FIZZLED OUT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3571, 10 July 1912, Page 3

FIZZLED OUT.

NEW YORK WAITERS’ STRIKE

The strike of New York waiters and other hotel eployeees lias fizzled out. The men, who came out a few weeks ago, and whose sudden cessation of work caused considerable inconvenience at first, have declared the strike off, and have resumed duty.

[New York lias been suffering from a revolt of waiters in the hotels and restaurants, which is thus described by an American writer: Just as a- social party sits down to dinner and the band begins to play a whistle is blown, and forthwith Gaston, Jean, lludolph, Max, Alphonse, and the rest of the tribe of serving-men put down then napkins and walk out. This scene has lately taken place in some of the leading establishments, and, it is said ~l>y the waiters, will continue to take place until the strikers’ grievances are adjusted. Mrs Hose Pastor Strives, who was born in "Whitechapel ana raised in poverty, but is now the cultured wife of one of Now \ork’s wealthy philanthropists, lias spoken in .favor of the garcons. hut other reformers declare that they are worthy of help. The waiters are not fighting against the tip system, which flourishes in every department, hut against the petty fines and alleged tyrannies of the head waiters. Generally speaking, they are satisfied with their wages of £n or £6 a month, plus meals and plus tips, blit they demand that in the cases of banquets where tins are prohibited they shall be paid 12s nightly. So far as one can ascertain, the public, though inconvenienced, are taking no sides. They have suffered long and bitterly at the hands of the waiter tribe, which is usually very inefficient when judged by the European standard. Americans have not the gift of serving at table, and the garcons in the host houses are Ger' mans, French, and Italians. ' They believe that they are now sufficiently well organised to carry the war into the enemy’s camp, but the task is difficult, because every ship, brings new, and usually better, waiters than those now in Now York.]