this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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Lol, im not an owner dingus.
Ive worked basically every position from busser and expo all the way to exec chef and gm and am currently a bartender. I can sayy with first hand knowledge that wages go down when switched from a tipped system to a non tipped system.
I guess first hand knowledge of the industry counts for nothing when a bunch of tech bros on lemmy know more than me.
Edit: makes me sad that people who want worker reform would want to support owner suppression of wages.
I know it doesnt fit your neat little box, but it is facts.
So go ahead and explain exactly where thr money is lost. Does the restaurant make less money now? Is an owner incapable of paying their employees the equivalent of what they made with tips?
You said you know all of this so intimately, so lay it out for us idiots.
Ok, I'll lay out for all of you idiots.
In our current system, customers almost directly pay wages for servers and chefs, and it stays tied to menu prices. Thus, wages go up when prices go up.
In this suggested system, you trust the ownership class to raise wages for some reason because that works fantastically in the United States.
Im not sure why you're suggesting that because the capitalist class will always, always, always bleed whatever they can dry. You know that, i know that the railworkers in the us know that.
Like come on, use your tiny tiny brain that apparently can't multiple 50 times .2 and think about this for a second. This will and has absolutely led to wage suppression because they will absolutely not raise wages once they are set.
It's crazy to me that so many people on a sub called "work reform" are advocating for the ownership class and lowering wages. Like, why do you think we're all here????
Fuck.
The ideal situation would be unions, but no one here has suggested that for some reason, maybe its because no one in this conversation, with the exception of myself, has ever stepped foot onto a restaurant floor with intent to work outside of the one time they washed dishes at an applebees when they were 16.
I feel like im taking fuckin crazy pills with the amount of capitialist bullshit im reading here.
Whats wrong with all of you????
We aren't advocating for the owner class. We are not responsible for how ownership responds to our actions.
Just because an action might have negative effects for the works aside from the positives does not mean its a bad idea.
The whole point of this is to pressure the owner class to pay a fair wage to their employees. Of course the owner class will attempt to defend their position, which likely means putting their workers into undo hardship.
People are tired of playing games. Pay what someone is worth, and dont make them jump through hoops to get it.
People can't afford food anymore let alone the 18-25% tips on everything. It was easier before the recent insane rise of inflation, but the increase of food prices has applied to restaurants, too now since they need to buy the more expensive food plus make a profit. Or maybe they're just being greedy, too, idk. But point is, every place has seemed way too expensive to eat out at lately. That's before the tips. Then, adding on tips and having to do math at your meal every time when you're already stretching your budget every time you go out, plus suggested tips going up (from 15 to 18, to 20, to 22 and even higher now), and other countries not dealing with this, and I think it's making people even more tired of the tips bullshit.
People in the US are trained to think themselves as consumers before workers, which is a big problem, but in this case I think the aggravation is understandable. And it's weird they work different than basically every other industry. If wage suppression is a problem after, then they're just in the same boat as the rest of us, and we can all work on it together. Probably with unions.
People don't want to do math when they are going to get a food or beer, that's the owners job... Is it that hard to understand?