Posts tagged restaurant industry
Opinion This Labor Day, Respect the Right to Join (or Not) a Union
September 8, 2026 // In that scenario, regulators should consider holding a new vote on whether current workers want a union. While it would be legal for the earlier group’s vote to bind the new hires, it may not be fair because the new workers may have a different opinion. This needs to be resolved before the union is established. Federal law has long been stacked against workers who seek to decertify unions that don’t represent their interests because that decertification has to be done through the union itself. Unsurprisingly, many unions will oppose their own members in these situations. If the workers are truly united in favor of a union, they will get one eventually. And if they aren’t united in favor of one, that wish should be respected, too. It should be the workers’ choice, after all.
The Faster Labor Contracts Act would force workers into unions they never voted for
June 4, 2026 // The retail, leisure, and hospitality sectors, by contrast, are traditionally harder for unions to organize because the workers who would back a union are also less likely to stick around. That’s why the unions want contract deadlines to apply to all negotiations, not just cases in which companies may be deliberately delaying things. Unions might otherwise find themselves in a “herding cats” situation because workers are constantly coming and going.
What a possible $25 D.C. minimum wage could mean for the region’s restaurant industry
March 11, 2026 // In D.C., Clower believes a significantly higher minimum wage would have a “net negative impact on employment.” He pointed to factors like federal worker and contractor reductions, immigration actions and waning tourism already hitting the restaurant and hospitality industries hard. “All of these other things have been hitting particularly restaurants and some of the other hospitality sectors who on average pay minimum wage already, and this is just going to be something else that will drive some of them out of business,”
Union says restaurant group is blocking service staff from unionizing in DC
May 4, 2025 // Standing alone outside The Occidental, while holding a whiteboard alleging “paid actors” were among protestors, Anne Marie Henderson told passersby that those on the picket line did not work at the restaurant. “We’re fine the way we are … we don’t want a union. We are not mistreated here, it’s not terrible work conditions. There’s not a late paycheck,” Henderson, who identified herself as a receptionist working with the restaurants, said. Henderson expressed confusion about the protest outside the restaurant, as she claims, no one among the restaurant staff has expressed interest in unionizing.
OPINION: Restaurants get a preview of regulation under Trump
December 18, 2024 // Under McFerran’s leadership, the board also greatly altered the organizing process. Previously, employees had to request permission from the NLRB for a vote on unionizing. Now a shop is assumed to be unionized if a majority of the workers so much as express a preference for union representation. A vote is held only if the employer seeks it as a way of keeping the union out. And if the NLRB decides the business is trying to nudge workers toward a "No" vote, it can scrap the election and recognize the union with a vote never being held.
Georgia Today: Waffle House workers try to unionize; Chatham County DA race; Ocmulgee Mounds park
May 3, 2024 // Workers attachment to the system and commitment to tip earning, is exponentially higher in the fine dining sector, where menu prices are higher, and tips are higher too. Amanda Andrews: But a 20% tip on the Waffle House All Star special is just $2.30. Goldberg says the instability of the restaurant industry in general is another reason wages are low.
Oregon sees record-high unionization
October 9, 2023 // what’s happening here in Oregon is a little different: it’s driven by independent unions. Rather than join AFL-CIO, SEIU or other big unions, some Oregon workers are taking a “grow your own” approach to unionizing. Local chain Burgerville’s independent union, Burgerville Workers Union, won federal recognition in 2018 and signed its first contract in 2021. Seeing Burgerville’s success in organizing without the resources of a bigger union inspired workers at Voodoo Doughnut.
A FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND UNION RAMPS UP EFFORTS TO SWEEP THE SOUTH
August 30, 2023 // The Union of Southern Service Workers began making headlines last fall after formally christening themselves during a rally in Columbia, South Carolina. This union holds some familiar attributes, given that it began as an offshoot of Raise Up, the Southern leg of the SEIU’s Fight for $15 initiative. Yet this is no ordinary effort by the SEIU, for the USSW purports to not only be “built by and for low-wage workers” but also stretches across many industries. A key distinction: The union frames itself as a cross-sector organization, designed to retain members even if they job-hop between industries, i.e., fast food, retail, hotel, nursing home, warehouses, etc.
Push in states for $20 minimum wage as inflation persists
March 30, 2023 // Cindy Lee, the owner of a bowling alley in Endicott, New York, said she’s struggling to pay off loans taken out during the pandemic that kept her business afloat. “All this cost all at once is just going to kill us. I definitely will have to cut corners somewhere with employees if wages are raised,” said Lee, adding that she’d also have to increase prices on bowling, food and liquor. The federal minimum wage in the United States has stayed at $7.25 per hour since 2009, but states and some localities are free to set higher amounts. Thirty states have chosen to do so.
Op-ed: Proposed ‘FAST Act’ directly assaults CA’s restaurant industry
August 8, 2022 // Assembly Bill 257 – known as the “FAST Act” – has been pushed through the legislative process under the guise of helping California workers in the counter-service restaurant community. If enacted, the bill – sponsored by the Service Employees International Union – would set aside existing labor laws in favor of new rules developed and enforced by 13 unelected political appointees with zero oversight. In short, the FAST Act will take away great jobs for workers, harm consumers, raise prices, stifle competition, diminish entrepreneurship and create layers of unnecessary bureaucracy – all because of a false narrative. limited-service restaurant industry, unelected statewide council, wage and hour violations, California Restaurant Association