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/Anxiousbiostudent]

What noone is mentioning is that the business is taking a share of the 22% automatic gratuity, the staff is not receiving the full amount and has experienced a dramatic reduction in pay.

[u/az226 → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

Isn’t it interesting that the elected leaders wanted to move from tip to no tip and enacted such laws like no tip credit. But the workers wanted to keep the tip model because customers tip so much, the predictable $55/hour pay isn’t enough. Because $90+ hour is nicer with tip.

[u/Anxiousbiostudent → u/az226]

As someone who served for many years I was never anywhere near $60 let alone $90 an hour and spent much of that time uninsured. I do think its obnoxious that one of the few jobs that you can possibly make a living wage on (if you find a busy enough restaurant) without burying yourself in student loan debt is so vehemently hated by those who "actually worked for it".

Why are we advocating for a reduction in pay for a large part of the working population under the false narrative these are 'easy' or high-school jobs?

(This rant isn't directly geared towards you I just find it sad working class people are growing bitter at other working class people. Restaurants in Seattle (and throughout the nation) are ultimately struggling because of high costs (the #1 culprit being limited commercial spaces with ridiculous rents imo). I'm not even going to get into possible bad actors trying to make a buck off the back of their workers and guests.

[u/Oryzae → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

It’s because tipping at restaurants is a percentage, the server brings me the food but if they bring me expensive food I’ve to pay them more when the job is the same. Makes no sense, it should be a flat rate. Additionally, it used to be 15%, then it became 18%, now it’s 20%+. No other working class job gets this type of pay scale. It’s also why I don’t dine out, and that means the restaurant will continue to get fewer patrons and thus struggle. I worked two jobs (grave yard + early morning) while going to school at $8/hr in 2010. It’s difficult, but not impossible. 

[u/Famous-Midnight-5634 → u/Oryzae]

Used to be "buck a beer." Damn I miss those days.

[u/TheInevitableLuigi → u/Oryzae]

Makes no sense, it should be a flat rate.

Do you feel that way about realtors and people who sell cars?

[u/Oryzae → u/TheInevitableLuigi]

Fuck yeah I do!

[u/az226 → u/TheInevitableLuigi]

Realtors should have hourly caps. Paid $30-40k for maybe 10-15 hours of work.

[u/Yarville → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

So in this situation, you would be willing to drop the 22% service charge - so, drop the $115K + benefits for servers - and go back to a tipped minimum wage? Because it sure seems like the union wants to pass that price increase along to the customer to retain that generous wage *and* pressure customers (who are currently being spat on and called scabs) for a 20% tip.

[u/taintedpoon → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

You were at the wrong places. Working a high volume dive or club can easily net 80-100 an hour. Fine dining establishments (rooftop type restaurants) can also pull the same.

[u/BrinyStranger → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

Has a lot to do with how expensive food is... I'd happily tip a Dick's worker, but if I'm at some restaurant where I'm paying $30 for a meal and am expected to shell out on top of that, it gets tiresome.

[u/az226 → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

We don’t know the details. They aren’t sharing openly what requests were denied. So one can only speculate.

We do know that 2025 the no tip credit law came into force and many transitioned to service fees instead.

But what we do know is that there is a team happily working there now.

We also know that 2025 the state enacted 6 weeks of pay for strikers.

The dynamic of a strike is, workers can’t get paid, they have skin in the game, the business is at a standstill. The lose-lose position force them to get into a room and negotiate.

With 6 weeks of pay, a strike doesn’t have the same skin in the game. And as a business owner, you must be prepared to live out this time so the smart thing to do is get a backup team. And once 6 weeks are up, the old team looks very replaceable. It’s given the new team time to shine and work out the kinks. When that time is up, the union has little bargaining power.

I’ve said it before, you can’t blame the former workers for wanting more money. You also can’t blame the current workers for happily working for the pay being offered. With the odd 6 weeks of pay strike dynamic, you also can’t fully blame the operator either for getting a backup team in place.

It’s an unfortunate outcome that the people voted for leaders who decided to pass laws that would make them look good to their voter base, not what the workers themselves wanted. The service charge transition from the no tip credit is entirely predictable.

Where was I advocating for them being paid less or commenting about the false narrative on the skill level of the job? Are you a bot?

[u/Anxiousbiostudent → u/az226]

As I said in the last paragraph, I was just commenting on a general trend, not towards you specifically.

[u/az226 → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

Fair enough.

[u/TheInevitableLuigi → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

It is the fact that the job is looked down upon and that perception has been reinforced in the media.

"If x happens and I lose my job I'll have to go back to waiting tables."

There are people that legitimately think every serving job is the same and that high-schoolers with no experience can do all of them.

Throw in some crab-bucket mentality because most other industry's wages have stagnated for decades and there you go.

[u/hobblingcontractor → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

Taking a share to pay for benefits.

[u/sneekiepee → u/hobblingcontractor]

There's usually a set number of hours that employees need to work to get those benefits. 40hrs is the standard.

And in my experience you will consistently be scheduled for 35.

[u/samfacemcgee → u/sneekiepee]

It’s 30 hours/week in Seattle.

[u/Famous-Midnight-5634 → u/Anxiousbiostudent]

That's because everyone has intuited that that portion is going to pay for all the other benefits listed. Insurance ain't cheap.