Diner's guide to working conditions of American restaurants
Restaurant Opportunities Center United publishes its 2011 edition of Diner's Guide to the Working Conditions of American Restaurants [PDF]
With over 10 million workers nationwide, the U.S. restaurant industry is oneof the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the American economy, even
during the current economic crisis. Unfortunately, despite the industry’s
growth, restaurant workers suffer under poverty wages and poor working
conditions. In particular, the industry suffers from:
1 LOW WAGES With a federal minimum wage of $2.13 for tipped workers
and $7.25 for non-tipped workers, the median wage for restaurant workers
is $8.90, just below the poverty line for a family of three. This means that
more than half of all restaurant workers nationwide earn less than the
federal poverty line.
2 NO PAID SICK LEAVE 90% of the more than 4,300 restaurant workers
surveyed by the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) report not having
paid sick leave, and two-thirds report cooking, preparing, and serving food
while sick, making sick leave for restaurant workers not only a worker rights
issue but a pressing concern in public health!
3 OCCUPATIONAL SEGREGATION Women, immigrants, and people
of color hold lower-paying positions in the industry, and do not have many
opportunities to move up the ladder. Among the 4,300 workers surveyed,
we found a $4 wage gap between white workers and workers of color, and
73% reported not receiving regular promotions on the job.
is there something like this for canada?
I dunno but
Numbers 1 and 2 sound right for Canada . Number three I couldn't tell you ....
Abolish restaurants.
Great site, CF. I've downloaded their other oeuvres (The Housing Monster and Work Community Politics War) for more leisurely reading later.
I scanned through the document but downloaded a PDF file for printing later.
So, what would replace restaurants? State-run foodservice operations?
Of course not. That would be socialism. Charity run soup kitchens. Standing room only.
Before food reaches a restaurant kitchen, it has to come from somewhere, and the working conditions of farm labour needs to be considered as well. I'm reading an article in a Toronto church paper (The Anglican) about the 20,000 Mexican farm workers that travel to Ontario every year - local churches try to make conditions better for them by providing help with transportation needs, translation services, and practical and personal matters.
In the 1960s one of my relatives worked alongside Mexican tobacco pickers on a huge farm in southern Ontario - he described conditions back then as "rough". I gather working conditions on farms for foreign labourers has improved, according to the article I am reading.
Thanks for your posts, lagatta. @Sven, in case it's not obvious from the zine's title, the premise is deliberately provocative. It's chief aim is not, in fact, to abolish any place where people can meet in public and eat, but to examine and analyze capitalism from a paridigmatic instance with which nearly everyone is familiar in some way: restaurants. It shows that the shitty conditions present at least to some degree in every single restaurant in existence is not just serial bad luck, but built in to the architechture of our society and how we define "restaurant." It's basically the same idea as when David Harvey asks "where does your breakfast come from?"
In short, the idea is not to abolish restaurants, but to abolish the way we currently conceive and practice them.
Fair enough -- but the new model of the restaurant would be, what, state-owned food outlets?
Ideally there'd be a massive unionization drive across the entire sector, followed by collective agreements to improve wages and working conditions, or else. Service sector industries have been getting away with murder and massive profits for decades. It's well past time for a re-balancing.
I think that's true for large chains but, in the USA, for example, there are over a half million restaurants, a significant percentage of which are one-shop operations and not necessarily making "massive profits". As an example, a woman who works with me jointly owns a sandwich shop with her husband. They barely get by paying the rent, property taxes, food, utilities, labor, etc. costs -- such that they essentially live off of her income and he makes nothing (and they have the debt of the restaurant, so they can't just walk away unless they want to also walk away from their house). Double their labor costs and they, along with tens of thousands of other restaurants, would be out of business (and employees who were making a low wage -- most of whom are kids -- would be making no wages). So, would you envision having a requirement where all foodservice employees, whether at a chain or a one-shop operation, would be required to be paid a unionized wage?
Maybe that's the right thing to do. But, with the youth (ages 16 - 24 years) unemployment rate at 50% right now, that would just futher spike unemployment, no?
Yeah, societies with high levels of unionization suffer chronic massive unemployment.
As for your sandwich shop friends, if they can't afford to buy labour at its proper price, they should do all the work themselves. That's what I do when I can't afford something. Or, they could hire some illegal immigrants and threaten to expose them if they don't work for real cheap. Please don't be shy to tell them you got this good free advice from me.
Since that's not possible, their shop would close.
Welcome to capitalism.
And no, we don't need laws forcing every employer to pay a union wage. We need (or rather, you in the U.S. desperately need) a legislative regime which favours unionization of all workers who wish to unionize. Then, if mom and pop have to shut down shop, too fucking bad. They can go out and get one of those luxurious union jobs.
But this too is a direct result of laizze-faire Capitalism, which inexorably leads to the worst possible environment for workers and unemployed job seekers alike. The example you use highlights a problem with licensing mechanisms, de-regulation in other words, leading to oversupply. In Italy for instance just about every service sector niche is unionized. A prospective cab driver must obtain permission from both the municipality and the union to make sure demand will accommodate another cab on the streets, and to ensure the prospective business doesn't run the risk of taking food from the mouths of the existing cab workers. The reason why there are more food stamp recipients in the US today than ever before is because far too many people, including those with full time work, simply don't make enough money to feed their families while maintaining a roof. Consumerism in the US is being sacrificed for maximizing profit on the backs of the working poor, largely as a result of globalization that is cultivating previously untapped sources of consumerism among manufacturing sector workers elsewhere.
Unforunately, we're already moving towards chain-only restaurants. This would certainly speed up that process...as those would largely be the only restaurants left.
I don't believe the interests of workers and small business owners are irrevocably irreconcilable.
But, if I'm wrong, I have absolutely no doubt whose side I'm on.
The good news is that, historically, the small owners who inevitably go belly up end up in the working class. So it's all love and kisses in the end.
I seriously doubt that. The only white food restaurants, maybe. But even then all you have to do is drive outside of city limits and poof.... no more chains.
Speaking of which, there was a great art/museum exhibit here some years back about the Chinese restaurant which could be found in every prairie town.
http://www.hillmanweb.com/tam/
and @ Unionist
No, I don't think you're wrong at all.
Two days ago... Migrant worker killed in eastern Ontario farm accident. Thirteenth time this year in Ontario alone.
If what those "mom and pop" businesses have for competition are businesses paying living wages then it is obvious they are extremely bad business people if they can't figure out how to charge prices that are competitive with the union shops and make a living wage themselves.
However even good business people have a tough time competing against exploited labour and the small owner ends up either exploiting or working for close to the same as the exploited workers. Enforced employment standards laws are the key to making the money flow in a capitalist economy. Without regulations that deal with the minimums of wages and benefits that all employers must pay you get a cutthroat ugly society.
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Fact is, people who want to go for the cheap are going to go for the cheap. An extension to that is these big chains going after each other by forcing 24-hour serviice, even in big box stores.
There is no competing with that. What really makes the difference is quality, good service, and supporting the community, and sticking to one's guns when it comes to that.
How about the rest of the province? All those towns that are not on the prairies did they have Chinese restaurants? Is there a list of towns, in the three provinces directly east of the Continental Divide, that fall under the term prairie town?
Ah.... you got me there.
Could mods merge this thread with the no evolution on the prairies thread? Merci.
... but some mighty fine breakfasts to be had, so long as you don't make the mistake of going to the lounge. Those guys can fuck up a fried egg.
Regarding working conditions, a friend of mine who is in the industry pointed out to me a few years ago that addiction and hard living is as much a part of the evening restaunt lifestyle as it is for touring musicians.