Portside

Outdoor dining means more customers, more tables, longer shifts, the same subminimum wage. Tipped restaurant workers are the only workers left in New York State who are still paid the subminimum wage.

Subminimum wages reinforce the notion that food service is not serious labor and that payment for that work should be conditional.

After tipped workers in Washington and New York won ballot box and legislative wage victories, their battles had only begun.

Corrupt employers try scams to shortchange, intimidate or retaliate against employees but a restaurant’s attempt to use an alleged priest to get employees to admit workplace “sins” may be among the most shameless.

By organizing today’s “unorganizable” Southern workers, the Union of Southern Service Workers seeks to follow in their footsteps of downtrodden workers excluded from the New Deal's National Labor Relations Act of 1935 who fought for recognition.

The tactics suggested by "union avoidance" consultants, such as “old-fashioned captive audience [speeches],” remain the same, with a slightly different twist to match the moment.

Support for Initiative 82 was decisive. Every ward in the city overwhelmingly approved the measure, even wealthy Ward 3, which turned down a previous Initiative.

The Bear helps us see the struggles that make work difficult and the commitments that make it meaningful. If we want to understand why work matters, and what workers might be longing for, we have to recognize both sides of this balance sheet.