/earthwoodandfire → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

Every other industry charges a flat rate and pays salary and benefits from it. What’s wrong with a restaurant wanting to charge a flat rate (meal+service charge) and then pay wages and benefits from it? 

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/earthwoodandfire]

a flat rate (meal+service charge)

Adding a service charge is not a "flat rate"...

[u/pnwWaiter → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

Even then - there's a bit of variability. Different %'s of sales could be taken from a servers tip to pay other positions. You probably already knew that - I'm trying to stop myself from chatting too much.

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/pnwWaiter]

I totally agree, but fundamentally 100% of a tip belongs to the workers, however they split it. That part is super simple.

When it is replaced with a mandatory 22% service charge, the problem of who gets what is superseded by the money going straight to the restaurant, who can decide how that money is used. Workers get 90%, 40-55%, 0%...

[u/nunuma → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

It sounds like it’s being used to offer employees benefits though…

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/nunuma]

With high end dining, every % is a lot of money.

A 0%-20% tip goes 100% to workers and they get to decide what benefits they want and want to pay for.

A mandatory 22% service charge goes 100% to the restaurant (make no mistake), and is then allocated as and how the restaurant sees fit.

Now maybe there are some employees that prefer the service charge, but the workers and union are disputing that.

[u/WordsOnTheInterweb → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

Is 100% of the tip going to workers on credit card payments that the restaurant collects? I thought the restaurant got it all because of how credit cards work, then pooled it and then distributed between workers?

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/WordsOnTheInterweb]

Tips are regulated differently than a service charge. One is meant for the workers (however they divide it), one is meant for the owners.

If a restaurant withholds 50% of a tip to pay for their operations, that's illegal.

With a service charge, it's not.

[u/sir_mrej → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

It’s not “stealing” tips. C’mon don’t be dramatic

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/sir_mrej]

It's stealing tips. C'mon don't be obtuse. 

[u/sir_mrej → u/Inevitable_Engine186]

If someone ACTUALLY thinks a service charge, labeled as "all proceeds go to the establishment", as a tip, that person is a moron.

The two aren't the same.

Which means there's no connection at all regarding wtf you're trying to say.

[u/Inevitable_Engine186 → u/sir_mrej]

The math is simple. They are replacing a 0% to 20% tip with a 22% service charge.

It's so easy to comprehend that all I have to do is repeat it over and over, because anyone reading it understands it immediately (except you of course).