What led the staff to unionize and then later to go on strike?

Sea creatures moved away from a tipping model back in early 2025 in favor of a 22% service charge.

Part of that service charge would go to the employees and the other part to the employer.

Now, employees said that this amounted to a 10% tip at the end of the night, and it was unclear to diners that they weren't leaving an automatic 22% tip to their servers.

Largely very confusing for everyone.

But the strike, though, is tied to the union's claim that sea creatures engaged in unfair labor practices that may have undermined the union, that delayed negotiations and avoided reaching their first collective bargaining agreement.

So what have you heard from the owners on this? What's their position on what the union is saying, their complaints and the strike?

Sea Creatures owners have actually been surprisingly transparent, not directly to media, but on Tuesday sent out an open letter disclosing their finances, admitting that they are in debt and have been operating even at a loss at the Walrus and the Carpenter, almost about $800,000.

Yeah.

I do understand the, the complicated feelings though because once the audience is mixed, you start thinking about how that representation is happening, and you interrogate it more.

You know, on a good day I might get a Happy Juneteenth and be okay with it from a white person, and then on a more irritable day, getting that $20 Venmo and Happy Juneteenth feels really weird.

Mm-hmm.

And I think it's really hard under capitalism to imagine and hope for better things into the future, and it's like Juneteenth feels like the perfect opportunity to at least try and do that.

Like, what does, like, full liberation on a larger scale look like? What does it mean to embrace it-