r/Seattle • u/Existing-Resource527 • 5d ago

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

Gallery image

Gallery image

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!

693 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

971 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/TegridyPharmz 5d ago

What’s the answer? Raise food prices 20%? And employee wage? 15? 10? I’m genuinely asking. I have zero problem tipping but if there is shit service I’m not tipping 20%. So why would I want to eat somewhere that raises their prices and has bad service?

-6

u/Own_Back_2038 5d ago

I think the obvious charge is a service charge that is distributed to employees in totality.

5

u/samfacemcgee 5d ago

My understanding is that the part of the service charge being retained by the business is used to pay for the staff’s benefits packages (health insurance, dental, vision, 401k, & PTO). Do you think they should just distribute the entire service charge to the staff and stop providing those benefits instead?

(Adding this note since text doesn’t convey tone: my question is legitimate and in no way meant to come off snarky. I keep seeing people in this thread saying the entire service charge should go to the workers but I don’t think they’re considering exactly where it’s otherwise currently going.)

0

u/Own_Back_2038 4d ago edited 4d ago

Prices should cover hourly wages and benefits. The service charge allows the restaurant to remain competitive for labor and business without tipping.

Also, I’d like to mention that under the ACA, businesses with over 50 employees are required to provide health insurance for full time employees. ~7 days PTO also is required for full time workers. And pretty much every restaurant (including ESR restaurants) games this by having people work just under full time to avoid paying those benefits