| 1912 New York City waiters' strike | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 New York City waiters' strike outside of Sherry's restaurant in Manhattan, 1912. | |||
| Date | May 7 – June 25, 1912 | ||
| Location | |||
| Parties | |||
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| Lead figures | |||
Joseph James Ettor; | |||
The 1912 New York City waiters’ strike began on May 7, 1912 at the Belmont Hotel and was the first general strike for waiters and hotel workers in New York City history. That day over 150 hotel workers walked out as a sign of protest against their poor working conditions. The strike was organized by Joseph James Ettor and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in conjunction with the Hotel Workers' International Union.[1][2] At the height of the strike there were 54 hotels and 30 restaurants and other establishments without their staff. This amounted to 2,500 waiters, 1,000 cooks, and 3,000 other striking hotel workers.[3] The strike continued through the rest of May but police began reprimanding protestors, making many of them go back to work. The strike officially ended on June 25, 1912.[4]
- ^ Melvyn Dubofsky (1968). When Workers Organize: New York City in the Progressive Era. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 120–5. ISBN 0-87023-042-5.
New York City waiters strike.
- ^ "Young Woman Leads The Waiters' Strike. Miss Flynn the Real Power Behind the Men. Carries Anti-Tip Proposal". The New York Times. January 14, 1913. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the I.W.W. organizer, who was the principal speaker at a mass meeting of the International Hotel Workers' Union in Bryant Hall last night, took her audience by surprise by springing a proposal against tip-taking, and after considerable uproar and wrangling in four languages the final vote was unanimous against accepting gratuities if a living wage could be obtained from the hotel proprietors.
- ^ Special Bulletins - State of New York, Department of Labor, Issues 50-53. 1913. pp. 276–278. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
- ^ "The Strike of 1912". hotelworkers.org. Retrieved 26 November 2014.