Voting on a new tip system. National chain, under 30 locations, but we’re the only location voting regarding the tip system.
The options are:
The bartenders will vote to leave the pool and receive a tipout from servers of 2.5% of liquor sales, or stay in the pool.
The servers and support staff will also vote to either:
-Remain in a weighted pool
-Go to an 18% pool, and anything over 18% of sales (in tips) is given directly to the sole server
-Dissolve the tip pool altogether and keep your own tips – but take no one else’s
Additionally, we are voting whether or not to tip out the food runners (I actually did not know we didn’t), but we were told runner’s base pay would decrease from $15 per hour to around $12 per hour, but with tips. When asked why their rate would drop, the answer was “so they don’t make more than servers”
As I said, I could give a fuck about the maybe $100 per month that I could potentially lose out on, or the $100 that I could potentially make.
But this seems like a prime opportunity to organize the staff at the restaurant. Long story short, I need some advice on how to proceed. I know I must be exceedingly careful in this regard. But I have to try.
Any help is appreciated. Stay strong, comrades