A woman and the union

An earlier post outlines how my Grandmother, Ruth Thompson Walsh, grew up in, managed, and eventually retired to a hotel. Her son, describes an event at the Biltmore Hotel in San Francisco that led to pickets in front of the hotel:

"At the Biltmore hotel mom managed the dining room and supervised the maids. […] Around 1941 mom had occasion to fire a janitor who felt he could intimidate a woman boss. This led to a union picket line around the hotel for many months and meant that we had to bring in all food and supplies by private auto. Fortunately all of the employees and guests were loyal and supportive." 

The strike made the newspaper: 

San Francisco Examiner, Oct. 11, 1941

"Picket lines were thrown around the hotel, which is operated by Mrs. A.M. Walsh, a widow, as a side issue to the major dispute over wage increases and a union shop, after a houseman had been discharged assertedly for 'incompetence and intemperance.' 

Culinary workers and bartenders, who have been participating in the strike against ten other members of the Hotel Employers Association, stressed that they had not called the strike and that it was 'no concern of ours.' 

The houseman, according to Mrs. Walsh, was discharged Tuesday after numerous complaints had been received from tenants. Thursday, Russell Dreyer, secretary-treasurer of Local 14, telephoned and demanded that the houseman be reinstated. When she refused, he told her curtly, Mrs. Walsh said, to 'tell it to the pickets.' 

Only one employee, a maid, refused to pass through the picket lines yesterday morning, Mrs. Walsh said. She employs sixteen persons, including maids, cooks, waitresses and telephone operators. 

Meanwhile the Biltmore and ten other hotels which were picketed continued to operate as usual. 

Spokesmen for the Local Joint Executive Board said they had no announcements to make regarding extension of the pickets to sixteen other hotels which are members of the Employers’ group." 

The strike dragged on--without really interrupting the hotels' businesses--ebbing and flowing with the holidays, until the spring of 1942, when the War Labor Board was called in to negotiate a truce. While the dispute over the question of back pay for striking workers remained a source of contention, the pickets petered out, and life took on a semblance of normalcy. 

The other story of Ruth standing up to staff was related by my father who said that once during dinner, she noted that the meat was tough, even though she had purchased an expensive cut of beef. She slipped downstairs to the kitchen to discover that staff was enjoying a tenderloin instead of the guests. The cook was summarily fired, and replaced by a black woman, who, as it turns out, was a better cook, and a stable influence in my teenaged father's life.