page_title: 1912 New York City waiters' strike
section_title: Rise of Strike
hierarchical_section_title: 1912 New York City waiters' strike / Rise of Strike
caption_attribution_description: English: Belmont Hotel
context_page_description: 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 in conjunction with the Hotel Workers' International Union. 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. 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.
context_section_description: On May 7, 1912, a group of 150–300 waiters and other hotel staff walked out in the middle of a meal service at the Belmont Hotel in New York City.  Upon leaving the Belmont Hotel, workers held signs and communicated their demands to the public, before being dispersed by police.  The main demands for the hotel workers were:
   
  One day off per week, 
  
  A higher minimum wage, 
  $10 a week for established waiters,
  $7 a week for bus boys and porters,
  $5 a week for hotel maids,
  Sanitary lockers and restrooms for hotel employees, 
  
  No fines for hotel workers who belonged to a union, 
  
  No unjust discrimination against employees due to union affiliation.
  After this initial walkout, many other hotel employees started following suit.  The IWW then created the Hotel Workers’ International Union. The next day the state labor employment bureau announced that the strike had ended, but the union announced that they were still on strike due to the unsatisfactory treatment of waiters who were union members.  By May 15, 1912, around 150 employees from the Waldorf Astoria and the Vanderbilt also walked out to join the waiters’ strike.
  On May 15 the a representative from the state labor employment bureau met with a member of the Hotel Workers' International Union to discuss the strike, and on May 17 a list of demands was created for the hotel workers.  The New York Labor Bulletin stated that the union demanded one day off a week, a maximum ten-hour workday, sanitary lockers, overtime pay, and no fines for being a union member.  On May 23, 1912, six of New York City's leading hotels with union affiliated employees had their thousands of waiters, bus boys, cooks, and other hotel staff walk out of their respective hotels. The union members scheduled to meet with the Hotel Men's Association on May 24, 1912, to discuss the terms of the end of the strike, however four days prior to the meeting the Hotel Men's Association cancelled stating that it could not meet due to a disturbance that happened at a union rally the previous Sunday.
caption: The Belmont Hotel where the strike started.
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