Posted on 09/01/2009 10:00:06 AM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
The Café des Artistes has been doing a steady restaurant business in New York City since 1917, but is now forced to close its doors. One of the main reasons for this happens to be the fact that the Café is unfortunate enough to be a union restaurant and the exorbitant costs of supporting a union workforce has contributed to killing the business.
A blog called the 212DressingRoom, a website about New York fashion, culture, art and other rather Bohemian subjects, has detailed the sad end of the long time café written by the owner of the place, Jennifer Lang.
The decision to close the Café is exceedingly painful to make, but inevitable. We are one of the very, very few independent restaurants in New York City that operates with a union; many of those have closed in the last few years, and hundreds have closed in the last few decades. In that respect, we are a dinosaur because the huge added expense of having a union restaurant can be crippling, especially when the economy takes a nosedive.This is a stark reminder that unions kill profitability and cost jobs. A minute can be spent here to realize what the Obama administration’s “cure” for this sort of situation is, too.Since 99% of the independent restaurants in New York City do not have a union, we are not playing on a level playing field with the rest of our competition. One example: We pay approximately $250,000 more each year for health insurance and pension coverage for our employees than we would if we were paying for non-union coverage.
Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...
I remember over 25 years ago, having a conversation with someone about unions. Now, I am not terribly knowledgeable about economics or politics for that matter, but I do have common sense. It made sense to me all those years ago to see the handwriting on the wall pointing to the damage that unions can do. Simply put, it started with unions making demands for larger salaries and more comprehensive health care packages as well as pensions. Once that became the norm, the cost of living rose because now you have factory workers making great money and spending it freely for all matter of useless items. Then they want more money. More money is given, and slowly but surely the companies run out of cash and the worker is left with a giant mortgage, numerous new cars, and a lot of excess baggage.Remember the auto workers in Detroit, who in the mid-80’s got laid off big time, lost their homes and went to look for work in the oil fields of Texas? What they found in non union Texas were minimum wage jobs for the minimal skills they brought to the table. What is left in the wake of union influence is high prices, rampant consumerism, and a bleak future. Regular people never want to say anything bad about unions because they think they would be sympathizing with the merciless and greedy factory owners during the turn of the century that had 6 year olds working from dawn to dusk. A union was not necessary to make a factory deal fairly with the worker. The union inflated the status of unskilled labor and made them the status quo.Well, now it is pay back time, unfortunately.
I try hard to not patronize union businesses whenever possible. Even my vehicle was built in a non-union plant in the Southeastern USA.
Owners should move to a right to work state or the Republic of Texas, they will welcome the good food with open arms!
Lay with dogs, you’re gonna get fleas.
The restaurant had closed on Aug. 9 for a monthlong vacation and was to reopen Sept. 14. But on Friday, facing steady losses and a union lawsuit, its owners made what they described as a wrenching decision to close the landmark cafe on West 67th Street for good.
~snip~
[Owner] Mrs. Lang also said the couple, whose home is half a block from the restaurant, put in $2 million of their own money to keep it running over the last 10 years.
~snip~
The final straw, Mrs. Lang said, was a lawsuit recently filed against the restaurant by the union demanding past benefit assessments.
Bill Granfield, president of Local 100 of Unite Here, the union representing the cafe’s 50-odd employees, said the restaurant had fallen behind on its payments for medical insurance and welfare funds, forcing the union to demand payment in court.
Another aspect of your synopsis is that the first goal unions zero in on is job security. Once they achieve that and employer can’t fire them the quality of work and product goes down — basically more money for substandard service/product. I reckon that’s the main reason for the demise of Cafe des Artistes. They couldn’t keep up w/ the competition in NYC because they didn’t or wouldn’t provide the same level of service/product.
If you’ve got the time here is a great look at the teacher’s union in NY: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill
Anything that cost a union thug his job is a good thing. These morons never seem to get it about the goose that lays the egg. This is good enough for them.
Yes, great point. Come to think of it, in NYC, you are competing with restaurants whose workers are all hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal. They work for substandard wages against which this Cafe with its union didn’t stand a chance.
“The final straw, Mrs. Lang said, was a lawsuit recently filed against the restaurant by the union demanding past benefit assessments.”
Do the union morons not understand that they’re cutting their own throats?
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