{"id":12314,"date":"2012-06-26T15:35:12","date_gmt":"2012-06-26T19:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=12314"},"modified":"2012-06-26T15:35:12","modified_gmt":"2012-06-26T19:35:12","slug":"dems-reach-out-service-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2012\/06\/26\/dems-reach-out-service-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems Reach Out to Service Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>It\u2019s not like teachers or policemen. Political operatives don\u2019t strategize about how to get the \u201cwaiter vote.\u201d And that\u2019s why the owner of Square Rabbit Rebecca Llewellyn decided it was time for her political party to meet her workers.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Democratic Women of Wake County hosted a meet and greet for Raleigh service industry workers and local politicians at the Mecca Restaurant in downtown Raleigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a good Democrat and a service industry worker,\u201d said Llewellyn. \u201cI think it\u2019s time for the party to get to know us.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the roughly 20 service industry workers that filtered through Mecca during the evening, health care was the No. 1 topic across the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t make a lot of money and it\u2019s hard to stay healthy when you work in this industry for a long time,\u201d said Troy Jeffries of the Pourhouse Music Hall. \u201cWe need affordable ways to see a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers were handed a general questionnaire when they arrived at the event, it asked about taxes, education and military spending, but did not directly address health care.<\/p>\n

Party officials said the questionnaire was to help them get a better idea of what is important to service industry workers.<\/p>\n

Several local politicians addressed the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour job gives you a better understanding of people that others don\u2019t have,\u201d City Councilor Mary-Ann Baldwin told the crowd. \u201cI bet you all have been treated badly.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pitched the younger crowd, saying that Democrats want to give people in the service industry, \u201cnot a hand out, but a hand up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody should have to wait tables at some point in their lives,\u201d Wake County Commission candidate Caroline Sullivan told the crowd.<\/p>\n

The politicians were big on understanding, but solutions to the financial struggles of the service industry were not free flowing.<\/p>\n

Student loans were another big issue with the workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just don\u2019t make the same money as other people,\u201d said David Nelson, who works behind the counter at Square Rabbit. \u201cThe loans are killing my finances and my ability to make rent.”<\/p>\n

While the waiters, hosts, cooks and other restaurant workers were glad to be heard, most didn\u2019t leave energized or hopeful either.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth care and higher wages would be nice,\u201d said Tom Cushman, also of Square Rabbit. \u201cBut it ain\u2019t going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people [in the service industry] were better informed it might be easier for us to get some of the things we want,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Downtown restaurant Mecca hosted a meet and greet Monday for Raleigh service industry workers and local candidates and politicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[446,15,23],"tags":[368,779,780],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}