A TEAROOMS STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 105, 4 May 1920, Page 5

A TEAROOMS STRIKE.

CITY WAITRESSES WALK OUT. WOMEN'S RIGHTS AT WRIGHTS. Acting on the motto, "Strike when the dinner's hot," the waitresses in two restaurants in town yesterday struck work when the clock struck twelve. Thus a number oi would-be diners in Mr. G. W. Wright's Queen Street tearooms were left in varying stages of hollowness and of endeavour to possess their midriffs in patience while they considered whether the staff had just stepped out to see the Prince go by or the cup-bearers were merely absorbed in discussion of an unusually fascinating kitchen scandal. Excited comings and goings through the diningroom and vague whisperings and rustlings behind the larder curtains favoured the latter guess, but presently the waiters on the waitresses had the mystery unfolded to .them — that the official ladies-in-waiting had gone on strike. By a rallying of the remainder of the stalf and friends, and a relaxation of the ordinary formalities of the tearooms, the emergency was met and victims of the tea-and-sandwic.h habit had their cravings satisfied, with possibly a little more than customary courtesy. Arrived at the tooth-pick stage, .patrons were glad they hadn't had to wait tor Mr. Massey to settle the difficulty; no doubt the pleasure is mutual. Tile union point of view was explained later to a -star" representative by the secretary of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union, who stated that, ollicially the strike was not a strike at all, so far as the union was concerned. The ladies concerned were not all members of the union. They had asked for a rise in wages, and as the request had not been granted on a specified date they had walked out without consulting the* union officials. They had afterwards spoken to him. and he had advised them that their fiction could not be backed up by the union. Mr. Wright Tiad since declared I that he would take back the strikers, with the exception of three or four, but the girls declined to consider such oiTer. The secretary added that he had recently had to intervene to prevent a similar 'incident at Rotoruo, just on the eve of Ithe Prince's visit. On the general subject of wages, he stated that the matter was to have come before the Conciliation Court yesterday, hut was delayed by the Commissioner's illness: he hoped to get it before the ;Court this -week. He pointed out that in 'comparison with other women workers, ] the restaurant waitresses had a good claim for higher wages. The wages of 20/ and 27/G a week, out of which lodging and one meal had io be provided for, j compared unfavourably -with those of 29/ .and board allowed the hotel waitress, and the 30/ a~week given to incxperilenced hands in factories, -when such hands could, with a few weeks' experience ! earn bonuses bringing their wages to •.veil over £2.