The Labor War Over a Restaurant Window Card
A local cafe finds itself at odds with the Cooks and Waiters' Union in a dispute over unionization and laundry services.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A statement from the proprietors of Lord's cafe, which appeared recently, would make it appear that they had been cruelly wronged by the unions. The statement was to the effect that they had a contract with the French laundry and because they would not break it and send their laundry to a 'fair' concern, they were placed 'unfair' by the Trades council, for no other cause. The officers of the Cooks and Waiters' Union wish to state that such was not the case. The French laundry proposition was a secondary consideration. The business agent states that he made several trips to the house in an effort to get it signed up to an agreement to employ union help, without which they were not entitled to the house card. He states that they had experienced great difficulty in keeping the house unionized and that the house card was removed and the house placed 'unfair' because of repeated failures to unionize it and reach an agreement. The French laundry incident was an aggravation, but not the cause of the house going 'unfair.' He stated in an interview with the Journal that all the proprietors had to do to get right with organized labor was to sign up for the house card and agree to hire union help.
“The French laundry incident was an aggravation, but not the cause of the house going 'unfair.'”
Everett has a long history of militant labor activism, and debates over 'fair' business practices—whether through union labels or modern social boycotts—continue to define the city's political landscape.
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