Restaurant, Hotel, and Building Service Workers I.U. 640

This page displays *all* news items from Restaurant, Hotel, and Building Service Workers Industrial Union 640.

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ABOLISH RESTAURANTS - a worker's critique of the food service industry

Posted Tue, 09/26/2006 - 12:19pm by x344543

Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.

Furthermore, the IWW doesn't necessarily agree with the authors' ultra-left dogmatism.  The abolition of restuarants (in favor of community kitchens, perhaps)  could be the long term results of abolition of wage slavery, but in the meantime, as long as restuarants continue to exist, the IWW will open its doors to restaurant workers seeking to form One Big Union.

ABOLISH RESTAURANTS - a worker's critique of the food service industry

Workers at a Chicago Starbucks are following workers in New York to unionize

Posted Fri, 09/15/2006 - 3:15pm by x344543
IWW Barista Joe Tessone and University of Illinois Professor Bob Bruno comment on the expansion of the Starbucks Workers Union to Chicago. Watch online at http://www.firstbusinessx.com/features/0609/0912feature.html.

Hospitality Workers Fight Back - Waiters' Tip Fight Grows

Posted Fri, 09/15/2006 - 2:50pm by x344543

Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.

By Betsy Schiffman, AP Business Writer - Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Waiting tables is a stressful job and sometimes not even lucrative, given servers' sticky reliance on tips for income.

In some states, restaurants are only legally required to pay as little as $2 or $3 an hour. So if a server earns $30 in tips on a bad night, he could feasibly walk out having earned less than minimum wage after tipping out the bartender and busboys (a common practice in most restaurants).

Restaurant workers fired after May Day protest

Posted Fri, 05/05/2006 - 3:20pm by x344543

A group of Tracy restaurant workers were fired this week after they failed to show up for work to protest against tougher immigration laws.

Fernando Martinez, a kitchen supervisor at Chevy’s Fresh Mex restaurant near West Valley Mall, said four others at the popular Mexican restaurant also have left their jobs after eight of their co-workers were dismissed.

“No one’s going to stay knowing that the whole team got fired,” he said.

Martinez, who said he was still employed at Chevy’s as of Wednesday, spoke on behalf of his co-workers, who risked their jobs when they went to Stockton on Monday to protest proposed changes in national immigration law.

The people who were fired, including cooks — prep cooks and dishwashers — said through an interpreter that they are all legal residents and had asked for the day off so they could join the protest in Stockton that drew an estimated 10,000 people.

Organizing McDonalds and Starbucks

Posted Thu, 03/23/2006 - 11:49am by x344543

Reposted from Labourstart.Org.

Last week we urged all of you to send off messages in support of the heroic effort by a plucky New Zealand union to organize workers at McDonalds -- and we mentioned their high-profile strike at Starbucks as well.

We have been asked to clarify that (a) in several European and Latin American countries, strong union movements have succeeded in organizing McDonalds, and (b) in Canada, an effort was made to unionize Starbucks by the Canadian Auto Workers, leading to a well-publicized 'unstrike' back in 1999.

That having been said, McDonald's must surely be on the top of everyone's list who is concerned about the growth of the non-union, low-paid workforce -- which is why we all need to send off thousands more messages to McDonald's in New Zealand in support of the Super Size My Pay campaign:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=80