No "Mr. Nice Guy"

All organizing is accomplished under a banner.

An already existing banner is far preferable to a brand new one.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself:
I'm in my early 30s, I live in New York City.

I've worked in NYC's foodservice industry for about a decade. I went to culinary school, I ran my own (very) small business for 3 years, with one seasonal employee each year.

Running my own business convinced me of the importance of the union movement.

The easiest way to become rich in the food business is to hire on super-cheap labor. It's debatable as to whether there even is another way.

Exploitation is the coin of the realm. Even if you, as the owner of a food business, want to pay your employees the most you can afford rather than the least you can get away with, the premium you can offer your employees is extremely limited.

This is for one simple reason: you have to compete very directly with food produced by super-exploited labor.

The food business is very labor-intensive and price sensitive. Or, to put it another way: most restaurants are under-capitalized, low productivity workplaces, that survive only because of the low wages they pay their employees.

If you think, as I did, that just by being a "nice guy" you can substantially improve your employees' compensation, think again.