Open letter to Mattos Hospitality
The following letter was shared with Mattos Hospitality and the public after Lodi workers went public on
January 25, 2023.
Mattos Hospitality
131 Varick Street
New York, NY 10013
Lodi
1 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020
January 25, 2023
Mattos Hospitality and Lodi Management:
On behalf of the majority of the workers at Lodi, the Lodi Organizing Committee is serving notice that we have decided to unionize. We have chosen to be represented by the Restaurant Workers Union – Sindicato de Trabajadores de Restaurantes (RWU-STR), Local 1. Given that a 2/3 supermajority of workers (66%) have already signed union cards, we ask that you voluntarily recognize our union and begin bargaining with us in good faith. This would be the most friendly, painless, and efficient path forward. If we do not receive an affirmative reply by 7 pm on Friday, January 27, we will proceed with seeking a democratic election run by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). We look forward to your reply, and we hope to begin collective bargaining with you in the near future.
We expect Lodi management and Mattos Hospitality to respect our decision without interference, restraint, or coercion. Unionizing is a fundamental democratic right afforded to us by Sections 7 and 8(a)1 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Any illegal union-busting activity will be met with an appropriate response.
A majority of back-of-house workers have signed union cards, and a majority of front-of-house workers have signed union cards. Among the majority of Lodi workers who have signed union cards, there are dishwashers, bakers, prep cooks, line cooks, baristas, cashiers, barbacks, bartenders, hosts, servers, and server assistants. Every day and night we work together to produce and deliver the products that the customers purchase. We organize reservations, greet guests, and take them to their tables; we explain the menu, take orders, and pair food with wine; we make cocktails, pour wine, and make coffee drinks; we bake pastries, desserts, and bread; we prepare savory food which we then grill, roast, fry, assemble, and plate; we run the food to the tables and clear them; we wash dirty dishes, polish glassware, and clean the bathroom.
Although we each perform different specialized tasks, we work together in an organized manner in order to make and distribute the food and drink the restaurant sells to its customers. In this sense, the products of our labor are social products, made by many workers who labor together as if we were a single collective worker. Our work trains us daily for the unity and discipline required for the practical success of our union.
However, we who labor together every day have no voice when it comes to our working conditions and the share of wealth we produce. The fruits of our joint labor are ultimately at the disposal of a handful of ultra-wealthy speculators and rent-collectors, including direct investors, interest-collecting bankers, and Tishman Speyer, the landlord/investor that owns Rockefeller Center, with $56.8 billion in assets under management in 2020, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Few in this clique have worked a minute in a restaurant, but they have nevertheless helped themselves to a permanent seat at our table. Their profits are the last word when it comes to our wages, hours, and working conditions.
We are forming a union in order to transform this situation.
A union is the best defense of our economic and legal interests as workers. To those who say we can best improve our lives as workers without a union, we reply: the statistics don’t lie. According to 2021 US government Bureau of Labor Statistics report, unions raise wages for all workers, promote equal pay, increase worker health care and retirement security, and provide an advantage in terms of paid leave, scheduling fairness, worker safety/health, and increased financial security. The 2021 BLS statistics show the overwhelming advantages that unionized workers have compared with their non-union counterparts. To give one example that is relevant to our industry: in 2021, unionized workers of Latin-American background made an average 37% more than their non-unionized counterparts. If restaurant owners and management want workers to thrive in New York City, then they should support our unionizing efforts.
For the purpose of contract negotiations, each category of workers will propose job-specific demands they want to see realized in a final contract. But we have already been discussing our broad demands at weekly meetings attended by dozens of workers for the past five months. Among these demands:
Wage increases and improved benefits. A high wage is particularly important for non-tipped workers at Lodi. Some of us make as little as $18/hour, which is completely inadequate for living in New York City. For their part, tipped workers see wages plummet when sales are slow, and paid time off is $15/hour. We demand wage raises and improved benefits for every single worker at Lodi.
