The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-04-11
N. Y. RESTAURANT.
SLAVES WORK IN
FILTHY KITCHENS
Low Wages, Slave IL
Hours A Day
BIZ a Worker Correspondent.

hotelS, restaurants and cafeterlaS
from one end to the other of this
prosperous land of the free, Gree
and prosperous for the ruling class)
from Seattle to Miami, from Los
Angeles to Boston. I have been a
waiter, cook, dishwasher or counter
man in cheap and dirty coffee pots
as we'll as in Statler Hotels.
But in Is years of slavery as a
restaurant worker, 1 have never seen
worse conditions of exploitation
than in my present place of en-
ployment, in one of the big chain
cafeterias located in the garment
section of Manhattan.
Argues With Boss-Gets Fired.
I landed in this burg broke and
hungry. l came here from the an
thracite region of Pennsylvania
where l was fired from a job in a
swell restaurant because l got into
an argument with the boss. He was
damning the striking miners, led by
the National Miners Union, for a
bunch of dirty foreign Bolsheviks
who hurt business. When l gave
him an argument, he got sore and
fired me. I hoped the next freight
for New York City.
A Rotten Job.
1 saw a sign in a window of a
cafeteria "Busboys wanted" and ap-
piled for the job. 1t seems that it
was an extra job during the rush
hours. 1 worked two hours at the
noon hour and three hours at night.
l could not take time for cup of
coffee until my work was over. Then
the boss approached me and held out
S1.25. This and two lousy meals
of leftover, soup and hash and bread
pudding, was all l got for five hours
hard work.
At the Employments Sharks
Next morning, after a night in
a flop-house with bedbugs crawling
all over me, 1 applied at an en-
ployment agency on Sixth Avenue
for a regular job. After taking my
fee of $500, they sent me to res
taurant where the proprietor told
me the job had been filled the day
before.
The agency refused to return my
fee saying they would have job
for me in a day or two. Next day
they sent me to coffee pot where
| was offered job as dishwasher
for $1,000 per week, II hours a day,
Z days a week. Disguised started
out to look for myself.
Finally, after several days l found
my present job in one of the big
chain cafeterias. 1 work for IL
hours daily, 6 IL days week, as
a counterman for $500. The dining
room of this place is clean and
white. We are forced to keep every
thing spotlessly clean.
The menus and signs on the-walls
boast of cleanliness-and service rem
dered the patrons. 1t is advertised
as a place where everything is sani-
tary and the food wholesome, pure
food health place. But if the GUS
toners took one look into the kit
chen they would never come back.
There everything is as dirty as it
is clean in the dining room. The
floors are always sloppy except
early in the morning and late at
night when they are swept. The
shoes of the kitchen workers are al
ways wet and most of them suffer
from perpetual colds, catarrh, rheu-
matism and all have had the flu
during the past winter. They lost a
lot of time, but did not stop work
until forced to go to bed and return
ed to work long before they were
well. And the health authorities
wonder how these diseases spread
so rapidly during an epidemic.
If the boss or his lick-spittle man.
ager sees any of us throwing away
a piece of meat, butter or bread, we
are bawled out and warned we will
be fired if we do it again. The
toilet and wash room is the worst
of all.
1t is nauseating to go into the
filthy place. Old socks, underwear,
and papers stay in the corners for
weeks. The cracks in the floor are
filled with sinking dirt, pieces of
rotten food, soaked with urine. It
is unfit for hogs, let alone human
beings.
Union Union.
/ read in the Daily Worker that
the Hotel, Restaurant and Cafeteria
Workers Union is going to organize
these cafeteria slaves, and l hope
this letter will show how badly we
need a union to help us fight to
abolish these conditions. l have
Joined the union and am working
IN committee to organize the other
slaves in my shop. When strike
S called we will 60 out 100 per cent.
&c. z.