The unions can regulate what the waiters are paid, but they can't force the restaurant to hire them in the first place. Not if the alternative is just making the customers wait.
Taxies, restaurants, day care, contractors, cleaning services.
You can't have cheap service and well paid service workers.
So if you don't want a class of underpaid workers, you have to settle with less human hours being spent on servicing you.
I think some of that is down to the server considering themselves the customer's equal, which is as it should be, and is not dependent upon the customer's disposition for their income. Customers in tip-centric countries hold too much individual power over servers, forcing them to be sub-servient whilst hoping that something they have no control over hasn't angered the customer and affected their income. I'll happily take a slight downgrade in service over income inequality & unfairness.
Absolutely. Where I work, if the customer is wrong, we tell them. Some are nicer about it than others. If a customer is rude, we can be rude back. Sometimes it escalates the conflict, but it's ultimately up to the individual how they handle it.
But, a lot of people are flabbergasted that we have the gull to tell them they're wrong. "Terrible customer service!" - even if the worker is being extremely polite. You NEVER argue with customers in the US - unless you own the company or you're backed by a union.