Cost-of-living adjustments (COLA). Inflation was 6.5% in 2022. When our wages stagnate or rise slower than inflation, this means our real wages – our ability to purchase the things we need to live – fall. Our real wages have fallen over the past year. We demand that our wages track inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Wage transparency for tipped workers. Currently, tipped workers have no access to the daily calculations that determine the distribution of tips. When there are buy-outs or other special events, we are not given a copy of the contract that specifies the fixed gratuity, which under Section 196(d) of New York Labor Law belongs entirely to tipped workers. We demand the right to review the tips we receive every day and for special events.
Consistent and advance-notice scheduling. Every seasonal downturn in business sees a lowering of hours for many of us. We depend on our paychecks to feed and house ourselves and our families. We suffer when our schedules are unpredictable and sent out at the last minute. We demand consistent schedules, provided well in advance, regardless of the level of sales.
Adequate staffing. When workers leave or are fired, they are often not replaced in a timely manner, if at all. Existing workers are then made to do the job that two workers did previously, with no increase in pay. The job duties of each category of worker are fluid, and some of us are forced to deal with an ever-increasing list of tasks. We demand that we work at a reasonable intensity of labor, which means the job duties of each position must be specified in advance and respected.
Adequate Training. Too many Lodi workers are poorly-trained, which puts a strain on both new workers and those who work with them. There are no training manuals, compensation for trainers, or testing of trainees. We demand that new hires be thoroughly trained and tested by paid trainers before they are scheduled to work on their own.
Provision of work tools. As things stand, Lodi workers have to purchase many of the tools we need to do our jobs, from knives to wine keys. Some of the tools that the restaurant does provide are unsafe or inadequate (for example, dull knives). We demand that all work tools be provided by the restaurant and that they be of sufficient quality.
Worker safety and health. In the past year, workers on the floor and in the kitchen have been badly injured, and the underlying causes have not been addressed. Enforcement of safety standards is low in many areas. We demand that worker safety and health be treated as a mandatory bargaining issue.
Democratic grievance and disciplinary procedures. At present, dealing with grievances and disciplining workers is the exclusive prerogative of management. Indeed, workers can be disciplined (in the form of a “write-up”) just for raising a grievance. We demand democratic grievance and disciplinary procedures that include workers at every step of the process, including the step of resolution.
“Just cause” termination. As is the case with all non-unionized workers in the US, Lodi workers are subject to the “at will” employment principle, which allows management to fire us for no reason, or even for a bad reason. We demand that management be required to demonstrate sufficient cause in order to discharge workers.
Limitation of management prerogatives. Today, management could decide to get rid of half the labor force without consequence, or demote a group of workers and lower their pay. We demand that certain decisions in the area of the employer-worker relationship, including suspensions, demotions, firing for cause, and lay-offs for economic reasons be treated as the subject of mandatory collective bargaining.
Finally, a word on RWU-STR.
Over the past half century, unions in restaurants have declined, and now nearly disappeared: 20% of restaurant workers belonged to unions in the 1950s, 8% in the 1970s, 5% in the 1980s, 2% in the 1990s, and 1.4% today. While the big unions certainly have deep pockets and a lot of experience, they have showed little interest over the past seven decades in organizing the restaurant sector – a few large chains excepted. The Covid Crisis of 2020 impacted restaurant workers severely. Many of us lost our jobs overnight and were left to fend for ourselves. Undocumented workers were reduced to begging for funds in churches, and workers without health insurance racked up steep hospital bills.
Thus it was up to us to organize our own ranks. The situation called for new ideas and a new path of struggle.
A few restaurant workers gathered and put out the call to form a democratic and independent union: the RWU-STR. The activities of RWU-STR are funded by its members, and there are currently no paid staff. If we are successful, Lodi will be the first restaurant to unionize with RWU-STR.
However, our goal is not simply to organize our own restaurant, but to participate in the long-term project of organizing the restaurant industry as a whole in New York City and beyond. Only a unionized sector will allow us to take wages out of competition and create a high “floor” for all restaurant workers. We call on restaurant workers throughout the city to follow our example and unionize with RWU-STR. We say to you: Let us support each other in our struggles, and let us work together tirelessly to transform our lives as restaurant workers!
The Lodi Organizing Committee
