"POT LUCK" IN BEST HOTELS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12814, 13 July 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

"POT LUCK" IN BEST HOTELS.

RISKS OF DINING OUT IN NEW YORK. NEW YORK, June 1. The fashionable and moneyed class of New York are enjoying to-day what is popularly termed "pot luck" at .the chief hotels and restaurants where the waiters have gone on strike, and a large percentage of the cooks have joined them. The electricians, porters, pages/ and lift attendants are considering the advisability of declaring a sympathetic strike. Though it does not appear that there is any prospect of the movement among hotel employes entailing actual hardship for the tens of thousands of men and women who are accustomed to lunch and to dine away from home, it is certain that they are about to experience a period of considerable discomfort. Tlie managers of the leading hotels, who are to-day without the services of some 2000 waiters and kitchen helps, are still carrying on business, but many of them have been obliged to close a part of their dining-rooms and to inform, customers that cold viands. an_d "pot luck" are all that can be guaranteed. They declare that, wlule willing to grant all reasonable demands of the employes, they will m no circumstances yield to the principal demand, which entails the recognition of the International Hotel Workers' Union and an agreement to engage only waiters, cooks, porters and chambermaids who are members of the union. "On that point," defiantly announced Mr Muschenheim, the manager of the Hotel Astor, "we will never give m." The manager, Mr JSterry, of the Plaza Hotel, threatens that if tlie waiters and cooks do not return forthwith to work he will introduce colored service. Mr Sterry is m a position to execute his threat, for there are more than 2000 black waiters employed m the hotels m Florida and elsewhere, eagerly waiting an opportunity to migrate to New York, which is "El Dorado" to them. Other hotel managers may employ waitresses. The "walk-out" out of the fifteen hundred waiters and cooks at the Waldorf Astoria Plaza, Astor, Gotham, and St. Regis hotels last night was effected m the quietest- manner. As on the occasion of the strikes at other hotels within the. last few- weeks, the waiters deposited their plates and napkins on the nearest tables soon after seven o'clock, vvhen shrill whistles sounded the signal ior revolt. £20 "TIPA' The diners accepted the situation with excellent good humor. At the Plaza and Astor hotels the managers, without a second's delay, were able to replace the strikers with men assembled m .adjoining rooms. Armed with napkins and with cards of instruction bearing the number of tables which each one was expected -to serve, the reserve waiters sallied into the. dining-rooms arid took up the plates abandoned by the discontented servitors. One Avaiter, who had refused to leave his table m obedience to the signal -' of ' the strikers was rewarded with a' £2o note by a guest.. The International Hotel Workers' Union asserts that its membership numbers 8000, and declares its intention of extending the strike to the ham and egg resorts of the less well-to-do classes. It seems, however, doubtful if they will be able to carry, out their, threat. . The union demands two guineas a week for regular general servants and a shilling an hour overtime, the abolition of the obnoxious system of fines, and a tenhour day. For head waiters £30 a month is asked. AH these and other points the managers are willing to discuss, but they flatly refuse to recognise tho union. SHERRY'S RESTAURANT CLOSED. Another thousand waiters joined the strike to-day, many "quitting their work during the usual: rush at midday and leaving the dining roonis crowded with hungry guests without attendance. At one o'clock Sherry's Restaurant, the headquarters of smart- society, was closed. The strike is spreading to the clubs and apartment houses. •