From the hard-lessons-in-economics-for-liberals desk
In other words: re-open an unproductive business, pay us more, or else!
TL;DR
-Restaurant is struggling to break even. Owners begin double dipping into employee salaries to pay expenses.
-Employees go on strike because they aren't getting paid on time, decide to bolster their argument by adding on some other demands and claim some gender pay gap.
-Restaurant owners say f*ck it and close up shop.
Must not have been that amazing...
Quote:Quote:To me, it sounds like the business was barely keeping itself afloat and was probably a money hole. I doubt they were making that much anyway.
Amazing Cafe in Pittsburgh permanently closed after workers participate in one-day strike
Sunday, May 21, Reyes and his co-workers had had enough. According to Reyes, after several weeks of the cafe being understaffed and management failing to deliver paychecks on time and to properly communicate with employees, the workers at Amazing Cafe staged a one-day strike in hopes of getting the owners to the negotiating table. They sent an email to the owners, Sean and Karen Conley, and posted a letter on the door on the night of May 20, explaining the reasoning behind their one-day strike and informing the owners that they would be back to work on May 22. The Conleys also own the adjoining Amazing Yoga studio in the South Side, as well as three other yoga studios in Allegheny County.
The letter read in part: “We are going on strike to address the rise in unfair working conditions and discrimination in restaurants across the country, including at Amazing Cafe. … We appreciate your efforts to create a fair work environment and ask for a meeting to discuss additional steps that can be taken to improve working conditions and protect workers who are the target of discrimination.”
Reyes says the strike was meant to put added pressure on the owners to meet with him and his co-workers to hash out workplace issues. “We decided to [strike] because no one would talk to us or try to come up with a solution to our work predicament,” says Reyes. “None of us are disgruntled workers. They just had to meet us face to face, we all just wanted to talk to them.”
However, Reyes says the owners responded that same day saying the restaurant would be closed indefinitely, and when Reyes and other co-workers arrived on May 22, the locks had been changed and were greeted by a sign that read, “We are closed. Sorry for the inconvenience, - Amazing Cafe.”
[...]
Reyes doesn’t buy the financially motivated reasoning for why the owners decided to close down. He says “business was consistently picking up” since he started working there two years ago. Reyes says on a typical weekend day, the restaurant would pull in at least $2000, and weekdays averaged between $500-$700 in sales.
“It is not financial, they are doing this because of the strike,” says Reyes.
Quote:Quote:
Romanus says the workers delivered a “demand letter” to the owners at their Shadyside Amazing Yoga studio on May 23, and if they don’t comply within 48 hours, ROC Pittsburgh will help the workers file an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB. Romanus says that while this is the first time ROC Pittsburgh has seen an employer just “shut down” when accused of wrongdoing, this is not surprising behavior for restaurant owners.
“It tells you what employers think of the workers in the restaurant industry,” says Romanus. “They view them as disposable.”
Reyes says he had hoped to discuss several issues of workplace treatment at Amazing Cafe, including proper staffing, lunch breaks, improved communication between staff and management, and pay equity.
“All the girls make substantially less than I do, but they do just as much if not more work,” says Reyes, who is 30 and has been working in the restaurant industry since he was a teenager.
In other words: re-open an unproductive business, pay us more, or else!
TL;DR
-Restaurant is struggling to break even. Owners begin double dipping into employee salaries to pay expenses.
-Employees go on strike because they aren't getting paid on time, decide to bolster their argument by adding on some other demands and claim some gender pay gap.
-Restaurant owners say f*ck it and close up shop.
Must not have been that amazing...