Singing a restaurant in New York is organizing with the IWW

This is a new campaign SITT-IWW, and more exciting, which was recently launched in New York. Workers of Ellen's Stardust Diner in Times Square came out publicly in late August 2016. This is known as Stardust Family United that these workers have réuni.es to respond to hazardous working conditions, arbitrary firings and harassment at work.

The restaurant is a popular tourist destination in the heart of Broadway and it is not uncommon for the client file extend to the other end of the block. The waiters and waitresses are singing theme songs, Popular Jazz and classical pieces by serving dinner style meals. Most employé.es are artists who often take holiday periods to work on Broadway shows and use the restaurant to pay their bills between performance. It is for this reason that much of the staff working there for years.

Or, earlier this year, the owner of Ellen's Stardust Diner brought in a new management company to manage the restaurant. This new administration immediately began to make changes that have resulted in life has become worse and worse for employé.es. for example, workers or workers with quitté.es the restaurant to attend a show or a tour were not rehired. Hours were cut so that the shifts began to be made understaffed and the administration refused to repair faulty equipment, and even if they were a danger. For example a grid for burgers giving electric shocks or a scene where the waiters and waitresses should sing, but is terribly unstable. But worst of all is that the administration began to make dismissals for a yes or a no. A server was fired because customers were able to leave without paying. Un.e bussperson was dismissed for picking up a drink on an empty table '' the wrong way '. These firings repetition, around one or two per week, terrorizing employé.es.

Push to end by the new working conditions, salarié.es the Stardust tried to contact several unions in the New York area, but the only one who took the time to seriously return their call was IWW. In the months that followed , the local branch of the New York City planned a series of organizational training for this committee workers train speed. Meetings between members of the IWW and Stardust salarié.es were also held to develop the application of direct action strategies to employé.es to achieve successful.

One of these actions was a “march on the boss” which took place at the end of August. The administration had confiscated the pot employé.es tips that were circulating between their performance. This was a significant part of income of the people assigned to the service and they and they perçurent this action as nothing less than free bullying. The waiters and waitresses reacted with a March on the boss of the most creative. After singing the musical My Hamilton shot to warm up and get clients to lift their ketchup bottles in the air in solidarity, 4 waiters and waitresses marched straight toward the floor manager to request that their tip jars are returned in their 24 hours. 5 hours later, they and they won their case.

The salarié.es officially announced their membership in the IWW few days later with a coordinated media campaign. A long article appeared in the New York Times and were followed by many others in the Broadway World, the Playbill, the Gothamist, the Eater and Jezebel to name a few. Following this public release, supports rang out from all sides. their ami.es, colleagues from the middle of the show, many artistic flavor recordings circulated on social networks.

The owner of Ellen's Stardust Diner, Ken Sturm against-attacked by launching a savage campaign of union-busting. He hired the aggressive Brent Yessin, a lawyer's union breaking that is recognized for its tours of the United States where he lauds the Right-To-Work. Team meetings, captive audiences as we say in the middle, as well as individual meetings were held with the people of service as those from the kitchen. Cooks were offered wage increases, but were threatened with immediate dismissal if they joined and the union. Anti-union literature was distributed, sometimes bordering on the ridiculous as the pamphlet entitled '' Did you know that Joe Hill was a murderer?’’. Despite the announcement to the media that he would sit down with the new union, the owner continued to ignore requests for meetings of syndiqué.es. A demonstration was held in front of the restaurant.

Next week, dismissals started up again. A clear attempt to get rid of the organizing committee. In less than 7 days, 15 people had lost their jobs. Workers began organizing daily basis symbolic pickets or union songs were sung and posters demanding justice were brandished. The Wobblies distributed informational pamphlets to people entering the restaurant and several finally decided to turn tail. When salarié.es were being fired in the middle of their shifts, they and they were welcomed with open arms by their fellow protester outside and inscribed on them a number (for example 9th 9th employé.es congédié.es) to commemorate the event. Methods employé.es by the administration only served to strengthen the will of the union to victory.

Stardust Family friendly United hired a lawyer in the IWW who agreed to support them in their efforts to file complaints against their boss to the National Labor Relations Board for fraudulent union election and seeking an injunction that would prevent future layoffs.

Although the campaign has so far been extremely hard, the moral remains high and the fight continues. Demonstrations continue daily. The media continue to cover events so that the sympathy for the United Stardust Family continues to grow. New employé.es hired to break the union demonstrate an interest of more and more for the organizing campaign. More than a dozen members of the Organizing Committee have already signed their little red card and values ​​put forward by the IWW made their long way in the artistic community in New York. New tactics are starting to be used such as phone-zap and sip-in, where ami.es and members of the local fill the restaurant during peak hours, but refuse to order, instead asking to speak to the managers and bosses to ask what they are negotiating with the union. The struggle continues!

Article written in English by Marianne LeNabat original language for the & rsquo; d & rsquo edition; fall of & rsquo; industrial worker, #1777 Volume 113 No4. Translated into French by x374166 x377109 and corrected by the Montreal Local of SITT-IWW Fight for Trade Union blog.