As someone who has worked in the service industry for fifteen years, I'd like to point out that this article is hardly representative of the actual people who work in the service industry. First of all, I find it very odd that only one Latino worker was interviewed. Did it take a long time to find a white dishwasher? Why not interview any one of the thousands of Mexican, Guatemalan, El Salvedoran, or Ecuadorian dishwashers working in this city. Why not have them talk about their actual experiences in this industry--for example what tremendously hard work it actually is. They are the back bone of this incredibly large and profitable industry and instead the article chose to portray a person who claims that it is an easy mindless job, that he does because he didn't want any responsibility--instead of HAVING to do that job to support a family!
Furthermore, it is insulting to the thousands of hardworking servers in this industry to say that an 18 year old girl who works for her parents represents us in ANY way. Why not interview one of the thousands of college students, career servers, or people supplementing their "professional" income? Or better yet, why not interview one of the many teachers who have lost their jobs, or can't get a job on the teaching track due to the economic crisis, so they had to go back to food service? I mean this whole article focuses on owner/workers and people who are actually anomalies in the service industry. This article was nothing but a misleading piece of fluff. Why not spend some time talking to the people who actually produce the wealth the service industry generates for this city next time.

PS: When you want to write a real article about this business, you might consider paying some attention to a new organization in town: The Portland Restaurant Workers Association which is helping to raise awareness in this business of the countless violations of labor laws that the owners of restaurants commit on a daily basis and assists workers who have been wronged in finding legal council, among other things!

Anonymous restaurant worker.

@ARW18

Thank you for your insightful comments. If I had known about the Portland Restaurant Workers Association I certainly would have contacted them for comment. I would love to know more. Feel free to send me information at pcoleman@portlandmercury.com.

As far as the article being non-representational of the service industry, I'll point out that we did our best to cover as many bases as we could given our time and space. I understand that many people go into service because it's a necessity (I believe our line cook and prep cook are both examples of that), but others enter the industry because they honestly enjoy the work. There are a wide array of experiences and perspectives in the service industry, and I'm sorry that you found the article lacking in some of those perspectives. Your comments go a long way in fixing that.

My intention in this piece was to illuminate a world that most eaters do not think of when they sit down for their meal. If, after reading this feature, even one diner is more conscientious of the work that you and your colleagues actually do and tip accordingly, then I feel this feature will have been a success.

The Portland Restaurant Workers Association is trying to unionize restaurant workers. If everyone wants to work and eat at Applebees and Ruths Chris this will be great. But say goodbye to your interesting, small local establishments that are circling the drain in this economy. You want to put more strain on their bottom line?

Restaurant ownership is the riskiest venture out there, with the highest costs and the smallest profits. No really good fine dining restaurant could exist and at the same time obey the 4-hour to 15-minute break rule, or the paid sick leave rule. Honestly, is it really doable during a dinner rush for a server to take a 15-minute break?

Ask the owners of kenny and zukes, (the chef being an ardent liberal) about what a union would do to their small and (currently) thriving business. Bye bye.

The Portland Restaurant Workers Association is not trying to unionize restaurant workers.
For those interested, please take a look at our website (http://pdxrwa.org/) to find out more about what we are doing to help ourselves (we almost all currently work in the restaurant industry) and others who work in this fun, interesting, but challenging field.

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