I can be argued that these folks really screw patrons of these establishments - i.e. folks like themselves - who pay for it in the form of higher prices, while the owners get their cut anyway.
What is more, the bosses can easily outsmart employees by posting a sing "If we fail to give you a check, your meal is free" - which turns every customer into a snitch. Not to mention "mystery shoppers" and goons recruited from the ranks of the very same class to spy on conniving employees.
Who said that he can hire half the working class to finish off the other half?
Michael Burawoy (_Manufacturing consent_) document how factory workers compete against each other for scraps instead of pursuing a collective action.
All that - turning customers to snitches, mystery shoppers, goons, and competition for scraps - are examples of a phenomenon known as prisoner's dilemma. In short, two prisoners are offered to snitch on one another in exchange for a reduced sentence, but if both show solidarity and keep their mouth shut - both will walk and thus win a much bigger prize.
There are ways of overcoming the prisoner's dilemma, nut they requite functioning social institutions that foster solidarity - and these are in rather short supply in Amerika.
Wojtek