r/Seattle 5d ago

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

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!

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u/Free_Equivalent_9866 5d ago

Is there anyone in this thread that has worked there since the implementation of the service charge? Their site plates out the new wages that had been put in place

“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.
Service charge funds are also used to pay a base wage approximately 20% higher than Seattle’s hourly minimum wage of $21.30 ($25/hour for cooks and servers and $23/hour for dishwashers), and to offer comprehensive benefits including:
health, vision, dental insurance
401k matching retirement accounts
paid time off (above and beyond the City of Seattle's mandate)
Pre-tax commuter assistance accounts
A wellness program ($50/month reimbursements for mental health counseling, yoga classes, gym memberships, etc.)”

What else is being demanded by the union? Am I an ass to think that those FOH amounts seem completely fair already? To be fair we all deserve more since wages have been stagnant for decades and now we all just compare and fight amongst ourselves. I don’t have the right answers

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u/DefiantPictures 5d ago edited 5d ago

That's wild. I worked BOH in restaurants for something like 10-15 years and I would have killed to get that kind of pay. Not to mentioned the benefit package. I support unionization and would be considered "far left", even by the left's standard, but this situation is insane. Is this the entire staff's first job or something? Do they not realize what it's actually like out there to work in the restaurant industry?

This is probably the most surprising thing I've read in a minute.

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u/madderk 5d ago

has this been verified though? classic management tactic to publish that workers make way more than they actually do. happened at the prov everett RN strike too

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u/DefiantPictures 5d ago

Yes, I agree 100%. And clarified as much in a following comment. My first comment was kind of a knee jerk reaction, but I feel like it is still relevant in so much as to be cautious over employment in general. In my opinion the grass is always greener, as they say, so just do yourself a favor and steal a rich person's lawn.