Everybody deserves a fair-paying job and a safe workplace, and with Waffle Houses providing neither, their workers are striking against the iconic Southern establishment for a better, safer future.
To those who have never sat within their iconic yellow and red facade, mentions of Waffle Houses might only conjure up videos of bare-knuckle brawls and chairs getting thrown every which way. But those who grew up with these diners know that Waffle House is an institution as dependable as the sun rising every day.
Waffle Houses are steady lighthouses for the weary working class and wanderers alike. Now, they’re also home for an ever-growing number of Southern service workers who are walking out and unionizing. Should their demands of fair pay and safe working conditions be met, it will be a turning point for organized labor below the Mason-Dixon Line that separates the South from the rest of the United States.
Service workers, whether in food service, retail or whatever else, are saints in corporate-branded aprons, and I would know — I used to work at Panera Bread. To be on the front lines in any job with customers that aren’t always right isn’t for the weak.
I think often about how our very own tiny USC Village Starbucks allegedly became the second busiest cafe-only Starbucks in the country. Those baristas probably aren’t getting paid anywhere near enough to put up with the deals and “BOGO” promotions that drive rabid crowds into their stores looking for their drinks with 10 different customizations to them.
And yes, whenever I see those Waffle House brawls, I think about how terrifying it must be for those workers to put up with belligerent customers and, just like with the Starbucks workers, how they definitely aren’t getting paid enough to deal with all of this. Businesses like Waffle House expect workers to do it all: cook, serve and nanny, even to the worst of customers — all in the name of good hospitality. In this case, a consumer’s convenience can be a laborer’s worst nightmare.
It seems Waffle House workers themselves think the same. Ever since they started organizing in South Carolina, workers in many other Southern states have followed suit and organized. Each location has highlighted just how precarious it can be to work at a massive restaurant chain known for being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, rain or shine or hurricane, serving outlandish customers.
Waffle House’s questionable treatment of its workers goes beyond letting their cashiers and cooks fend for themselves against aggressive and armed customers. Workers have mandatory meal deductions, in which a portion of their paycheck gets taken out for any meal breaks they have, even if they don’t actually take such breaks. When Vivian Wilson, a Waffle House worker in North Carolina, told her manager about her experience being sexually harassed by a customer, she was told to simply “deal with it.” Any one of these experiences wouldn’t be tolerated in corporate offices or fancy restaurants — and it shouldn’t be accepted at your local neighborhood Waffle House.
We shouldn’t pretend that Waffle House is somehow incapable of improving conditions and pay for their employees. Although the company is privately owned and its financial activity is not publicly disclosed, the chain makes an estimated $1 billion each year. Meanwhile, waiters are paid as low as $10 an hour, which leaves them to depend heavily on tips. Working harder also isn’t a guarantee of any raises in pay. Instead, for example, Waffle House cooks who have cooked up $5 million worth of food are only given blue “Rock Star” shirts, hats and a celebratory cake by their Waffle House overlords. If anything, Waffle House has mastered the work pizza party approach to showing how little they think of their employees, and they have continued to do so with impunity. That needs to change.
The demands of the striking Waffle House workers are basic: no more mandatory meal deductions, no more working during severe storms, and increased security to protect workers and diners alike. And yet, they are revolutionary in their assertion of some basic principles of working in a region so historically unkind to workers’ rights.
The struggle of Waffle House workers in their strike puts organized labor front and center in a way that local politicians, regional employers and everyday Southerners can’t avoid. Their success can help employees of other places catch the “union bug” by exemplifying that a better future is possible. Today, only around 6% of workers in the South are unionized. A couple years after this strike, we could see higher numbers.
We’re experiencing a once-in-a-generation labor movement, but it is only worth cheering on if all corners of the United States get a fair share of the action. A rising tide ought to lift all boats, and if it doesn’t, it is time to break down the dam.
