So I have been out of work for several years due to being a single parent with no childcare. Now that my daughter is in kindergarten, I have gotten a regular job as a dishwasher at a non-chain restaurant. The 2 owners are also chefs and they work literally right beside me. But there are 27 other employees who are not owners and thus are being exploited. Everyone’s general mindset there is benefitting the company as much as possible. They associate success of the business with the potential for pay raises, promotions, etc.

My mindset is a communist worker working directly alongside the people exploiting everyone else’s labor. It’s important to note the owners in this establishment don’t do nothing at all, they are the head chefs and do a lot of work every day, but I can’t ignore the fact that they tale home the majority of the profits while everyone else is beholden to a standard hourly wage ($12/hr)

My problem is I am very unfamiliar with the restaurant industry and its relation to labor organizing. Are unions a thing in restaurants? Is it more risky to approach labor organizing when the owner is part of that labor? Am I looking at this from an entirely wrong angle?

I’m just not sure what steps, if any, I should consider here. I spend all day listening to Marxist theory through headphones while washing dishes, but I can’t figure out how to approach this situation. Please give me some starting points if you can. It’s also probably relevant to note that I work in a state with Right To Work and At Will Employment laws

  • @CommunistWolf
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    31 year ago

    In the US, something like 3% of “food service” positions are unionised. It’s not great.

    Maybe think about what you want to achieve. Pay increase? Profit share? A change in working conditions? Seize the business and convert it into a worker’s co-operative? There’s not a lot of point in trying to organise if you don’t have an overall goal in mind.

    Once you have that nailed down for yourself, you can (carefully) sound out your co-workers and see if they like, or can be persuaded to be sympathetic to, those goals. Do a lot of listening too - they might want to change things you hadn’t thought of, and they may well have better ideas than you.

    Once you’ve done all that, you’ll probably have enough information to conclude that there’s not a cat’s chance in hell of pulling off a successful unionisation. If you see green shoots of hope, thought, you can go looking for help to get it done. https://unitehere.org/organize-a-union/ maybe - TBH I don’t know a lot about US unions.

    • @aleshasmilesOP
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      21 year ago

      So ideally I would love to see the restaurant operated as a co-op, or at least implementing profit share, then I could honestly feel good about supporting the business and sharing everyone else’s mindset that what’s good for the business is good for the workers. But I fear I’m aiming too high with that perspective, if that makes sense. I don’t know if I’m being defeatist and assuming too much negativity, but given the average worker’s opinions of free markets versus collectivism, I’m afraid my coworkers wouldn’t like the way I’m looking at it. And they already have their mentality invested in the business anyway. Plus, I fear I could get in trouble if my boss got wind of it, because he owns the company and literally works right beside me every day. There’s no way he would like hearing the new hire day dreaming about “siezing” his business. Maybe I’m just making too many assumptions because I don’t know my boss or my coworkers very well on a personal level yet, this is only my third week working there. I’m just trying to keep a radical perspective going forward so I don’t become completely complacent with selling my labor to a capitalist, as well as learning more about this industry in general. It’s quite obvious that food service is generally hostile to workers and there are multiple levels of challenges to navigate in this realm.

  • @Idliketothinkimsmart
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    21 year ago

    Hmm, I was (still kinda am sorta) in a somewhat similar predicament. My bosses were stealing quite a bit of money from me (timesheet manipulation and some fucky stuff with OT). I would suggest you reach out to local Law Caucuses, Socialist & Communist Parties, worker advocacy groups, etc. in your area, even if they’re pretty far away. 27 employees sounds like quite a lot of people to keep track off on your own. Trying to organize by yourself is going to be quite a headache. Not to say that you shouldn’t do it, but just keep in mind that it’s going to take a lot of agitation from you to your coworkers…Obviously, tailor how you do that according to your own relationship with the coworkers.

    I kinda lucked out because I have a friend who was in a Law caucus, and we met through the party! Just having someone who could walk me through my rights and all the legal paperwork was so immensely helpful. It’s an active process still, but I would not have made it this far without the party!

    In the meantime, really build camaraderie with your coworkers. Unions in restaurants are pretty rare tbh. 10% of the country is unionized, and with the restaurant industry, it was always my impression that jobs were so transitory that it was hard to even get people into the idea of unionizing. That being said, it doesn’t hurt to try. A lot of this would depend on how well you know your coworkers and vice versa…find collective grievances to point out to them, but do it in a graceful way. Anyway, I hope that was somewhat helpful! I’m rooting for you :)